My recent bluegrass purchases and recommendations

[Darren Bailey]

My wife says I have spent a ridiculous amount of cash on bluegrass music recently, have picked up two or three albums per week for over a year. Some of it turned out to be okay, some of it turned out to be great. So if you like traditional sounding bluegrass which features plenty of mandolin my favourite discoveries of the last twelve months have been:

Dirty River Rambers - Ramble On
The Virginia Squires - Hard Times and Heartaches,
The Watery Hill Boys - Somebody's Been Using That Thing
Bass Mountain Boys - ove of a Woman
Blue Highway - Sounds of Home, Midnight Storm
Frank Soivan and Dirty Kitchen - On The Edge
Greensky Buegrass - Handguns, Five Interstates
Hammertowne - Hammertowne
Lonesome River Band - Finding The Way, Talkin' To Mysef
Lost Pines - Lost Pines
Mountain Heart - Wide Open, The Journey
Newfound Road - Somewhere Between
The Foggy Hogtown Boys - Northern LIghts

If anyone can recommend other "newer" bluegrass recordings that may be under the radar (I haven't mentioned Punch Brothers, Del McCoury, Tim O'Brien etc because I assume they're more well known and on everyone's shelves already) I'd love to hear about them.

[lukmanohnz]

Not sure this would be considered 'under the radar' - as it was well advertised here at the cafe - but this Adam Steffey release is ridiculously good: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D5N1J4K/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i04?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[mandopete]

Here's my list for 2013....

Pete Goodall
Bluegrass Ramble

Junior Sisk & Ramblers Choice – The Story Of The Day That I Died (Rebel)
The Bluegrass Regulators – One Step Closer (independent)
Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen – On The Edge (Compass)
James King – Three Chords And The Truth (Rounder)
Della Mae – This World Oft Can Be (Rounder)
The Steeldrivers – Hammer Down (Rounder)
Noam Pikelny – Plays Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe (Compass)
Jim Lauderdale – Old Time Angels (Sky Crunch)
Rebecca Frazier – When We Fall (Compass)
Sideline – Session 1 (Mountain Fever)

[AlanN]

The latest by Blue Highway The Game is a winner. Shawn Lane is a talented fellow.

[mandolino maximus]

I'm acquiring more and more respect for Rick Farris' mandolin for Special Consensus. This edition of the band is enthusiastically embraced by longtime fans and they have a new project release on 3/25 of bluegrass treatment of John Denver songs with special guests. This one with Claire Lynch and Rob Ickes of the aforementioned Blue Highway sounds very good:

[Shrtbull]

Check out, "You'll be Lonely, I'll be gone" By Driven, it's very good, and no, I'm not in the band. Available on ITunes.

[John O'Brien]

I like Darren Nicholson from NC's Balsam Range. Really great player in a top notch group. Also digging Mimi from Fruition from the Pacific Northwest, although not so much grass as maybe Americana/Roots. I love how the hooks seem to come from her mando!

[Mike Bunting]

Here's my list for 2013....

Pete Goodall
Bluegrass Ramble

Junior Sisk & Ramblers Choice – The Story Of The Day That I Died (Rebel)
The Bluegrass Regulators – One Step Closer (independent)
Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen – On The Edge (Compass)
James King – Three Chords And The Truth (Rounder)
Della Mae – This World Oft Can Be (Rounder)
The Steeldrivers – Hammer Down (Rounder)
Noam Pikelny – Plays Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe (Compass)
Jim Lauderdale – Old Time Angels (Sky Crunch)
Rebecca Frazier – When We Fall (Compass)
Sideline – Session 1 (Mountain Fever)

I'd add Danny Paisley's new one ,"Road into Town"

[Tommy Berry]

Thank you for listing these...I have added them to my Spotify playlist to check out!!!

[Denny Gies]

This one is somewhat older but is a killer CD...Murder on Music Row by Larry Cordel and his group.

[Jesse Weitzenfeld]

I'm acquiring more and more respect for Rick Farris' mandolin for Special Consensus.

I'm looking forward to hearing that John Denver tribute. We have Scratch Gravel Road (also featuring Rick Farris on mandolin and vocals, basically the same lineup as above with a different bass player, minus Claire and Rob of course) and have found it to be an extremely good album. It's one of those that you can listen to over and over without getting burnt out on it. Reminds me a little bit of a Blue Highway album in that respect - all the material is of a consistently high quality, and varied enough to keep you interest even after repeated listenings.

Here's a preview:

[Russ Donahue]

Anything and everything from Chatham County Line...

[jimj]

Balsam Range: Moon over Memphis!

[Jesse Weitzenfeld]

Just picked up Bryan Sutton's latest. Wow! I believe the opening track, Cricket on the Hearth, may be the best recording of a fiddle tune ever. And the cd just gets better from there. Nice departure for Bryan, more folksy and traditional, but still with killer instrumentation as you might imagine. And he's got a great voice. I think it's one of the best cd's of the year. Great mandolin playing as well by Bush and McCoury...if you're into that sort of thing.

Saw him live as well with his "road band". Mike Barnett on fiddle, Sam Grisman on bass, and Casey Campbell on mandolin. Can't remember ever seeing a better show. These young guys can really pick, and Bryan was obviously enjoying himself and feeding off of their enthusiasm. It was great.

[Russ Donahue]

Here's another to consider: Oly Mountain Boys - "Through the Sky"

[Steve VandeWater]

Two of my favorite new albums are Rock of Ages and Fiddle Tune X, both by Billy Strings & Don Julin. I've seen these guys a couple times in the last year and they are phenomenal. This may sound overstated, but Billy plays guitar as well as anyone I've ever seen (including my idols Doc Watson and Tony Rice) and Don is one hell of a mando player. The vocals are fantastic too. They record on a single mic with no studio overdubs, so its very genuine stuff. Check them on youtube and give them a listen.