Fervor Coulee’s Favourite Roots Albums of 2020

I’ve been writing about roots music for 20 years, and have been assembling self-indulgent ‘favourite roots albums of the year’ lists for most of that time. While always a pleasant challenge, this year’s list was the most difficult for me to assemble. COVID-19 kept me even more tied to my remote music world this year,…

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Fervor Coulee’s Favourite Roots Albums of the Decade, 2010-2019 (#41-#50, pt. 1/5)

Ten years ago I spent too many weeks attempting to distill my roots music listening of the previous decade. It was painful work, but no small bit of fun. When I look back at that list, I am quite pleased at how well it holds up: a lot of great music that I continue to…

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Fervor Coulee’s Ten Favourite Roots Albums of 2018

Throughout December I have been posting a series of columns reflecting on the year-in-roots-music past. I hope you have been inspired to locate albums that had passed you by, and are enjoying what I have recommended. Readership at Fervor Coulee has steadily increased the last three years with growth of 10% and 20% the previous…

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Fervor Coulee’s Favourite Roots and Singer-Songwriter Albums of the Year 2018

*the ones that weren’t bluegrass, blues, or ‘old stuff’ like compilations, reissues, and archival releases This is the second run at my list. The first is lost somewhere on my hard drive, obliterated by the Blue Screen of Death. Reassembling the list wasn’t terribly difficult (although I did decide to cut back from thirty to…

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Blueberry Bluegrass, 2018- in review

The 32nd Blueberry Bluegrass Festival delivered. While featuring several acts well-familiar in Alberta due to regular appearances over the last several years—Slocan Ramblers, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, Jeff Scroggins & Colorado—these groups brought their expected ‘A’ game while other, less-frequently encountered performers including quality area  and regional artists  also quickly enamoured themselves to the…

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Blueberry Bluegrass, 2018: Day 1

The first day of the 32nd Blueberry Bluegrass Festival in Stony Plain, Alberta was as successful as anticipated. All acts were well-received, but it wasn’t acutely apparent which of two acts was the fan favourite. With an emphasis on show,The Kody Norris Show, a four-piece making their Canadian debut, performed a Jimmy Martin-inspired set of…

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Favourite Roots Albums of the Year, 2015.

Time for the annual ‘best of’ list which I never title ‘best of.’ I always go with Favourites because that is all I can go by: which albums have I listened to the most this past year, which ones have I most appreciated, and which ones do I feel are of an exceptional quality? In…

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Pharis & Jason Romero- A Wanderer I’ll Stay review

2015 is not yet half done and we’ve had no shortage of amazing albums come our way. Simply the latest comes from small town British Columbia and the husband and wife duo Pharis and Jason Romero. Wonderful material, unvarnished voices, and instrumental compatibility infused with the warmth of the past, their third album is a…

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