Reviews

Si Kahn's sadly overlooked 1997 bluegrass classic, Been a Long Time, gets a reboot nearly 25 years after it was originally issued, a belated attempt to make up for that fact that it languished in obscurity due to the lack of

It’s time for the annual challenge: Picking my "dozen" favorite bluegrass recordings for the previous year. First, the usual cautions. This list is obviously very subjective, just one guy's opinion. The list represents my favorites, not necessarily the best. And it's

The Gibson Brothers at the 2021 Jekyll Island Bluegrass Festival - photo © Bill Warren I heard a bass begin playing Friday morning in the Jekyll Island campground. I grabbed my camera and went exploring, and found three fellas – banjo,

Based in Portland, Oregon, Never Come Down are an astute outfit that weave a multi-textured dimension to their grassicana motif. There's a great deal of depth to their approach, one that finds them blending the nominal instrumental elements of traditional

Let us begin by saying that day one of the 45th Jekyll Island Bluegrass Festival was about Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver. That being said, let's begin with the other bands that played throughout the day. Remedy Tree opened the show. They

There's something to be said for subtlety, even when it appears to substitute for flash and finesse. After all, it's often not a matter of how much music is thrown into the mix, but rather how it's applied. R. Wesley Carr

After Tony Rice died a year ago on Christmas Day, jam band master Barry Waldrep and music management ace Brian Smith had an idea for a tribute. It was, at the start, a relatively modest plan: Put out Me and My

Mel Bay has a new tune book in their Mandolin Picking Tunes series, one titled Celtic Gems, written by Tommy Norris. This slim 52-page volume contains 30 traditional fiddle tunes, plus 2 by Irish harpist Turlough O'Carolan and 1 by Bill

Some CDs are just meant to be played in front of a cozy fire on a wintry evening, when the listener has time to settle down and sink into the music. Small Town Dreamer, the second Pinecastle release from Daryl

We recently received a set of the Rickard Cyclone 10:1 banjo tuners. Having heard very high praise of these tuning machines from both hobby and professional players, we reached out to Rickard and they graciously sent along a set for