Reviews

VARIOUS ARTISTS BIG BEND KILLING: THE APPALACHIAN BALLAD TRADITION GSMA 200973    Ballads are stories set to melodies. They are also a viable means of noting historical facts and telling archetypical truths. As one might imagine, the material here is all first-rate. It has stood the test of time and has remained flexible enough to withstand…

VOLUME FIVE MILESTONES Mountain Fever MFR180205 Last year, Volume Five celebrated their tenth year as a band with Glen Harrell (fiddle), Patton Wages (banjo, guitar), Chris Williamson (bass), Jacob Burleson (mandolin), Colby Laney (guitar), and Gaven Largent (resonator guitar). It was also the year they were honored as Emerging Artist Of The Year during the…

THE BROMBIES RUNNING WITH THE HERD ADINA 1003 It has been six and a half years since their last release and this is also the last project that the talented bassist and songwriter Bill Bryson worked on prior to his passing in 2017. The Brombies are George Doering (mandolin), Jo Ellen Doering (vocals), Patrick Sauber…

HOWDY’S TUNES! FIDDLE MUSIC OF BIG HOWDY FORRESTER BY GAYEL PITCHFORD. (Viewpoint Press, PMB 400, 785 Tucker Rd., Ste. G, Tehachapi, CA 93561, www.howdyforrester.com) About ten years after the publication of her book, Fiddler Of The Opry: The Howdy Forrester Story, Pitchford presents us with a book of transcriptions of Big Howdy’s tunes, about fifty of…

MIKE BENTLEY ALL I’VE GOT Union House Records UHR-0003 Mike Bentley is from eastern Kentucky, Pike County to be specific, a region that has produced some of the best bluegrass and country musicians of the last century. Bentley has played bluegrass music since he was a teenager, in bands including Ernie Thacker & Route 23,…

ERIC STRICKLAND BLACK AND WHITE AND BLUE No Label No Number This new album from Eric Strickland is an acoustic departure from his previous releases, which were pretty much hard country. Strickland began playing guitar at an early age and started writing songs in his late teens. He cites his influences growing up were Jimmy…