Of Dark Hearts and Lethal Consequences

The Earl Brothers are back with their dark-hearted bluegrass--like no other bluegrass known to humankind--on Outlaw Hillbilly. Our Album of the Week selection chronicles the Bay Area band's continuing crafting of one of the mos...
by David McGee
 

 
 

Ready for the Long Haul

J.D. Crowe has retired, but his last incarnation of the New South soldiers on, quite impressively, as American Drive. The quartet's self-titled debut album shows it to be ready for the long haul.
by David McGee
 

 

 

An Atmospheric Take on Debussy’s Piano Music

Angela Hewitt's new album, Debussy: Solo PIano Music is being hailed in all quarters for bringing a fresh perspective to the evocative piano music of Debussy. One of today's leading Bach pianists. Ms. Hewitt enhances her reputa...
by David McGee
 

 
 

Talking Turkey and Radiating on the 88s

Mitch Woods and the Rocket 88s got the crowds in Turkey all shook up on the Efes Blues Festival tour in October 2010. A new CD/DVD set preserves a record of the boogie woogie flu and rockin' pneumonia the fellows infected the c...
by David McGee
 

 

 

Suave, Like Nobody’s Business

We redress a great wrong in finally reviewing RAUL MALO's 2007 Christmas masterpiece, Marshmallow World + Other Holiday Favorites. This Yuletide essential is so suave it even offers 'Silver Bells' as a tango. Believe it.
by David McGee
 

 
 

Kind Of, Sort Of…No, Really Good. Exceptional, Even.

Joanne Shaw Taylor’s artistic growth continues unabated since her dramatic debut in 2008 with White Sugar. Her third solo long player, Almost Always Never, is another triumph,. one of the best blues albums of 2012.
by David McGee
 

 

 

A Bracing Christmas Wind

In Horns For the Holidays, the superb Dallas Wind Symphony not only celebrates the Christmas music tradition but also exemplifies the best of the wind ensemble genre, with its unique sonorities and long tradition of both origin...
by David McGee
 

 
 

Joy To The World

A wonderful and heartwarming thing happened when the Jay Ungar & Molly Mason Family Band showed up at the University of Mary Washington to play a program of evocative, sometimes poignant, sometimes haunting seasonal tunes, new ...
by David McGee
 

 

 

Lovely and Unusual

This cozy, gentle, and varied collection of Christmas music from Hereford Cathedral is broken into three sections: Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany. The music ranges from the 14th-century Resonemus laudibus, to a work by John T...
by David McGee
 

 
 

A Christmas Story For All Seasons, And For The Ages

From its opening hosanna, 'I See the Light of the World' to its closing exaltation, 'Morning In Bethlehem,' DONNA ULISSE's song cycle All The Way to Bethlehem is not merely close to perfect, it's a work of art. An instant seaso...
by David McGee
 

 

 

Christmas Picks 2012

TheBluegrassSpecial.com/Deep Roots Christmas Picks for 2012 include new seasonal outpourings from DONNA ULISSE, EDIE ADAMS, DALLAS WIND SYMPHONY, HEY ROSETTA, THE JAY UNGAR & MOLLY MASON FAMILY BAND, DEATH MIGHT BE YOUR SANTA C...
by David McGee
 

 
 

At The Summit

Recorded live at the historic Bell Theater in Pineville, Kentucky, CHRISTMAS THE MOUNTAIN WAY is a bluegrass celebration of the Yuletide's true meaning, with a first-rate lineup of traditional bluegrass artists in peak form. Ma...
by David McGee