Interview: Bumper Jacksons’ Jess Eliot Myhre on New Venues, New Album, and Categorizing Music

The Bumper Jacksons are a six-piece Washington DC-based roots music band that mixes jazz, blues, and country. They’ve been honored multiple times as the Mid-Atlantic’s “Artist of the Year” & “Best Traditional Band” at the Washington Area Music Awards. They’ve released three studio albums: Sweet Mama, Sweet Daddy, Come In (2014), Too Big World (2015), […]

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REVIEW: The Way Down Wanderers’ “Illusions” is a Worthy Experiment in Bluegrass Genre

The Way Down Wanderers’ new album, Illusions, reaches beyond the boundaries of bluegrass to span across multiple genres, from pop, blues, and roots rock, even to reggae and rap. This becomes evidently clear by the fifth track, “All My Words,” which combines reggae rhythms and a mid-song rap with a closing Foggy Mountain Breakdown-style banjo. […]

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REVIEW: Charles Wesley Godwin Sings With Authenticity About Seneca Creek on Album “Seneca”

The release of Seneca marks the arrival of Morgantown, West Virginia singer-songwriter Charles Wesley Godwin as an authentic voice in country music. Singing about the “hills where my grandfather worked” with a clear, strong voice, Godwin spins a warm vision of the people of coal country and their lives. He paints with his words, vividly […]

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REVIEW: Marley’s Ghost’s “Travelin’ Shoes” is Honest, Pure Classic Gospel

Travelin’ Shoes, the new gospel release from Marley’s Ghost, is the group’s third’s collaboration with producer Larry Campbell, former guitarist for Bob Dylan and bandleader for Levon Helm. Larry writes, “This a group whose artistic life blood springs from the deep well of American traditional music. They love it, they’ve lived it, they respect it, […]

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REVIEW: With “Thunder Smile,” the Spencer Pheil Band Jams Out Country-Jazz Fusion

I met Spencer Pheil when he opened with his main band, the Stable Shakers, for Larry Campbell and Theresa Williams, at Gypsy Sally’s, last September. The Stable Shakers made for a perfect opening act that night. Larry Campbell is one of Americana’s great multi-instrumentalists, having playing guitar for Bob Dylan and led Levon Helm’s band. […]

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REVIEW: Riverland is a Fitting Tribute to the People and Times of the Big River

Mississippi, both the river and the state, as the great crossroads of America, stands at the forefront of American technological and social development. Riverland (Red Beet Records), the excellent new folk album by Eric Brace, Peter Cooper, and Thomm Jutz, celebrates change in America by focusing on that mighty river. This fitting tribute to the […]

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