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BUTCH ROBINS’ IMAGICNATION SKETCHES Flat Five Records FFP-1138 Sketches is a new album by five-string master Butch Robins that is both raw and upbeat. These sessions were recorded during rehearsals back in 2012 and 2011 and features Robins on the banjo, along with Tom Ohmsen on mandolin and backing vocals, John McBroom on bass and…

PARKING LOT PICKER’S PLAY-ALONG GUITAR—BY DIX BRUCE—Mel Bay MB30115BCD. CD included, $19.99. (Mel Bay Publications, #4 Industrial Dr., Pacific, MO 63069, www.melbay.com.) This seems to be the second phase of books for parking lot pickers by Bruce. This trimmed-down version focuses on 15 songs from that rich cusp of material between old-time and bluegrass. Some…

TOM MINDTE SOMETHING I’VE BEEN WORKING ON Patuxent Music CD-242 Given his admiration for the honky-tonk bluegrass artists of the ’50s and ’60s, it should be no surprise that Tom Mindte opens his 13-song, all-instrumental, solo debut with a cover of Buzz Busby’s “Flat Creek.” Mindte spent a great deal of time with Busby and…

DARREN NICHOLSON THINGS LEFT UNDONE  No Label, DN-9633 Do not miss this recording. You can run it from top to bottom and scarcely find a weak spot. Certainly, you’re not going to find any in Darren Nicholson’s performance, vocally or instrumentally. Anyone familiar with his work with Balsam Ridge knows his talent on both fronts,…

BLUE HIGHWAY THE GAME Rounder Records 11661-9170-2    Once in a while, a band manages to stay together for twenty years without working too much, but just enough to keep it together. Blue Highway is that band, and their new release transcends the boundaries of normality into excellence. From the gunshot of the first (title) cut…

FRANK WAKEFIELD, TAYLOR BAKER & FRIENDS Patuxent Music CD-247 Is it the musicians or the tunes? Is it the performances of mandolinists Frank Wakefield and Taylor Baker that make this recording a comfortable listening experience? Or is it the strength of the 12 classic tunes from our collective musical memory? There is no doubt that…