Articles

PETER ROWAN THE OLD SCHOOL Compass Records 746002 In 2010, Peter Rowan came back to bluegrass with his wonderful recording Legacy. It wasn’t a matter of Rowan choosing to record a bluegrass album for the sake of it. Rather, it was a situation where he had written a bunch of songs about staring life in…

BRUCE MOLSKY IF IT AIN’T HERE WHEN I GET BACK Tree Frog Music TF-1301 This is an intelligent, sensitive, and very well recorded effort from Molsky. He kicks it off with a fiddle-accompanied ballad from Australia, “Wreck Of The Dandenong.” Then jumps to some fine guitar picking on “Bimini Girl” from the Bahamas. From this…

THE ROYS GYPSY RUNAWAY TRAIN Rural Rhythm RUR-1110 Straight ahead, no-frills lyrics and themes, all of them cloaked in contemporary bluegrass/country style, characterize the six originals on the new recording from The Roys. The steadfastness of the singer’s love in “You Can Count On Me” is as constant as …the Mississippi runs to the ocean…

DELLA MAE THIS WORLD OFT CAN BE Rounder Records 11661-9135-2 Last April, I sat down on a sunny afternoon in front of the main stage at MerleFest and watched Della Mae perform. I had heard bits and pieces of their music over the last couple of years,  on the Telluride Festival webcast and other fare,…

MARTY KUTZ WELCOME ABOARD No Label No Number Marty Kutz has put together a solid, pleasant collection of 12 mostly standard tunes, including a strong gospel component (four cuts) and two original instrumentals. Kutz plays resonator guitar throughout and is ably assisted by Josh Williams (guitar, mandolin), Mike Scott (banjo), Becky Buller, Lizzy Long and…

LeROY MACK STORIES No Label No Number LeRoy Mack, resonator guitarist with the early Country Boys (precursors to the Kentucky Colonels) in Southern California and leader of his own group, the Born Again Bluegrass Band, for 31 years, has released his sixth recording, a very pleasant collection of 11 story songs. Four of these are…