Articles

CHUCK WAGON GANG MEETING IN HEAVEN New Haven 8109-2    A new CD, Meeting in Heaven, presents today’s Chuck Wagon Gang, whose glowing voices add a new degree of musical brilliance to the vocal blend of the original quartet. Shaye Smith has inherited her grandmother Anna Carter’s warm and passionate alto, and she guides the group…

BLUE MAFIA PRAY FOR RAIN Pinecastle Records PRC1194 This fine band is as strong as ever. Edgy and driving like a fully-loaded locomotive, they bowl down everything in their path. Dara and Tony Wray form the nucleoli with strong support from singing fiddler Kent Todd. Michael Gregory on bass and Cody Looper on banjo round…

BILLY HURT FIDDLIN’ BILLY HURT Patuxent Music CD 260 All-instrumental fiddle records have been at a premium of late. Scanning BU from March 2014 to March 2015, I count three. This solo debut from Billy Hurt, an old hand at the sideman’s role and a current member of Karl Shiflett’s Big Country Show, makes four….

WOOD & WIRE THE COAST No Label No Number You’ve got to love the free spirit of younger singer-songwriters especially when they sound a bit like Tim O’Brien and pull their influences from Celtic and folk sources more so than bluegrass. They do have a grassy feel. It’s just tempered with these other flavors and…

RALPH STANLEY & FRIENDS MAN OF CONSTANT SORROW Cracker Barrel 492749 Bluegrass Hall of Honor member Ralph Stanley has a host of devoted fans who are singing stars in their own genres of expertise. Many of them quickly jumped on the bandwagon when this latest opportunity to collaborate with Dr. Stanley took place in the…

THE JAKOB’S FERRY STRAGGLERS THE LANE CHANGE No Label No Number There seems to be an influx of new young bands that blur the lines between bluegrass and old-time music. The Jakob’s Ferry Stragglers, a southwestern Pennsylvania quartet that emerged from the remnants of a self-described “Appalachian power trio” called The Weedrags, manages to carve…