Music Reviews

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 →

By now, all readers of the OTH are probably aware of the crucial role that Black musicians played in the creation of what we think of today as “old-time music.”… Read More →

For those interested in rounding out their knowledge of Ozark fiddling, this recording of H. K. Silvey should be of great interest. Born in 1933, H. K. Silvey is one… Read More →

I’ll never forget the first time I heard “Pop Goes the Weasel” in a collection of archival Edden Hammons tunes. That tune got me thinking about the origins of the… Read More →

A couple months before the proverbial excrement hit the fan, in March of 2020, Erynn Marshall and Carl Jones released a lovely duo album titled Old Tin. The record’s name… Read More →

“Hard Drive is a hard-driving aural modern traditional old time authentic millennial bluegrass collective made up of Tatiana Hargreaves, Aaron Tacke, Sonya Badigian, and Nokosee Fields.” The band’s succinct description… Read More →

MULTIPLE CHOICE TEST This CD/DVD set by Scott Prouty is: (a) An eclectic survey of fiddle music learned from people Prouty knew personally, or from recordings (b) An instructional DVD… Read More →

When was the last time a largely old-time music album made a year-end Top Ten list at such prestigious publications as The New Yorker and the UK’s The Guardian? It’s… Read More →

“People got folk song happy for awhile,” Merle Travis recalled when interviewed in 1979. Capitol’s Cliffie Stone asked him to record an album full of them. Travis replied, “Bradley Kincaid… Read More →

The story behind these recordings, made in guitarist Ernie Dawkins’ Pittsburgh home between 1968 and 1970, is the story of a young guitar fanatic’s passion leading him to a wonderful… Read More →

The subtitle displayed not on the package but on the CD’s readout is Little Tunes from the Big State. That neatly summarizes a good-natured sense of humility and humor that… Read More →