Music Reviews

The subtitle of this very enjoyable CD is “A daughter’s take on her father’s tunes.” Madeline Levy’s introductory essay, liner notes, and her fiddling style, all emphasize the tradition from… Read More →

Released in 2021 by the Old-Time Tiki Parlour, Allsorts Orchestra is the second full-length album by Skillet Licorice, the San Francisco Bay-area roots-music duo of Elise Engelberg and Matt Knoth.… Read More →

The three tunes by Eck Robertson may be the headliners of Rare and Unissued Fiddle & String Band Music, but they are by far the worst-sounding of the 27 tracks… Read More →

The Ohio River Valley has proven to be fertile ground for fiddlers. Never more so has that been illustrated than with the compilation Along the Ohio’s Shores: Fiddle Music Along… Read More →

Eden & John’s East River String Band mines the rich history of traditional American blues, country, and popular music from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, to provide their… Read More →

The music for this CD began under a tarp, pickled eggs in a jar nearby and ice-cold Schlitz in a cooler, during what fiddler Joseph Decosimo recalls as “a sweaty… Read More →

In 1927 and 1928, Victor Records sent Ralph Peer to Bristol, Tennessee, to record country musicians, in what became known as the Bristol Sessions. In 1987, the Country Music Foundation… Read More →

For the first five years or so that Nora Brown was performing, starting around 2014,  she was billed as “Little Nora Brown.” During those years, she won first place junior… Read More →

Clifftop was cancelled due to the pandemic in both 2020 and 2021. We all missed it, but Rick and Joanne Davidson did something about it: they assembled 18 good friends… Read More →

“Then felt I like some watcher of the skies / When a new planet swims into his ken.” Hearing these CDs for the first time has been an incredible experience… Read More →

I suspect that nearly all parents who bring their children to old-time festivals dream of having their own family band. Mark and Amy Piro made it happen, and it sure… Read More →

When a music-loving boy from the Bronx was 11 years old, he asked for and received a guitar — his first instrument. He would grow up to become a world-renowned… Read More →

A reviewer could be forgiven for being confused about this band’s name. First, South Carolina is not as well known as a hotspot for old-time and early transitional bluegrass as… Read More →

I’ll begin this review by taking a wild guess that Quarantine Happy Hour was responsible for growing the reputation of the Horsenecks by leaps and bounds. Or was it just… Read More →