GARRET MATHEWS, “Folks Are Talking,” no label. 33 tracks.

“Folks Are Talking” isn’t a bluegrass album. And Garret Mathews isn’t a musician.

What it is is a double CD with Mathews, a retired newspaper columnist, reading 28 of the columns and feature stories he wrote for the Bluefield (W. Va.) Daily Telegraph between 1974 and 1979.

And interspersed among the columns and stories are six bluegrass/folk songs, two written by Mathews’ wife, MaryAnne.

Songs include the traditional “Camp In The Wilderness,” “Boil Them Cabbage Down,” “Shady Grove,” “Wayfaring Stranger” and MaryAnne Mathews’ “Route 52 Blues” and “Mountaineers Will Always Be Free.”

Mathews’ stories are mostly about older people who have now been dead for decades.

They include an early UMW organizer, a horse trader, survivors of coal mine explosions, coal camp baseball players, a girl born during the flood of 1977, a cockfighter and a female furrier “who carves muskrats while eating peanut-butter sandwiches.”

Between the music and the stories, the album makes for a great visit to way of life that’s almost come and gone in Appalachia.

Can’t find it in stores? Try folksaretalking.com.

BILL EMERSON & SWEET DIXIE, “The Touch of Time,” Rural Rhythm. 12 tracks.

Bill Emerson hasn’t always been around.

It just seems like it.

Emerson, who turns 74 this month, stands with Earl Scruggs, Don Reno and a handful of others as one of the most influential banjo players in bluegrass.

His 57-year career began with Uncle Bob & the Blue Ridge Partners in 1955.

Two years later, Emerson joined with the late Charlie Waller and others to create The Country Gentlemen, one of the top acts in bluegrass.

In 1959, he began moving around.

First, the Stoneman Family. Then, Bill Harrell, Red Allen, Jimmy Martin and Cliff Waldron’s New Shades of Grass.

It was with Waldron in 1968 that Emerson’s banjo turned Manfred Mann‘s folk-rock song, “Fox on the Run,” into a bluegrass classic.

He returned to the Gentlemen in 1969 for four years and then began a 20-year career in the U.S. Navy, leading the Navy’s bluegrass band Country Current.

In 2007, Waldron formed Sweet Dixie and began yet another successful run in bluegrass.

“The Touch of Time” takes its name from a song by Chris Stifel, the band’s guitar player, that looks at the aging process. “As we get older, we glance over our shoulder and feel the touch of time,” it says.

It’s mostly an uptempo album, even on the sad songs.

“My Baby Thinks He’s A Train,” a No. 1 country hit for Rosanne Cash in 1981, is the first single off the album. Bass player Teri Chism, one of the band’s three lead signers, makes the song her own.

Emerson wrote three of the banjo tunes on the album — “These Ones,” “Electric Avenue” and “Home Sweet Dixie Home,” the latter with Bill Evans, who joins him for a banjo duet on the album.

There are a couple of gospel songs — “The Rope” and “Last Night I Was There”; a couple of hurting songs — “Today I Turned Your Picture To The Wall” and “Love Gone Cold”; a love song – Dolly Parton’s “You’re The Highlight Of My Life”; and a traditional song, “Little Pink.”

Good album by a bluegrass legend who just keeps getting better.

Look for it in stores Jan. 31 or try www.RuralRhythm.com.

Favorite bands returning to ROMP

Three of the most popular bands at last year’s ROMP: Bluegrass Roots & Branches Festival will return this year.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops, a black string band, was the most popular act at the festival, according to a survey of 998 people who attended.

Gabrielle Gray, executive director of the International Bluegrass Music Museum, said the Chocolate Drops will return for the June 28-30 festival, along with The Punch Brothers featuring Chris Thile, which ranked third on the survey, and the Louisville-based 23 String Band, which placed fourth.

ROMP, a fundraiser for the museum, is held at Yellow Creek Park in Thruston.

“We have offers out to several more acts,” Gray said. “But it’s a great lineup already.”

Last year’s festival, headlined by Steve Martin & the Steep Canyon Rangers and Emmylou Harris, drew more than 15,000 fans from at least 42 states, plus Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, England, Japan and The Netherlands.

