Prescription Bluegrass Reviews - Johnny Campbell & The Bluegrass Drifters

“ ... This CD is proof that traditions are still being passed from generation to generation. Thanks to guys like Johnny Campbell, this music will never fade.”

                                                                                   - Marty Warburton / Prescription Bluegrass

os·mo·sis [ oz-moh-sis ] noun  1. a subtle or gradual absorption due to association or mingling: “Some of the students neglected to study, but seemed to learn by osmosis.”

Upon giving Johnny Campbell's self titled CD several rides in the F-150 listening room I vowed that I would use the word “osmosis” somewhere in this review. I just did. Why go there? I'm glad you asked.

Johnny is a third generation fiddle player that grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. Not only did Johnny's Dad and Grandpa play fiddle, but his older brother Jimmy played fiddle extensively with Jim & Jesse as well as Bill Monroe.

Here is a fact of musical reality; When you grow up around a Grandpa that plays fiddle, and you grow up in a house where your Dad and brother plays fiddle, you are setting your self up for this whole “osmosis” phenomenon.

Prescription Bluegrass Reviews MA CROW & THE LADY SLIPPERS - Memory Of A Mountain

25 years ago the idea of women playing bluegrass, serious bluegrass, was still a novelty.

There was a smattering of female artists and bands back then, Lynn Morris, Laurie Lewis, Gina Britt, Deanie Richardson, The New Coon Creek Girls, The Good Ol' Persons (sorry Paul Shelasky) and Claire Lynch just to name a few.

Just to name a few I said...no letters please. But none really ever rose to national prominence. Even the Dixie Chicks went unnoticed until they dropped their bluegrass image and went mainstream country.

Prescription Bluegrass Reviews - BLUEGRASS EXPRESS - In Our Own Words

If you want to record a bluegrass CD and make sure it is special, unique and individualized, keep it in the family! That rule of thumb seems to work for the Underwood family band, BLUEGRASS EXPRESS, from Illinois.

Three generations of musical talent have put a familial ring to their new project, “In Our Own Words.” All twelve songs have been written by either the Underwood Patriarch, Gary, his son Greg or grandson Jacob.

The CD kicks off with one of Jacob’s compositions, “The Road Ends.” Jacob drives the song with a first class banjo intro and solo, and takes it out with a solid performance.

Prescription Bluegrass Reviews - Johnny Campbell & The Bluegrass Drifters !

Before the days of home computers, digital terminology and ProTools, and before genre-bending Bluegrass influences like Doyle Lawson, Tony Rice and Alison Krauss, Bluegrass music was a simpler, more ‘earthy’ concoction.

With this recording effort, Johnny Campbell re-creates a pre-digital recording session where musicians gather around a single microphone in the studio and play until something is ‘good enough.’

This approach obviously has pros and cons. Gone is the prevailing ‘slickness’ of modern recordings. Also, there is no separation of instruments and voices, so the balance and mix is marginal.

Prescription Bluegrass Reviews CIRCA BLUE - A Darker Blue!

After listening to “A Darker Blue” several times over several days and after reading the twelve panels of liner notes and lyrics in the CD case, I feel I've gotten to know Circa Blue fairly well. With the release of “A Darker Blue” this Virginia based group throws their hat in the crowded ring of bluegrass bands looking to be heard above the din. Not an easy task, but this is a band that knows how to dig in, this is a band that knows how to make instruments hit on all eight. This band knows how to drive.