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Category: Bluegrass

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…

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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”….

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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! “Every so often, a talent comes along that makes us sit up and…

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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.” What I hadn’t listened to yet was…

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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…

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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: Amanda Shaw…

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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: Amanda Shaw…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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