The festival was easily the largest of the 27 bluegrass festivals Owensboro has had since 1985.

It was 44 percent larger than the previous record of 9,500 total tickets sold for the International Bluegrass Music Association Fan Fest at English Park in 1995.

ROMP books both traditional and progressive bluegrass bands as well as roots music performers who aren’t really bluegrass artists.

New for this year in the roots and branches category are St. Louis-based Pokey LaFarge & the South City Three, who mix early jazz, string ragtime, country,  blues and western swing, and Snap Jackson & the Knock on Wood Players, an acoustic quartet from Stockton, Calif., which performs Americana, bluegrass, soul and old time music.

Other acts on the 2012 lineup include Town Mountain, Monroeville, The Expedition Show, The Farewell Drifters, Katie Penn & NewTown, Don Stanley & Middle Creek, NewFound Road, Higher Ground, Renegade String Band and Grandview Junction.

JANIE FRICKE, “Country Side of Bluegrass,” New Music Deals. 13 tracks.

The surest way to tell if a musical genre is becoming more popular is to watch artists from other genres beginning to move in.

In the past decade, Rickey Skaggs and Rhonda Vincent returned from country music for instant stardom in bluegrass.

Marty Raybon, Joe Diffie, Merle Haggard and Tommy Shaw, guitarist for the rock band Styx, among others have all made bluegrass albums in recent years.

Now, Janie Fricke, the Country Music Association’s female vocalist of the year in 1982 and 1983, is trying her hand at bluegrass.

In her Nashville heyday, Fricke racked up 18 No. 1 country singles.

Now, she’s remaking a dozen of those country hits with a bluegrass beat.

With the exception of drums on some of the songs — and even a bluegrass stalwart like Doyle Lawson is using drums these days — bluegrass fans will fine little to quarrel with.

These are definitely bluegrass version of songs like “You Don’t Know Love,” “She’s Single Again,” “Down To My Last Broken Heart” and “It Ain’t Easy Bein’ Easy.”

There’s even a bonus track of “Ring of Fire.”

Fricke turned 64 in December, but her voice is still as beautiful as it was 30 years ago.

If you liked Fricke’s country songs, there’s no reason you won’t like the bluegrass versions.

And if you’re discovering her for the first time, you’re in for a treat.

Can’t find it in stores?

Try www.janiefricke.com.

It’s scheduled for release on Jan. 24.

Ten Best Albums of 2011

2011 is almost ready for the history books.

Here are my selections for the Ten Best Bluegrass Albums of the year.

10. NEWFOUND ROAD, “Live At The Down Home,” Rounder. 13 tracks.

When NewFound Road left southwestern Ohio on the bluegrass trail a decade ago, it was primarily a bluegrass gospel group.

But it wasn’t long until the quartet was covering a full range of bluegrass material, from sacred to secular, traditional to contemporary.

“Live At The Down Home” was recorded live last December at The Down Home, a Johnson City, Tenn., restaurant/club. Most of the material comes from earlier albums.

The band does a good job of taking songs from other genres and turning them into strong bluegrass songs. And it’s not bad when it comes to original material either.

9. BLUE HIGHWAY, “Sounds of Home,” Rounder. 12 tracks

Sometimes when you read the lists of people named rookie of the year in any field, you find yourself wondering, “Whatever happened to them?”

But when the International Bluegrass Music Association named Blue Highway as its emerging artist of the year in 1995, it knew what it was doing.

The band has consistently released outstanding albums year after year and been one of the best bands on any festival card.

And “Sounds of Home,” the band’s 10th album, is its first with all original material in a decade.

Great stuff.

8. DALE ANN BRADLEY, “Somewhere South of Crazy,” Compass Records. 12 tracks.

There’s a reason the International Bluegrass Music Association selected Dale Ann Bradley as its female vocalist of the year three times — 2007-2009.

She’s simply one of the best singers in country or bluegrass today. And her music today shows a depth and maturity that most country singers these days can only dream about.  

The most powerful track on the album is Sarah Pirkle’s “Come Home Good Boy,” about a mother watching her teenage son go off to war.

7. CUMBERLAND RIVER, “The Life We Live,” Rural Rhythm. 13 tracks.

All 13 songs on the album were written by the band’s members — James Dean, Joey Jones, Dustin Middleton, Andy Buckner and Jamie Stewart.  

