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Roses
Mountain Fever MFR230310 From Vancouver, British Columbia comes this award-winning new group which consists of Tianna Lefebvre (lead vocals), Mike Sanyshyn (fiddle, mandolin, vocals), Charlie Frie (bass, vocals), and Eric Reed (guitar, banjo). Guests include John Reischman (mandolin), Jeff Scroggins (banjo), and Michael Kilby (resonator guitar). Only together for a short time, the band has…
A Little Bit of Bluegrass
Lorraine Jordan and her band Carolina Road have maintained a solid presence in traditional bluegrass for decades, championing the genre’s essential elements while introducing and welcoming many new fans to the party. With their latest album, they deliver the talent and consistency we’ve come to expect. Released last fall on Pinecastle Records (Jordan’s seventh for…
I Never Knew
John Cadley is a talented singer-songwriter who presents this new project of his original tunes. Cadley, who sings all lead vocals, is joined by his wife Cathy Cadley on vocals, and by Clay Hess (guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, banjo, bass, vocals), Tim Crouch (fiddle), Roger Williams (resonator guitar), Dave Morrison (steel guitar), and Josh Shilling…
Uncommon Sky
It would be hard to over-state what an impressive outing Rick Faris’s sophomore album is. Faris, IBMA’s 2022 “New Artist of the Year,” who spent 11 years as the guitarist/mandolin player/singer with the band Special Consensus, has all the right tools in his tool kit. The Wichita, Kansas-based artist, who grew up in a family…
Highways and Heartaches—How Ricky Skaggs, Marty Stuart, and the Children of The New South Saved the Soul of Country Music
Hachette Books, 2023 Most avid bluegrass music fans are familiar with the similar trajectories of the careers of Ricky Skaggs and Marty Stuart. Both Skaggs and Stuart started performing at a young age with first generation bluegrass legends—Skaggs with Ralph Stanley, Stuart with Lester Flatt. They then both entered the journeyman phase of their careers…
Roger Sprung
Reprinted from Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine January 1969, Volume 3, Number7 Roger Sprung is 38 years old, tall dark and handsome. He is reminiscent of a Gregory Peck type in appearance. Shy soft spoken and friendly. When I met him in 1950, he had already learned all of the banjo styles that were popular. Frailing, Scruggs…