Pleased to welcome this ambitious CD of mostly original tunes written and performed by longtime HVBA member Eric Marshall. The CD’s ten songs touch many of the familiar patches of the American song quilt, beginning with a deep country tune … Read More
Bluegrass generations seem to fly by as rapidly as grandchildren grow up. Bill Monroe was still anchoring the stage with some future of his own to go when Futureman was firing up his percussive space machine behind Bela Fleck. Gillian … Read More
If you haven’t yet noticed, there’s a new brand of bluegrass/string band out there, one whose members weren’t raised down in the holler or even high on the ridge. They may have been born in Massachusetts, even Newtown, Massachusetts, and … Read More
The term “country blues” calls up everything from Charlie Patton’s roaring and sliding on Dockery’s plantation during the 20s, to Jimmy Rodgers’ plaintive Blue Yodels, to the sultry whine of Hank Williams’ 12-bar lament, “My Bucket’s Got a Hole In … Read More
Flowers are all about sex and orchids may be the most sensually exotic of the lot, so the title of Michael Daves’ new album might as well be “Sex and Violence.” It is, instead, Orchids and Violence and the inner … Read More
The Lonesome Trio CD, released this summer on Sugar Hill Records, is a pleasantly unassuming collection of twelve songs written and played by three old classmates from Oberlin College—bassist Ian Riggs, mandolinist Jacob Tilove and guitar/banjo player Ed Helms. The … Read More
My dairy farmer father rarely took vacations, but when he did he always chose destinations even more old-fashioned than the rock-bound NH farm we lived on. Usually that meant Amish country, but on one of his last and certainly longest … Read More
Abby Hollander grew up in a musical family in a musical town—Woodstock, NY—and after a few years bouncing around the world, she’s back in state, down state, in the hoppin’ metropolis of Brooklyn. Both a singer/guitarist and a songwriter, Hollander … Read More
The five members of Gravel Road, a youth bluegrass group “hailing from the Floyd/New River Valley area of Southwest Virginia,” look so young you’d expect to see them standing outside the middle school gym at a chaperoned dance. The anchors … Read More
Honey from a black locust tree is sweeter than average and sometimes so clear it barely colors the glass that holds it. The music of the Ashville-based Locust Honey String Band’s newest CD, Never Let Me Cross Your MInd, has … Read More