They’re good, full-bodied songs from a band that projects a redneck-rock attitude with a solid traditional bluegrass foundation.

The fact that two of the musicians are also miners lends an air of authenticity to the songs.

6. GRASSTOWNE, “Kickin’ Up Dust,” Rural Rhythm. 12 tracks.

Grasstowne became an instant supergroup when it burst on the bluegrass scene in 2007 with “The Road Headin’ Home,” a strong debut album that sent a single — “Dixie Flyer” — to the top of Bluegrass Unlimited’s charts for three consecutive months.

It’s led by Steve Gulley and Alan Bibey, two strong lead singers and songwriters.

Between them they contributed five songs to “Kickin’ Up Dust.”

Highlights include “Blue Rocking Chair,” an uptempo song about an old chair that’s seen a lot of family history; “I Don’t Worry About You Anymore,” a song about a cheating lover; “Our Father,” a great a capella gospel song; and the title cut, which is the album’s first single.

5. DOYLE LAWSON & QUICKSILVER, “Drive Time,” Mountain Home. Seven tracks.

The buzz on the new Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver album, “Drive Time,” came from two directions.

It’s short. Only seven tracks.

And Lawson, whose roots are deep in traditional bluegrass, added drums to the album.

But drums, while still a novelty in traditional bluegrass, aren’t really a distraction here — except possibly for the most traditional of fans.

And “Drive Time” is a strong album.

4. CHARLIE SIZEMORE, “Heartache Looking for a Home,” Rounder. 14 tracks.

There is a growing subgenre in bluegrass and country music today that blends traditional country music with traditional bluegrass in a sound that fans of both can enjoy.

And nobody does it better than Charlie Sizemore.

Sizemore is 50 now, his voice honed to perfection with decades of singing behind him.

Highlights include “Red Wicked Wine,” with Ralph Stanley; “No Lawyers in Heaven,” a comic look at lawyers; “Feelin’ Like El Paso,” about a woman coming home from Hollywood to the cowboy she loves; and “Ashley Judd,” a comic song that finds a man in love with a woman he knows he can’t have.

3. WILDFIRE, “Crash Course in the Blues,” Lonesome Day Records. 12 tracks. 

Wildfire was formed in 2000. when four former members of J.D. Crowe’s New South began working as the house bluegrass band at Dollywood, Dolly Parton’s east Tennessee theme park.

After two years there, they hit the bluegrass circuit, playing festivals and concert halls across the country.

 ”Crash Course in the Blues” is a strong album with good songs, good harmony and good picking.

The title track tells the story of a West Virginia boy who thought Los Angeles looked like heaven until a California angel broke his heart; “21 Years” is about a man who goes to prison for a crime his girlfriend committed, only to find that she’s quickly forgotten him; and “Lies That You Told,” a song about a woman who broke her wedding vows with her husband’s best friend — and now she’s dead

2. LARRY SPARKS, “Almost Home,” Rounder. 12 tracks.

In 1963, the year he turned 16, Larry Sparks hit the road with the Stanley Brothers, playing lead guitar.

As Carter Stanley’s health deteriorated, Sparks’ role in the band increased. And when Carter died in December 1966, Ralph Stanley hired Sparks as lead singer for his new band, Ralph Stanley & His Clinch Mountain Boys.

Tough shoes to fill, but Sparks filled them well. Today, he’s one of the best singers in traditional bluegrass.

“Almost Home” is a collection of songs with themes that Sparks’ fans have come to expect — a lot of lonesome and a lot of rambling.

And it’s packed with nostalgia for home and simpler times.

And drum…I mean, banjo… roll, please. 

1. JUNIOR SISK & RAMBLERS CHOICE, “The Heart of a Song,” Rebel. 13 tracks.

If they ever do a bluegrass version of George Jones’ “Who’s Gonna Fill Their Shoes,” one of the answers is Harry Sisk Jr. — Junior Sisk to his friends and fans.

Bluegrass musicians don’t come more hard-core traditional than Sisk.

The first song on the new album by Sisk and his band, Ramblers Choice, “A Far Cry From Lester & Earl,” laments the fact that bluegrass music today doesn’t sound the way it used to.

