Within the last 2 weeks I've bought 4 CD's. Aubrey Ghent, "What a Time", lap steel in the style of Sacred Steel, Jerry Douglas, "Glide", Rob Ickes DVD, "Contemporary Dobro Artistry", and The Infamous Stringdusters.
I've also listed them in order of my preference.
Aubrey Ghent, "What a Time", $17 shipped, www.aubreyghent.com Aubrey is a proponent of Sacred Steel the style of steel playing that Robert Randolph came out of. In fact, Aubrey is touring with Robert Randolph and the Family Band for the next 3 to 4 months. If you like Sacred Steel or lap steel jam bands you cannot go wrong with this offering.
Jerry Douglas, "Glide" $13.99 at Amazon, For my money, this is his best offering in quite awhile. Well worth the $15 or so. I've got the first 4 songs on the CD rattling around in my head. This is the CD that's in the car right now. I did need to pull out the Aubrey Ghent CD to make room for old Jerry. I can listen to this back to back to back with no problem at all.
Rob Ickes, "Contemporary Dobro Artistry" DVD, There's a CD of 17 songs, many of which have been recorded by Rob before. The video is him playing those 17 songs. I paid $29.95 from Rob's site. I got free shipping because it was one of the first 50 shipped. You can buy it on Ebay already for $26 shipped. The CD is worth $15. The video is kind of neat with Andy Leftwich and the other guy, the piano player but I don't know how many times I'm going to watch the video.
The Infamous Stringdusters This CD, for me, doesn't stand out. In the previous CD by these guys there were songs that stood out as being above and beyond the typical bluegrass song. For me, this sounds like every other bluegrass album. Sorry, but this ones not going to be played a lot. Andy Hall's contribution is a good one but there's 6 guys in the band so everyone's got to be heard. Ivan Rosenberg called it adding "a little dobro sauce". The problem is that I like my dobro sauce slathered on, pouring over the sides of the dish. I realize they can't use Andy more than the others but that doesn't stop me from wanting more of Andy's dobro.
Just my opinion, your mileage may vary. The opinions expressed by the author are solely his and his alone and not those of management or the station.
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