Posts by Dave Goodwich

Bruce Hornsby didn’t want to record this album. After a five-year run of musically intrepid and critically acclaimed studio LPs – Absolute Zero, Non-Secure Connection, ‘Flicted, Deep Sea Vents – as well as entire albums’ worth of still-unreleased material, the virtuoso pianist suddenly found himself “creatively fried.” Despite his best, well-intentioned efforts to step away from songwriting […]

With two decades under their collective belts, The Infamous Stringdusters are suddenly finding themselves with plenty of reasons to celebrate. Twenty of them, to be exact. 20/20, the Nashville-based quintet’s tenth full-length LP, and third to be released on their own record label, Americana Vibes, perfectly encapsulates what the Dusters do best. Clean harmonies, tight […]

For the second year in a row, Billy Strings transformed Baltimore’s CFG Bank Arena into his own personal haunted house. The bluegrass phenom brought his guest-laden multi-day extravaganza to Charm City these past Friday and Saturday evenings, delivering a quartet of marathon sets and a litany of musical surprises.  While we’re primarily going to focus on […]

Twenty-five years ago this Halloween, three Kalamazoo, Michigan-area college students got together for an impromptu house party-gig that would forever change the course of progressive bluegrass.  Inspired by a handful of informal performances at some bluegrass open mic nights hosted by a Kalamazoo-area rustic Greek bar & restaurant, The Blue Dolphin, Michael Arlen Bont (banjo), […]

For Sierra Hull, an innocuous 2023 phone call with the creative geniuses at Gibson ultimately led to the culmination of a dream decades in the making.  Immediately upon receiving her first Gibson mandolin at the age of twelve, Hull became enamored with the craftsmanship and pristine sound quality that sets Gibson instruments apart. In 2009, […]

In June 2024, Goose performed what was, at the time, their biggest headlining show to date in front of approximately 14,000 attendees at the Mann Center in Philadelphia. However, considering the group’s (continuing) skyrocketing popularity, it’s no surprise that the band’s tour itinerary now features regular stops at equally massive, if not bigger, sheds throughout the country.  […]

Jamband musicians are like theater performers. You had to be there. That’s the magic. But after the 2023 The Very Moon: A Steampunk Musical shows in Philadelphia, Aron Magner wasn’t ready to move on. “We created this world and wrote all these new songs that I wanted to memorialize. I wasn’t ready to just move […]

Walking into the Hampton Coliseum is akin to entering a Time Machine. The dated infrastructure and omnipresent smell of stale popcorn that permeates the air harkens back to the days of family outings to see Disney On Ice or Monster Jam.  Despite the outmoded environs, or perhaps owing to them, the Hampton Coliseum, affectionately known […]

For Daniel Donato, the term “Cosmic Country” accounts for much more than just his quartet’s moniker. It also represents a musical and personal ethos. The journey and the destination. As the affable guitarist explained to Glide in a 2023 interview, “Cosmic Country is kind of like this tale as old as time. It’s the duality of […]

Phish delivered a performance that will easily be remembered on Tuesday, July 15 as the group made their highly anticipated return to Philadelphia’s iconic Mann Center (TD Pavilion at The Mann).  The pre-show buzz permeating throughout the capacity crowd was palpable, as were the sweltering heat & humidity, reaching a fever pitch as the quartet […]

Ten years after the final notes rang out over the lush greenery of Berry Hill Farm in Summit Point, West Virginia, the All Good Music Festival finally made its triumphant return.  With humble beginnings that trace back to 1997, when All Good was a relatively intimate affair hosted at the now-defunct Wilmer’s Park in Brandywine, […]

Before each Memorial Day weekend in the Appalachian foothills of western Maryland, a unique phenomenon occurs. Tens of thousands of like-minded bluegrass-obsessed musical adventure seekers migrate to the welcoming confines of the Allegany County Fairgrounds in Cumberland, Maryland, for a four-day experience that stands as the epitome of what a music festival should be: DelFest.  […]

By all accounts, 2025 is shaping up to be the Year Of The Goose.  That’s not to say that the Connecticut-based jam band’s arrow hasn’t already been pointing squarely up and to the right for quite some time now. After all, the group has been experiencing an unprecedented rise through the jam band ranks, particularly […]

Leftover Salmon are no strangers to a good time. After all, the Colorado-based progressive bluegrass trailblazers have been entertaining audiences nationwide for over thirty-five years, continually infusing a genuine festival-like atmosphere into their seemingly endless run of convivial live engagements.   Though the sextet of elder-statesmen—consisting of Vince Herman (guitar), Drew Emmitt (guitar, mandolin), Greg Garrison (bass), Andy Thorn (banjo), Alwyn Robinson (drums), and Jay Starling (keys, dobro)—have […]

To say that things have changed for jam band darlings Goose since the 2022 release of their previous studio album, Dripfield, would be a stark understatement.  A startling rise in the Connecticut-based ensemble’s popularity has seen the quartet – now consisting of Rick Mitarotonda (guitar), Peter Anspach (keys/guitar), Trevor Weekz (bass) and Cotter Ellis (drums) […]

As hordes of fans filtered through the ornate lobby of Washington D.C’s historic Warner Theatre on April 4th, the sense of anticipation in the air was palpable. After all, it’s not every day that they get to experience Trey Anastasio, the beloved Phish frontman usually relegated to performing in cavernous arenas and amphitheaters at an […]

When Russ Lawton (drums), Ray Paczkowski (keys), and Scott Metzger (guitar)—collectively known as LaMP—piled into Ben Collette’s Tank Recording Studio in Burlington, VT, last summer, it was obvious they were going in with a genuine groupthink mindset.  “If there is a theme to this record, it might be the three of us”, Paczkowski states in the liner notes to the […]

With over fifty years under their collective belts, no one could blame bluegrass mainstays The Seldom Scene for resting on their laurels and taking it easy. After all, the Bethesda, Maryland, area quintet has claimed authorship to an iconic discography consisting of over two dozen releases and has been an influential presence throughout the country’s […]

Imagine sitting around a living room with a handful of your closest friends. At the same time, one of the most influential songwriters of this generation regales you with a seemingly endless supply of breathtaking performances and engrossing stories for an entire evening. This idyllic scenario played out Saturday evening at the historic Warner Theater […]

Sensational. Hair-raising. Breathtaking. Brilliant.  Since bursting onto the scene in 2017, countless writers, bloggers, critics, etc. – yours truly included – have exhausted nearly every superlative available to try to describe the monumental impact Billy Strings had on live music. And for good reason. After all, Strings’ meteoric rise through the musical ranks is, quite simply, unprecedented […]