Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn - Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn present their eponymous debut album as a duo, after many years of prominence as banjo players and composers in their own eclectic avenues.  Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn is a front porch banjo and vocal album of new music, Appalachian murder ballads, gospel, chamber and blues; the culmination of a yearlong tour as a duo in 2013, following the birth of their son, Juno. Béla, an icon and innovator of jazz, classical and world, with more multi-category GRAMMY wins than any other artist (15 total), and Abigail, a formidable talent with triumphs in songwriting, theater, performance, and even Chinese diplomacy by way of banjo, turn out to be quite a fortuitous pairing with a deep, distinct and satisfying outcome. The culmination is an album like no other. The record reveals their astounding chemistry as collaborators, as the two seamlessly stitch together singular banjo sounds (through an assortment of seven banjos spanning the recording) in service to the stories that their songs tell, with no studio gimmickry needed. According to Béla, “finding a way to make every song have its own unique stamp, yet the whole project having a big cohesive sound – with only two people,” was at the core of their joint vision. Demonstrating seemingly unlimited rhythmic, tonal and melodic capabilities, Fleck and Washburn confirm the banjo’s versatility as the perfect backdrop to the rich lyrical component that Fleck and Washburn offer, “Sometimes when you add other instruments, you take away from the banjo’s being able to show all its colors, which are actually quite beautiful.” Thanks to this album, the musicians’ palette has never been more vivid or pure.

The Del McCoury Band - “Del epitomizes the bluegrass musician from the previous era, and also this one,” says acclaimed resonator guitarist Jerry Douglas, a member of Alison Krauss + Union Station and producer of several of McCoury’s 90s albums. “You can finally make a living playing bluegrass, and a large part of it is because of Del McCoury; he became like the new Bill Monroe. For him to have come along this far is testament to his will to stick it out-but at the same time, when he saw that he was going to be able to do it, he started really, really enjoying it, and that’s when he started making the best music of his career.” That description certainly applies to Celebrating 50 Years of Del McCoury, a stunning collection that encapsulates a 50 year legacy of brilliant, heartfelt music with more than 30 new recordings of songs from his first 40 years of performing and an additional dozen and a half of the Del McCoury Band’s most essential tracks from the last decade. From classics that he first sang back in the late 1950s to “Nothin’ Special” and “Never Grow Up Boy” from the Grammy-winning, The Company We Keep, Celebrating 50 Years of Del McCoury is a sweeping view of Del’s musical journey that confounds the conventional wisdom that says remakes are necessarily inferior to first recordings-and the point is driven by home with By Request, a fourteen track “executive summary” of the set that includes a dozen new versions of McCoury classics chosen because they were the songs that the band hears the crowd yelling for the most night after night. For though the re-recorded songs have been staples of the McCoury repertoire for years, Del’s insistence on devoting much of each show to taking requests from his extensive catalog has kept them fresh-and the result is a perfect combination of old and new. Perhaps surprisingly, but fittingly for a still lively legend, the new recordings were done in just a few days. “We went through the songs pretty quickly,” says Ronnie. “Take after take, it was just great. Dad sounds better than ever on here. Part of it is because he’s been doing these songs forever, and part of it is because he always had some kind of allergy going when we went in to record, and this time he didn’t. We had a list of songs that the three of us made, with fifteen or twenty songs from each of the decades and the albums that he made before he started owning his own recordings, and he would just pick some things to record on each session-and then we just went in and knocked them out. So they all have a real live feel to them.”​​

Malcolm Holcombe - Acclaimed singer-songwriter Malcolm Holcombe, whose “heartfelt baritone” (NPR) delivers “haunted country, acoustic blues and rugged folk” (Rolling Stone), will release his 14th studio album, Another Black Hole (Gypsy Eyes Music), February 12, 2016. Produced by Grammy-winning producer and engineer Ray Kennedy and Brian Brinkerhoff, Another Black Hole features Holcombe’s rasping vocals and bright, percussive guitar accentuating his insightful lyrics. “It is Malcolm’s perception of the world that make his songs hit you like a gunpowder blast. His gruff and tough delivery is a primordial power full of grit, spit and anthropomorphic expression,” says Kennedy. Recorded at Room & Board Studios in Nashville, TN, and the 10-song set features longtime musical compatriots including Jared Tyler (dobro, baritone guitar, banjo, mandolin and harmony vocals), Dave Roe (upright and electric bass), Ken Coomer (drums and percussion), Tony Joe White (electric guitar), Future Man (percussion) and Drea Merritt (vocal harmony). Born and raised in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina, Holcombe is highly regarded and recognized by contemporaries in Americana music including Emmylou Harris, Wilco, Steve Earle. An “emotionally captivating” (Isthmus), performer, Holcombe has shared the stage with Merle Haggard, Richard Thompson, John Hammond, Leon Russell, Wilco and Shelby Lynne.

Black Mountain Bluegrass Boys - The Black Mountain Bluegrass Boys are among West Virginia’s longest-running bluegrass bands. The group first organized in 1968 around the foursome of Richard Hefner (banjo/tenor vocal), his brother Bill Hefner (guitar/mandolin/baritone vocal), their late uncle Glenn “Dude” Irvine (mandolin) and the late Harley Carpenter (guitar/lead vocal). They took their name from Black Mountain in their native Pocahontas County. For five years the group worked a weekly radio show on WVAR, in Richwood. They also made regular appearances at local events and regional bluegrass festivals. They recorded their first album in January 1971, “Pure Old Bluegrass”, and in the mid-1970s they followed up with a pair of albums: “Million Lonely Days” and “Talk of the County.” More recent albums include “Black Mountain Bluegrass Boys 1968-1973,” “Live at Midnight,” “Live at The Opera House,” and “Live at Greenbrier Valley Theatre.” As with many bluegrass bands, the Black Mountain Bluegrass Boys have had changes in personnel over the years. Richard Hefner remains as the lone original member. Hefner’s traditional bluegrass banjo playing and tenor vocals have contributed both continuity and much of the “high lonesome” sound for which the band has become so well-known. He has displayed his banjo skills many times as a victor in contests and at the Vandalia Festival. Chris Nickell from Monroe County, contributes driving lead and rhythm guitar work as well as lead vocals. Rick Carpenter—son of founding member Harley Carpenter—picks a fine mandolin and sings lead and baritone vocals. Bass player Mike Smith, of Culloden, has worked with such notables as Larry Sparks, Dave Evans, and the Goins Brothers.​​