Enoch Kent loves playing music live -- so much so, that he took a nearly four decade break from recording to do that. Then, turning 70, the Glasgow native and longtime Canada resident decided it was time to take care of that and put out five albums in as many years. One More Round, his most recent and first on the Borealis label, maintains his trademark mix of vintage humor, originals that sound like traditional folk songs, and traditional songs that sound like he learned them at the source. History, humor, love, courting, and murder all come into play across the sixteen tracks in this recording. A song comparing the games of children today with their activities when Enoch was a child stands along with a skipping song that he might’ve played to, while a light hearted song about a couple deciding whether to make love or to make dinner stands next to a classic murder ballad. Pat Simmonds, who produced the project, sits in on several instruments, including guitar and bouzouki, while Kelly Hood adds pipes and whistles. With vocals delivered in Kent’s warm as a dram of whiskey tenor, it’s a step back in through the years that remains contemporary at the same time.

Dale Ann Bradley knows how to balance tradition with contemporary song, too. In her case the tradition is bluegrass -- she’s a preacher’s daughter from the hills of Eastern Kentucky who has become one to the top stars of modern bluegrass. Her most recent release, Don’t Turn Your Back, shows why this is so, and also why she’s been knocking on the door of country music recognition too. The dozen tracks find her to be an interpreter who puts her own stamp on an AP Carter gospel song and Tom Petty’s Don’t Back Down equally well. There’s a Fleetwood Mac song too, as well as several by ace bluegrass and country writer Louisa Branscomb, and a couple Bradley wrote or co-wrote herself. Bradley carries all this off with a sureness and natural respect both for the songs and her own style that suggest why she’s won a number of top awards and why Grammy winner Alison Krauss calls Bradley one of her favorite singers. Bradley, whose voice might be said to fall somewhere between Krauss and Loretta Lynn,  is also a fine guitarist, as she shows here, playing on all the tracks. Alison Brown, who produced the disc, sits in on banjo for several songs, as does top fiddle player Stuart Duncan. Steve Gulley adds harmony on most of the tracks, while rising bluegrass stars Darrin Vincent and Jamie Dailey join in for a gospel cut, and Grammy nominee Claire Lynch sits in for a song about parent and child. If you enjoy bluegrass, or country music, or just plain good singing, give this one a listen.

For more information, please see:

http://www.daleann.com/

http://www.enochkent.ca

Kerry Dexter is the Music Editor for Wandering Educators.
Kerry's credits include VH1, CMT, the folk music magazine Dirty Linen, Strings, and The Encyclopedia of Ireland and the Americas. She also writes about the arts and creative practice at http://www.musicroad.blogspot.com Music Road. You may reach her at music at wanderingeducators dot com.