If you feel that way, just hang on. There’s a dozen more songs coming and you won’t have ask if they’re bluegrass. Well, a couple are more traditional country than bluegrass, but who’s counting.

VARIOUS ARTISTS, “Live At Bean Blossom,” Rural Rhythm. 12 tracks.

A lot of musical tributes have been paid to Bill Monroe during the centennial of his birth on Sept. 13, 1911.

Rural Rhythm decided to honor “the father of bluegrass music” with a live recording from Bean Blossom, Ind., the music park and campgrounds Monroe bought in 1951.

He created his own bluegrass festival there in 1967 and continued to perform there annually until his death in 1996.

Twelve bands are featured on the tribute album, either performing songs written by Monroe or songs closely associated with him.

Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out perform a rousing version of “Uncle Pen,” Monroe’s musical tribute to his uncle and mentor, James Pendleton Vandiver.

Lou Reid & Carolina take on “Can’t You Hear Me Calling,” Monroe’s song about his separation from and longing for his longtime companion Bessie Lee Mauldin.

Brand New Strings performs Monroe’s dramatic instrumental, “Southern Flavor,” the title cut of the album that won him the first bluegrass Grammy.

Grasstowne does an a capella version of the gospel classic, “Were You There.”

Audie Blaylock & Redline take on the blazing “Six Feet Under The Ground.”

Bobby Osborne & The Rocky Top X-Press do Monroe’s classic, “Blue Moon of Kentucky.”

Blue Moon Rising does an excellent cover of Monroe’s “Body & Soul.”

Also featured are the Lonesome River Band’s version of “Footprints in the Snow”; the Bartley Brothers’ “Big Mon”; Carolina Road’s “This World Is Not My Home”; Ronnie Reno & The Reno Tradition’s “Bluegrass Breakdown”; and Wasson and McCall’s “Molly and Tennbrooks.”

A strong Monroe tribute album.

Can’t find it in stores? Try www.RuralRhythm.com.

JOHN McCUTCHEON, “This Land: Woody Gurthrie’s America,” Appalsongs. 15 tracks.

This is a folk album, not bluegrass. And that’s a shame because a bluegrass tribute to the songs of Woody Guthrie is long overdue.

Woodrow Wilson Guthrie was born in Okemah, Okla., just 10 months after Bill Monroe was born in Rosine, Ky. And both became giants in their musical fields.

Monroe’s music leaned more toward the instrumentation; Gurthrie’s to the lyrics.

A blending of the two would make for some great music.

John McCutcheon, a Guthrie disciple, brings 14 of Guthrie’s songs to life here along with “Hobo’s Lullaby,” a song Guthrie supposedly said was his favorite.

It’s been nearly 60 years since Guthrie, who died in 1967 at age 55, wrote his last song. But his lyrics still sound familiar in the aftermath of the Great Recession.

His most famous song, “This Land Is Your Land,” really says that America belongs to the people, not the rich or the corporations. Here it features an all-star cast including Tom Paxton and Willie Nelson.

“Deportees,” a song about migrant workers being shipped back to Mexico when the crops have been harvested, fits well with today’s immigration debates.

And plenty of people today can relate to “I Ain’t Got No Home.”

“Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done” says that creating a peaceful world would be the biggest thing that we could do. And we haven’t found a way to do that yet.

“Ludlow Massacre” and “1913 Massacre” detail early union struggles. Guthrie’s lyrics are anything but subtle. He believed in calling a “gun thug” a gun thug.

“Pretty Boy Floyd” turns bank robber Charles Arthur Floyd into a 1930s Robin Hood. But the song really says that it was the banks who were the robbers: “Some will rob you with a six-gun/And some with a fountain pen,” Guthrie sang and added, “You won’t never see an outlaw/Drive a family from their home.”

Tim O’Brien plays mandolin on “Ludlow Massacre” and “This Morning I Was Born Again.” Stuart Duncan adds his fiddle to “1913 Massacre” and “Deportees.”

Great album. Just wish it was bluegrass.

Can’t find it in stores? Try www.FolkMusic.com.

