Is Leftwich still with Kentucky Thunder? Great fiddle player.
Hmmm…favorite album, so many come to mind. “New Favorite” from AKUS would be one for sure.
Top players
I wrote an extremely long post here yesterday, when I tried to submit it the site hung. I tried to cut and paste it in case I lost it, but I didn’t grab it all and I’m too lazy to rewrite it. I did want to put a plug in for Junior Fisk and the Ramblers and the Lonesome River Band, both new discoveries for me in the past year.
Don’t you hate when that happens? I’ve done the same thing on more than one occasion.
Did you mean Junior Sisk and Rambler’s Choice? I saw them at a festival a year or two ago. Great band!
My favorite listen right now is a cd that has Tim May on it it. Goin Across The Sea is the title. Also a group called Crooked Still. Dont know about any of them being top players but Ive worn out their songs lately.
Yes Bulldog, that’s the correct name of the Band. I saw them 2 years up our way at the Lowell Folk Festival. Lowell is the largest free folk festival in the US, it spun off after the National Folk Festival did a 3 year residency up here back in the 80’s. They’ve had some amazing names, a 14 year old Alison Krause was one of them, although I missed that one. I did catch an equally young Sierra Hull there a few years back. And Michael Cleveland was a revelation a couple years back too.
Sounds like a great festival Jim. I also saw Sierra Hull at a festival a couple of years ago and was amazed at what she could do with a mandolin. Such a sweetheart too.
When performers have reached a certain level, I think taste overtakes skill, I’ve gravitated to many different favorites over the years, and thought they were all “tops” at the moment. So this isn’t answerable in that context.
I tend to gravitate toward having favorite band leaders who have weathered the storm over a good number of years, influenced the genre they play in, and been fairly consistent in high quality performances and bands.
a few of my “tops”:
JD Crowe
Doyle Lawson
Ricky Skaggs
Sammy Shelor
Lorraine Jordan
Sam Bush
Bill Monroe
Jim & Jesse McReynolds
Osborne Bros
Jimmy Martin
Each of these people have not only been great performers, but have helped trained, produced, or influenced many of today’s “top” performers.
just my take on things.