Nitty Gritty Dirt Band founders Jeff Hanna and Jimmie Fadden used to play Dylan tunes together in high school, now the band has released a tribute album, Dirt Does Dylan.
Clocking in at 33 minutes—shorter than many Phish prog-rock jams— Mercy puts the spotlight on his singing and acoustic guitar work.
ADVERTISEMENT
There's a lived-in clarity to these songs: Over and over, Rowan bridges the distance between bluegrass tradition and Buddhist practice.
Sephardic songs from 15th century Spain and tunes from the American folk tradition fuse together as the core of Lily Henley's album Oras Dezaoradas.
The album is a collection from a wide spectrum of writers, styles, and eras, beautifully presented in (mostly) acoustic settings.
ADVERTISEMENT
The performances by Grant Dermody & Frank Fotusky on Diggin’ in John’s Backyard sound like a couple of (really talented) pals casually sitting on the front porch pickin’, blowin’, and singin’.
The album is as pure a “solo” album as you’ll find—it’s live takes of just Gardner’s voice and an arsenal of resonator guitars.
The mood on Charlie Musselwhite's Mississippi Son is laid-back, as the guitarist delivers fingerpicked country blues on both acoustic and electric guitars.
ADVERTISEMENT
Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal are now revered as legends themselves, and they’ve chosen this moment to time-travel back to honor two of their early heroes, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.
The album is a delicious swirl of fragmentary but evocative country-folk story-songs and ballads.
Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway's Crooked Tree displays everything from deft clawhammer-style guitar playing to high-speed syncopation from the Clarence White canon to buoyant cross-picking.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Spur is a batch of songs that reflect on putting down roots, coming out of what Joan Shelley calls a “period of opposite extremes—of creative hyper-connection and physical isolation."
Jamestown Revival emphasizes a folkier, quiet side with their vocal blend shining even more than usual.
With the EPs Bluish and Edgework, guitarist Woody Harris has released his first new music in 42 years, and it’s a lifetime away from the folk albums he recorded in his 20s.
Barry Waldrep & Friends Celebrate Tony Rice creates a personal remembrance of Rice and his music from a modern country music perspective with star power.
ADVERTISEMENT
The 8 performances on Forever on my Mind, recorded live at Wabash College in 1964, are so different, they force us to rethink everything we know we about him.
"Psalms" is almost as much about Nathan Salsburg’s connection with his acoustic guitar as it is with his Jewish heritage.
On Home on the Midrange, Jamie Stillway and Eric Skye put on a flatpicking clinic over the course of eight original tunes.
ADVERTISEMENT
This release pairs the two guitarists on a collection of short pieces from Latin composers
Using six guitars—a nylon-string crossover, a baritone, a Portuguese viola amarantina, steel-string acoustics, and an electric—Hall switches between solo and multitracking and different tunings.
Gilkyson calls this album a “love letter to the Old West."
ADVERTISEMENT
The album features a recently unearthed concert recorded 7 months before 'At the Ryman,' with a completely different set list.
On his long-overdue guitar album, Everywhere You Go, Bruce Molsky revisits the music that has left the deepest impressions on him.
Aoife O’Donovan's Age of Apathy is a different kind of pandemic album: engaged, ambitious, expansive.
ADVERTISEMENT
Playing nylon-string, Bola Sete was a masterful improviser and technician, with influences that ranged from Django Reinhardt to João Gilberto to Andres Segovia.
