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 →
Music Reviews
The Village Out West: The Lost Tapes of Alan Oakes
“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 →
Brandywine Ridge (The Piros)
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 →
Everywhere You Go (Bruce Molsky)
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 →
Home to Stay (South Carolina Broadcasters)
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 →
Started Out In Town (The Horsenecks)
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 →
African-American Fiddling from Texas (Teodar Jackson)
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 →
Fiddling from Ozark County, Missouri (H. K. Silvey)
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 →
Closing the Gap (Molsky’s Mountain Drifters)
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 →
Old Tin (Erynn Marshall and Carl Jones)
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 →
Random Access Mash (Hard Drive)
“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 →
Shaking Down the Acorns (Scott Prouty)
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 →
Spider Tales (Jake Blount)
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 →
The Harry Smith B-Sides (Various artists)
“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 →
See What the Lord Has Done for Me: Rare and Unissued Recordings (Rev. Gary Davis)
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 Old Texas Fiddle Vol. III (Tricia Spencer & Howard Rains)
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 →