Fred Eaglesmith- Cha Cha Cha Reviewed here: http://www.countrystandardtime.com/d/cdreview.asp?xid=4463 With every listen, this album reveals a bit more. And what it reveals, is good.
Fred Eaglesmith- Milly’s Café, 50 Odd Dollars, Dusty I listened to these the other night while prepping my Cha Cha Cha piece. Dusty shocked me. I thought I disliked the album, and because of that I haven’t listened to it since it was released. Surprise. It’s pretty good. I know what I didn’t like- the organ- but my ears have grown into it. Really glad I pulled it off the shelf.
The Sadies- Darker Circles Working on a review. Well, listening a lot in preparation of writing a review.
Bryan Sutton and Friends- Almost Live One of those albums I feel quite inadequate reviewing.
The Preservation Hall Jazz Band- Preservation Treme wrapped up Season 1 last night; I thought it had finished up before Memorial Day, but it only took a week off. Great show. I hadn’t listened to this one in a couple weeks, but put it on after the show was finished. The last four cuts really appealed to me last night.
Ian Dury- New Boots and Panties!! Just had to listen to it again. Rhymes, rhymes, rhymes. Rhythms. Rhythms. Rhythms. Good.
Kimberley Rew- Great Central Revisited One of my favourite albums. He is a master.
Highwaymen- The Road Goes On Forever: 10th Anniversary Edition Pulled off the shelf while writing a review for the new Mark Chesnutt album. Enjoyable, and even more so now than when first released.
Kathy Kallick Band- Between the Hollow and the High-Rise Great title! One of my favourite bluegrass people, Kathy Kallick is. I’ll be listening to this one all summer.
Oliver Schroer & The Stewed Tomatoes- Freedom Row Even better the second week. Reviewed in the paper last Friday; link below…somewhere.
Dierks Bentley- Up On The Ridge The last time a major country artist- at the top of his game, while not exactly setting the world on fire with his previous release- was this brave, putting everything on the line to make music he loves was, well…never? Marty Stuart, who Bentley does remind me of at times on this pretty spectacular acoustic roots album, did something similarly risky in 1999 with The Pilgrim. While an artistic success, The Pilgrim died at retail. So far, Up On The Ridge is a chart success. It is a terrific album and the contributions of The Punch Brothers and Del McCoury push it over the edge.
Doc Watson- Songs for Little Pickers Any Doc is good Doc.
Mumford & Sons- Sigh No More Modern music for a non-modern guy.
The Wooden Sky- If I Don’t Come Home You’ll Know I’m Gone The only release from my Polaris Music Prize ballot to make it through to the ‘long list’ stage; how can I be so consistently out-of-touch with the Canadian pressie masses? Pretty easily- only a very small sampling of music I would identify as roots made it through- see the long list here: http://www.polarismusicprize.ca/blog/148 Lots of good music, no doubt, but it is criminal that John Wort Hannam was overlooked- Juno nominated, Queen’s Hotel is wonderful folk album, one for the ages. The Wooden Sky is battling it out with Lee Harvey Osmond for top place on my ‘short list’ ballot. Had LHO had a W in it, it may have made my Long List ballot.
The Fabulous Ginn Sisters- You Can’t Take A Bad Girl Home I’m reserving judgment until I listen again. Some nice songs with lyrics clever enough for me to suspect Fred Eaglesmith had a hand in them- the writing credits prove me wrong.
Fervor Coulee- roots music opinion 
My name is Bill Passalacqua and I’m the manager of The Fabulous Ginn Sisters. I’m looking forward to seeing your review after you get a chance to listen to their new CD again. For those waiting, you can read a review in the recent Exclaim (they chose it as ‘CD of the month’).
While I have no doubt that Tiffani Ginn would consider it a high compliment that you assume Fred had a hand in the writing of the songs on the record, I can tell you that he didn’t.
Thanks for listening in the first place and, again, I look forward to seeing the review.
Bill
Thanks for dropping by, Bill. I re-read the bit about the songwriting; I don’t read it the same way you did, but I’ll reword the comment. Donald