Articles

FRONT COUNTRY SAKE OF THE SOUND No Label No Number One of the highlights of IBMA’s World of Bluegrass for me is time spent at the California Bluegrass Association suite, and one of the highlights of time spent there is watching and learning about bands from the West Coast that are new to the scene….

THE WILLIS CLAN CHAPTER TWO: BOOTS No Label No Number For the second chapter of this family band’s musical book, they turn to the pages of old-time country and bluegrass. Chapter Two: Boots is the sequel to the Willis Clan’s debut album, Chapter One: Roots, focusing on traditional Irish music. You may recall this Irish-American…

THE SPINNEY BROTHERS TRIED & TRUE Mountain Fever Records MFR140812 By now, listeners pretty much know what to expect from a Spinney Brothers recording. The brothers have found what works, and they adhere to it, refining and improving when need be, but largely following in the groove that got them where they are. Hence the…

BILLY STRINGS AND DON JULIN FIDDLE TUNE X No Label No Number Ordinarily, recordings with this many standards elicit a general yawn. What saves it is the technical skill level of the performers—Billy Strings on guitar and lead vocals and Don Julin on the mandolin and occasional harmony. What really saves it, lifting it to…

WAYFARING STRANGERS: THE MUSICAL VOYAGE FROM SCOTLAND AND ULSTER TO APPALACHIA BY FIONA RITCHIE AND DOUG ORR UNC Press 9781469618227. Foreword by Dolly Parton, CD included, 384 pp., $39.95. (UNC Press, 116 S. Boundary St., Chapel Hill, NC 27514, uncpress.unc.edu.) This much-anticipated book has, I’m glad to say, lived up to—and surpassed—expectations, and now takes…

AMY GALLATIN & STILLWATERS EVERYTHING I WANTED LOVE TO BE Happy Appy Records HAR-9    Put plainly, Amy Gallatin is a fine and appealing vocalist, with a warmth, incisiveness, and sincerity to engagingly deliver a range of songs. You might hear echoes of singers as great and as varied as Emmylou Harris or Hazel Dickens, but…