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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…
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…
Second Annual Malpass Brothers Bluegrass and Country Music Festival
Photos by Ricky Davis Smack dab between Murphy and Manteo, where Carolina clay colors the soil and the landscape can’t quite make up its mind whether to be rolling or flat, is an idyllic patch of ground where the world passes by in Jim Reevesque fashion. When the stream of traditional bands start arriving leading…
Your Love For Me Is Gold
PATUXENT CDD-361 McGeehan is best known as the bassist for the south-central Pennsylvania band “Serene Green.” Now stepping out on his own, McGeehan (bass & vocals) has gathered together an impressive group of musicians for this new project. They include Chris Luquette (guitar), Ellery Marshall (banjo), Brett Kretzer (mandolin), Alex Hargreaves (fiddle), Jack Devereux (fiddle),…
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…
The Lady of Tradition
Be Different, Stand Out & Work Your Butt Off Photo by Mickey Stroud Loyal to tradition, yet comfortable with innovation, North Carolina’s Lorraine Jordan might seem like a contradiction and you would be right. Those who know her best acknowledge that she is a total contradiction. Lorraine’s contradictory lifestyle has afforded her much success, earning…