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Category: Bluegrass

Weekend Retreat – Tim O’Brien – The Hackensaw Boys

So this weekend I went back in time to revisit some of the earlier work of Tim O’Brien. O’Brien recently received a nomination by International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) as Male Vocalist of the Year for his latest album Chicken and Egg. Unfortunately he did not win the award. The winner was Russell Moore of IIrd Tyme Out. Anyway the album that I listened to this weekend was Tim’s 1995 album produced by Jerry Douglas Rock in My Shoe. I listened to the first several tracks so that I could hear my favorite track on the album “One Girl Cried”. A great track about what music is all about, making music that moves someone. Here’s the great chorus: Read More

Running with Town Mountain!

So this morning No Depression posted a link on Facebook for the lineup at the 2011 Merlefest. So I went to the site and checked out the line-up a few of the bands I’ve mentioned on this blog. Folks like Balsom Range, Sam Bush Band, Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper, Casey Dreissen and many I know but haven’t mentioned. Then there’s that fairly large segment that I don’t know and over the next few weeks I know I’ll be listening to some of these bands. The first one that caught my attention was Town Mountain. I listened briefly to them this morning liked what I heard so this afternoon I loaded it up on the ZenV and it became the soundtrack for my four mile plus run! The run was good no pain in my right knee but the music was better! Read More

Cajun Twang Tuesday – Amanda Shaw – Good Southern Girl

So it started quickly with a little 12 second fiddle piece called “Interlude” then went right into a rollicking Cajun song “Johnny Can’t Dance” again the great fiddle was that the artist playing that fiddle?? Yes, it was Amanda Shaw on her new album Good Southern Girl which debuted at 33 on the Americana Music Chart this week! And after that first song she had me. But then came “Meek Maids Reel” and I knew that this album was going to be something special! So I quickly went to Amada’s webpage and discovered that at 19 years old: Read More

Twang Tuessday from Grasstowne to .357 String Band!

So this Twang Tuesday started out with one of the albums I picked up at the Princeton Record Exchange The Other Side of Towne the most recent release from Grasstowne. This is a really good bluegrass album from some excellent musicians. The album has songs about hard workin’, heartbreaks, momma and the Lord! The good picking comes from one of the best mandolin players Alan Bibey. Alan was named the 2010 Mandolin Player of the Year at the SPBGMA (Society for thr Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America) in February of this year. Steve Gulley provides the lead vocals and guitar. Gulley is an award winning musician was a founding mermber of Mountain Heart, another really good band! Looking at the website it appears they have a new bass player Travis Greer, Justin Jenkins plays banjo and Adam Hayes’ fiddle rounds out the band. So if you like good bluegrass check them out! Read More

Sunday’s Music – Stalling, Cleveland and Corritore

Well my emusic downloads refreshed the other day and I have been checking the new stuff they’ve added in the last month. It seems that they’ve added a lot of new stuff from Rounder Records so a lot of new folk albums. So did I download any of thing  from Rounder? No I did not. I download three albums: Max Stalling’s  new album Home To You, Michael Cleveland’s  album Flamethrower from 2002 and Bob Corritore and Friends album Harmonica Blues. I’ve been a Max Stalling fan for a while and have four albums in my collection. The first and probably my favorite is Wide Afternoon. I just listened to Michael Cleveland’s music for the first time last month and Bob Corritore’s album has been on the Roots Music Report for the last several weeks and I took a chance mainly because I really do like harmonica blues! Read More

Tuesday Powered by Bluegrass!

So I listened to a lot of bluegrass today. I started the day with XM Radio Bluegrass Junction and on the way to work I heard a song by Steve Gulley and I thought about the new album that I read about the day that he did with Tim Stafford. So I went to Rhapsody to look for it but they didn’t have it, actually,  I don’t know if it has even been released yet. Anyway they did have other albums so I listened to Tim Stafford’s album Endless Line and then Steve Gulley’s album Sounds Like Home. Both albums were very good listens from two of bluegrass’ best! Tim Stafford was a founding member of Blue Highway,  whose first album won  IBMA’s Album of the Year Award in 1996.  In the February 2010 edition of Acoustic Guitar magazine Endless Line was named one of the best Acoustic Guitar Albums of the last 20 years!  and says that Tim Stafford is  ‘…possibly the most influential guitarist in contemporary bluegrass.’. Other albums that were on the list that Tim appeared or worked on includes: Blue Highway’s Midnight Storm, Michelle Shocked’s  Arkansas Traveler, Alison Krauss’s Now That I’ve Found You,  and The Infamous Stringduster’s Fork in the Road. Read More

Tuesday Mix – Folk and Twang


So I started the day today by checking the FAR Chart for new musicians and came across the name Colin Spring. His new album is titled Highballs for the Lowbrow and that certainly sounded promising. So I went to Rhapsody and they didn’t have the current release so I listened to his 2005 release How I Came To Cry These Tears Of Cool (2005). It was a good listen with some songs with a political bent like “Joe McCarthy Is Sweeping Off His Grave” and several others with great titles like “Give My Regrets To Broadway”, “Let’s Burn the Guitars” and “Life Out on the Fringe”. So after listening to most of the album I went to Amazon and bought the new album and gave it a listen. Overall the sound is a little more rock than I usually listen to but overall the vocals and lyrics are good, but it will take a few more listens to judge overall. Here’s some info from Colin’s website about him and his music: Read More