Category Archives: Bluegrass

Peter Rowan – Calling You From My Mountain

The bluegrass legend is back in the saddle with a new band and is as wild and sharp as ever. Calling You From My Mountain finds Peter Rowan rediscovering himself and having a ball. You can just tell that he’s so eager to get back on a stage and behind a microphone again, now thatContinue reading “Peter Rowan – Calling You From My Mountain”

John Herald: Bluegrass Boy of the Catskills, by James Rooney

The energy was there before the festival and it would remain long after. Visions of nude hippies rollicking in the mud burned into cultural memory; Sly Stone arguably saving the whole festival; the disappointments of so many beloved groups. Absolute chaos against a backdrop of country living. Back-to-the-land sentiments preached by so many yet realizedContinue reading “John Herald: Bluegrass Boy of the Catskills, by James Rooney”

The Old Home Place: Remembering Tony Rice and Bluegrass Music’s Spacious Renovation (pt. 2), by James Rooney

If you missed out on part one of James Rooney’s piece on Tony Rice, click here to check it out. David Grisman was not a Bluegrass player. Sure, he honed his chops in some old-timey string bands, but by 1965, Grisman was a key player in Boston’s weirdo psych scene. A bona fide member ofContinue reading “The Old Home Place: Remembering Tony Rice and Bluegrass Music’s Spacious Renovation (pt. 2), by James Rooney”

Cameron Knowler & Eli Winter – Anticipation

Cameron Knowler and Eli Winter, two friends who happen to be some of the brightest young talents in solo guitar music today, bring the best out of each other on their new duo album, Anticipation. Recorded mostly in a mammoth session last year in Houston, TX, this album finds the two guitarists winding down theContinue reading “Cameron Knowler & Eli Winter – Anticipation”

The Old Home Place: Remembering Tony Rice and Bluegrass Music’s Spacious Renovation (pt. 1), by James Rooney

Every so often a musician accepts a gig that pushes them a far greater distance than initially expected. What might have started as a sideman job on a single record blossoms into a fruitful web of vast aural magnitude. To the individual driving this process, restructuring the environment in which they are working fulfills theirContinue reading “The Old Home Place: Remembering Tony Rice and Bluegrass Music’s Spacious Renovation (pt. 1), by James Rooney”

The Lark & The Loon – Homestead Hands & 2

I am reviewing The Lark and The Loon’s Homestead Hands and The Lark and The Loon 2 together, as I received them that way, but also because they were practically recorded back-to-back as well. Homestead Hands glows with a welcoming warmth like a flickering cabin fireplace. Husband and wife duo Jeff Rolfzen and Rocky Steen-Rolfzen play authenticContinue reading “The Lark & The Loon – Homestead Hands & 2”

The Lark and The Loon- Songbirds and Fog

The Lark and The Loon The scent of crisp autumn leaves on a cold early morning, the creaking of an old wooden porch and the flash of a startled barn swallow all exist within the very sound of the wonderfully evocative Songbirds and Fog by The Lark and The Loon. Comprised of Mid-westerners Rocky SteenContinue reading “The Lark and The Loon- Songbirds and Fog”

Folk Playlist for Summer

Here’s a selection of folk songs to help soundtrack your summer days, featuring the likes of Jerry Garcia with David Grisman, Dirk Powell, Odetta, etc.      

Mulberry Soul

If a nippy autumn afternoon in the Adirondacks could create its own music, it would surely sound like the new self-titled album by Mulberry Soul. Hailing from the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York, Mulberry Soul plays a beautifully rural blend of bluegrass and folk that can both stomp with scorching energy and chillContinue reading “Mulberry Soul”