VARIOUS ARTISTS, “A Skaggs Family Celebration: Volume Two,” Skaggs Family Records. CD 10 tracks, DVD 26 tracks.

“A Skaggs Family Christmas” is a two-fer — a Christmas CD and a DVD for one price.

It comes six years after 2005′s “Volume One.”

But it’s worth the wait.

The CD makes good background music during the holidays as well as some good sing-along time in the car. The two-hour DVD makes for a pleasant evening of TV watching around the Christmas tree.

It’s not exactly a bluegrass package. There’s bluegrass on it, but you’ll also hear some country, western swing and even a little classical music with The Nashville Strings.

The CD features 10 tracks — a mix of studio and live recordings — of Christmas songs.

The DVD was shot in Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium last year as the final stop on the the Skaggs Family’s eighth annual Christmas tour.

It features Ricky Skaggs, The Whites (his wife, Sharon, father-in-law, Buck, and sister-in-law, Cheryl), the Skaggs adult children (Molly and Luke) and niece (Rachel Leftwich), Skaggs’ band, Kentucky Thunder, and The Nashville Strings.

The songs include a mixture of secular and sacred carols.

It’s a good package for Skaggs’ fans as well as fans of country Christmases.

Can’t find it in stores?

Try www.SkaggsFamilyRecords.com.

PERT NEAR SANDSTONE, “Paradise Hop,” Pert Near Music. 14 tracks

Minneapolis-based Pert Near Sandstone is an acoustic string band.

It’s not bluegrass, but it’s pert near.

The sound is close to old-time stringband with rock energy.

There’s a lot of swing and bounce as well.

The vocals are raw — and real — not polished.

And the lyrics are strong.

The band wrote 12 of the 14 tracks on “Paradise Hop,” its fifth album in six years.

The exceptions are “Ruben’s Train” and “All Night Long.”

“Solid Gone” is about a woman leaving — “Why a woman goes out at night/the devil knows what for.”

On “Crossroads,” they sing, “Don’t want dime-store salvation/Profitability don’t mean a thing.”

“Sad When That Great Bridge Went Down” is about the Aug. 1, 2007, collapse of the I-35W bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis  during rush hour.

The band’s name comes from its roots. Its members grew up in the Brooklyn Park area of Minneapolis, “pert near” the sandstone of the Mississippi River.

Band members are Nate Sipe on mandolin and fiddle; Kevin Kniebel on banjo; J Lenz on acoustic guitar; Adam Kiesling on upright bass; and Andy Lambert on clogs and washboard.

Good album by a band on the rise.

Can’t find it in stores? Try www.pertnearsandstone.com/

RUSSELL MOORE & IIIRD TYME OUT, “Prime Tyme,” Rural Rhythm. 14 tracks

“Prime Tyme” is IIIrd Tyme Out’s 16th album in 20 years. It was released at the end of October and is already listed in Billboard’s Top 10 bluegrass albums.

The first single, “If Your Heart Should Ever Roll This Way Again,” is No. 8 on this month’s Bluegrass Unlimited singles chart.

That’s about what you’d expect from one of the premier bands in bluegrass today.

Russell Moore, the lead singer who added his name to the band’s a couple of years ago, is a three-time International Bluegrass Music Association male vocalist of the year. And the band was IBMA vocal group of the year for seven straight years.

The song selection is broad enough to cover bluegrass’ traditional base in the Southeast (“Pretty Little Girl From Galax”) and expand into areas not usually mentioned in bluegrass lyrics — Montana (“Goodbye Old Missoula”) and Nebraska (“What’s This World Coming To”), a song about struggling farmers and the economy.

“Hooverville” tells a story from the Great Depression about a World War I veteran marching on Washington, trying to get his promised bonus.

There are songs of nostalgia (“Old Kentucky Farmer”), songs of loneliness (“Whippoorwill” and “Little Magnolia”) and songs of hard times (“Big Muddy”).

The Delmore Brothers’ “Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar” finds a man dying and wishing he could take his guitar with him.

“Moon Magic” is a bouncy tune about a couple sitting in the moonlight. And “Dusty” finds a man remembering that the woman he loves could have had more successful men, but she chose him.

Good album by a good band.

Can’t find it in stores? Try www.IIIrdTymeOut.com