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Category: Bluegrass

Twang – Part 1 – Blue Moon Rising!

So in the last couple of days I’ve been listening a couple of really good new albums with an older sound! First was the traditional sounding bluegrass band Blue Moon Rising and second the traditional Outlaw sounding Whitey Morgan and the 78s.

Blue Moon Rising is a four man band from Knoxville, Tennessee composed of Chris West on lead vocals and guitar, Tony Mowell, bass and vocals, Brandon Bostic mandolin, guitar and vocals, and Owen Piatt on banjo. Chris West, who’s been with the band since their beginning, writes many of the band’s songs, that have populated thier first four albums and have become fan favorites. The songs include: The Hanging Tree, Crime I’m Guilty Of, The Old Time Preacher Man, Good Time for Going Home, Revival, He Arose. All of which I have to listen to because the album I listened to Strange New World is their fifth album! From this album you can tell they have the complete package, they write great songs, the vocals full of great harmonies and the all know how to play their instruments! I first saw their name on the Folk Radio DJ list for November airplay where the album is number 63. The two top songs were “Dust Bowl” and “Living Water”. “Dust Bowl” is one of my favorites, other favorites include: “Time to Be Moving On”. “My Sittin’ Window”, “He’s All Around”, and “What a Helluva Way to Go”. So if you enjoy good bluegrass check them out at the usual places like Myspace and Facebook read more

Twang Tuesday – The Blackberry Bushes

So as I looked down the Folk DJ list of airplay for the month of October 2010 the group at number 25 (32nd Top Artist) caught my attention The Blackberry Bushes and their new release Little Bit of Grace. So I headed over to Rhapsody and downloaded the album onto the ZenV. Their music certainly fits in the Americana genre there music is high energy and infectious and certainly will set your toes a tapping. Here’s a description of their music from their Myspace page


Their music is progressive Americana “like someone threw a radio from yesteryear high into the treetops…” Their repertoire of original, bluegrass, and traditionally twisted music is infused with their love of indie, jazz, punk and alternative styles. They have been dubbed the “Mountain Divas” and Olympia’s “Sirens of Indiegrass”. They are Persephone and her sirens singing songs you have never heard but always known. read more

Saturday Twang – The Steeldrivers – Reckless


About a week ago I downloaded the new Steeldrivers album Reckless and for some reason I didn’t like the album as much as their self-tilted debut album. I thought their debut album was a really really fine album that stayed in my rotation for a good long time. Well after a few listens the album has grown to be a favorite!! From their website here is a description of their band:

The SteelDrivers: a group of seasoned veterans – each distinguished in his or her own right, each valued in the town’s commercial community – who are seizing an opportunity to follow their hearts to their souls’ reward. In doing so, they are braiding their bluegrass roots with new threads of their own design, bringing together country, soul, and other contemporary influences to create an unapologetic hybrid that is old as the hills but fresh as the morning dew. This is new music with the old feeling. SteelDrivers fan Vince Gill describes the band’s fusion as simply “an incredible combination.” read more

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

Twang Tuesday – Sierra Hull and Highway 111


So a while ago I wrote about the great young fiddler Amanda Shaw. When the post was on No Depression one of the comments was that maybe she could team with equally young Sierra Hull, who plays mandolin to form a wunderkid band! So never having heard of Sierra Hull I visited her website and one of the first things that stood out were these quotes”

“Sierra Hull is without doubt my favorite mandolin player!” – Adam Steffey – pretty high praise from a great mandolin player! read more

Twang Tuesday – .357 String Band – Lightning from the North

So a while back I downloaded and have been listening to .357 String Band’s album Ghost Town.They are a strong progressive bluegrass band that plays a fast and furious brand of bluegrass that they call “Streetgrass”. From their website:

……..The .357 String Band pays homage to both the dark roots of Americana – the fatalistic murder ballads, sneering Outlaw Country and unforgiving Gospel – as well as their own background coming of age in Milwaukee’s Punk and Rockabilly scenes. The result is a faster, meaner folk music – something the band calls “Streetgrass.” 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