Beer, bluegrass, occasional other stuff
You might expect an album that is half bluegrass and half plugged-in country to be a disjointed mess. If we also told you it was recorded by two sets of musicians, in two separate gatherings, on opposite ends of the covid shutdown, you might even wager it would be a complete cluster-eff. And odds are that in the hands of anybody else the new Gibson Brothers release, “Darkest Hour,” might have been just that. In[…]
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Much has been made of the story of how David Bromberg used to take guitar lessons from legendary blind bluesman the Rev. Gary Davis. “I learned an awful lot from the reverend,” Bromberg says, retelling the tale of how he started out paying Davis $5 per lesson initially, later to get his lessons free in exchange for serving as Davis’ guide, driving him to gigs and to church to preach. What is less shared about[…]
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She’s a three-time winner of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Mandolin Player of the Year award and three times she has been a part of collaborative efforts that have won IBMA honors as the Collaborative Recording of the Year. This fall she is touring with Bela Fleck’s supergroup and Sturgill Simpson’s all-star bluegrass outfit, as well as doing some touring on her own in support of her latest album, 25 Trips. We sat down with[…]
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Keel talks with the Brewgrass Chronicle about his new album “American Dream” For more than 25 years Larry Keel has been a self-described “road dog.” So when the Covid-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of shows he had booked literally all over the world, a guy who was seldom at home suddenly found himself not just stuck at home, but there with more time on his hands than he knew what to do with. Keel did[…]
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A child prodigy, Bronwyn Keith-Hynes picked up a fiddle at the age of 3 and by the time she turned 16 she was off to Boston, having won a scholarship to attend the American Roots Music Program at Berklee College of Music. It was in Boston, in 2014, that she and her bandmates formed Mile Twelve. In 2018 she won an International Bluegrass Music Association Momentum Award for her fiddle playing. This year she is[…]
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The last time Jakobs Ferry Stragglers put out an album, Gary Antol decided to try a presale as a way to help finance the project. The first order of CDs was sold out before the album was even released. So when Antol and his bandmates decided to do a live recording in front of an intimate crowd of 30-40 people in Pittsburgh’s Church Recording Studio, he decided once again to offer fans a chance to[…]
Read moreYonder Mountain String Band rolled into the Capital Theater in York, Pa., Sunday night for the final stop of a busy fall tour. We sat down with bass player, and founding member, Ben Kaufmann prior to the show for a quick chat about life on the road and dealing with the passage of Jeff Austin amidst the band’s celebration of the 20th anniversary of their debut album, “Elevation.” Ben also filled us in on new[…]
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It’s the middle of hunting season almost anywhere you go. And if there is one thing Frank Solivan likes as much as playing music, it is spending time in the outdoors. In the summer his social media feeds are full of pictures of his fishing adventures. In recent weeks he’s posted photos of hunting trips while visiting old friends in Alaska, where he lied for 10 years. So you might wonder how anybody talked him[…]
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Over the river and through the snow has a more literal meaning this year for Matt Thomas. The Philadelphia native lives in the People’s Republic of Colorado these days. The first snow already melted out there and it’s already been replaced by a fresh coating. Thomas moved there about a year ago, following love to the Rockies. He’s about to fly back to Philadelphia for a three-day reunion run with his Man About A Horse[…]
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Ashville-based SFTRB making a pre-IBMA trip north for 3 shows By Chris A. Courogen BGC Editor When Charles Humphrey III decided to make Songs From the Road Band a full-time, touring gig, he knew it meant starting over almost from scratch. Sure, he brought the band some name recognition thanks to his time with Steep Canyon Rangers. And the rest of the band’s roster was made up of stellar pickers like mandolinist Mark Schimick, flat-picker[…]
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