The Mountain Stage web page at the NPR Music site has links to a number of recently re-aired programs that should be of interest to readers of The Bluegrass Blog.

These are encore presentations of earlier shows, but the music is still plenty fresh and powerful all around. The Crooked Still and Rhonda Vincent bits are especially fine.

You can access the audio for these segments online:

• Alecia Nugent
• Rhonda Vincent & The Rage
• Shawn Camp
• Uncle Earl
• The Belleville Outfit
• Sometymes Why
• Crooked Still

When I started learning to play bluegrass music as a teenager in the mid-1970s, the bluegrass mecca was the Washington, DC area. Seldom Scene and The Country Gentlemen were headquartered there, both considered wildly progressive by the traditionalists of that day.

Lexington, KY was also something of a hotbed in the ’70s, with heretical modernists like JD Crowe & The New South and Newgrass Revival emerging there.

These days, the Boston area is drawing talented young string players with a itch to stretch the boundaries of the music, resulting in an active and fecund environment for new music. The success of Crooked Still has surely fueled this movement, as have the twin academic trends of young players in conservatories trying their hand at acoustic string music, and these same schools seeking out students from the bluegrass and traditional music scenes.

I say all that to say this… Broken Blossoms may be the next Boston-based group to emerge from this primordial goo of new music. I’ve been listening to their debut, self-titled EP/CD and there is some beautiful music there, with great promise of more to come.

This gifted young band is fronted by Jenee Halstead on vocals with Andy Cambria on guitar and vocals, David Goldenberg on mandolin, Kimber Ludiker on fiddle, Simon Chrisman on bass and Charlie Rose on banjo. 3 of the 4 tracks on the EP are originals and the arrangements owe a lot to the sound that Crooked Still has pioneered – female vocals out front, with sparse, semi-orchestrated string band accompaniment.

I asked Cambria if the band is bothered by the obvious comparisons to their fellow Bostonians.

 ”No, we don’t mind any Crooked Still comparisons ‚Äì we’ll take all the Crooked Still comparisons we can get! Those guys are great friends of ours, so it’d be nearly impossible for their vibe not to rub off a little.”

Here are a couple of audio samples, with more available on the band’s MySpace page.

Broken Blossoms has been invited to take part in the band competition at DelFest in May, and then at the Podunk Bluegrass Festival in August. Perhaps they won’t be an unknown startup act much longer.

I’ve found several occasions this past few years to offer high praise for Boston-based string band Crooked Still. Originally drawn to them by my interest in their high-profile instrumentalists, Greg Lizst on banjo and (then) cellist, Rushad Eggleston, I quickly discovered that vocalist Aoife O’Donovan and bassist Corey DiMario were every bit their equals and further that, as a unit, they had created a truly new sound, something often promised by overheated publicity, but much more rarely experienced.

Their 2006 release, Shaken By A Low Sound was an immediate critical sensation, with writers in a wide variety of acoustic, folk, bluegrass and alternative publications praising the CD, which a good many mainstream periodicals did as well. The title was a reference to the instrumentation, using the cello and string bass as the foundation of the rhythm section, without a guitar, mandolin or fiddle – though those did pop up from guest artists on a few tracks.

The critical success was mirrored in sales, and soon the band was a major attraction at festivals and venues appealing to music lovers of eclectic tastes throughout North America and Europe.

With last week’s release of their latest CD, Still Crooked, and some extensive summer touring, the band is again turning heads.

To my ear, this album succeeds ever bit as well as the last. The arrangements are both sparse and sonically rich, and the songs they’ve chosen are drawn from a variety of sources – new, old and very old. The new project also introduces two new members, as fiddler Brittany Haas and cellist Tristan Clarridge have stepped into the space left by original member Rushad Eggleston’s exit.

I was able to chat yesterday with O’Donovan from California as she was headed for the airport, and a flight to Canada. She discussed several of the songs on Still Crooked, the band’s new personnel, and how she came to a career in music.

“When Rushad left, we decided that the band should expand in whatever way seemed natural. We had considered a cello or a fiddle, but weren’t determined to go in either direction. Last September we got together with both Brittany and Tristan in my living room – our first time playing with potential new members – and it just seemed to work perfectly.

We had always talked about adding a fiddle – even when Rushad was in the band – and had featured fiddle on a few cuts on previous records.” (more…)

Here is a great YouTube video of Crooked Still and The Infamous Stringdusters jamming at the Strawberry Music Festival earlier this year. It was created and narrated by Dan Ruby of FestivalPreview.com.

Both groups back up Crooked Still vocalist Aoife O’Donovan on Look On And Cry, and then jam out on a spirited version of Old Joe Clark. Ruby also interviews Aoife, with those segments interspersed throughout.

Since this performance was captured before recent personnel changes in both groups, you’ll see Chris Eldridge with the ‘Dusters and Rushad Eggleston with Crooked Still. If you’ve not witnessed Eggleston’s manic cello live, you’ll want to get a good look at him here.