Articles

Sometimes a great attribute for an album is to be called “different.” Down in the Deepest Shade of Blue is different and it sounds, well, old.  I don’t know Steve Ludwig or any Casual Hobos, but I think this group would take that as a compliment. It’s their first album and all eight songs were…

OMNIVORE RECORDS OVCD-423 New York City’s Cole Quest (Rotante) is the grandson of Woody Guthrie and has assembled The City Pickers, who are a group of like-minded friends who also have a love for acoustic and bluegrass music. Quest, who sings lead vocals and plays guitar and resonator guitar, is joined by Larry Cook (bass),…

Some years ago, these five talented musicians embarked on a long-term mission: to capture for posterity a particular strain of old-timey string band music that was often played at fiddler’s conventions back in the 1960s and 1970s. It’s a style that the Ramblers themselves have been immersed in for nearly a decade. In the liner…

The Bing Brothers are West Virginia legends, a rare band that plays with true drive and power. That is proven yet again by their latest album Just In Time, a rollicking mix of upbeat string band music done in their particular, impressive style.  In the Mountain State the division between old-time music and bluegrass is…

“Home is where we shelter out the storm, and home is where the fire keeps us warm,” sings Leftover Salmon banjo-picker Andy Thorn on the opening track from his new solo release, Fox Songs and Other Tales from the Pandemic, an album crafted during the dark days of a growing worldwide pandemic and a gentle…

During week three of Bluegrass 45’s tour of the United States in 1971 they performed at their third bluegrass festival.  The first was Bill Monroe’s Bean Blossom, the second was the Country Gentleman’s Indian Ranch festival, and this week found them at Carlton Haney’s festival in Berryville, Virginia. As is evident in Akira Otsuka’s journal…