Articles

RIDGELINE YOU LEFT ME BEHIND No Label No Number For many bands, a long history of comings and goings, false starts, and restarts precedes their debut recording. For Kingsport, Tenn.-based Ridgeline, that odyssey began in 2003, but their first CD is here now and shows the positive results that come from staying with it. The…

SARAH JAROSZ FOLLOW ME DOWN Sugar Hill SUG-CD-4062 Follow Me Down shares many of the virtues of singer/mandolinist/multi-instrumentalist Sarah Jarosz’s breathtaking debut, Song Up In Her Head, most notably the wise-beyond-her-years voice, crack instrumental support, and introspective, at times haunting songwriting. Having Béla Fleck and Casey Driessen solo on her “Come Around” is something most…

SKAGGS FAMILY A SKAGGS FAMILY CHRISTMAS, VOLUME TWO Skaggs Family Records SFC10122 This delightful two-disc collection from the Skaggs Family is just in time for the holiday season and is sure to be a welcome addition to anyone’s Christmas music library. While the first disc is a music CD, the second disc is a DVD…

ALL4HYM FAITH & FAMILY Rural Rhythm Records RCH 2008 This is All4Hym’s eighth recording overall and their first for Rural Rhythm. There are 12 songs, the majority of them from the pens of Dee Gaskins and Marshall Brickman. Each of them wrote four. While the music presented here is encompassed beneath the larger gospel tent,…

AUDIE BLAYLOCK AND REDLINE I’M GOING BACK TO OLD KENTUCKY (A BILL MONROE CELEBRATION) Rural Rhythm RUR 1081 Audie Blaylock and Redline, along with some high-octane guests, have put together as fine a tribute collection of Bill Monroe classics as you will find anywhere. In addition to Redline regulars Russ Carson (banjo), Reed Jones (bass),…

CEDAR HILL I’VE GOT A THING ABOUT DOORS Blue Circle Records BCR 026 I’ve Got A Thing About Doors proves that, in 2011, a band can still record a pretty traditional bluegrass album using all new songs. On this enjoyable album, Cedar Hill even manages the honor of debuting a recording of the last song…