Flatpicking Guitar Records has two new CD releases which you may want to consider when contemplating gifts for your favorite flatpicker – or flatpicking fan.

Plaidgrass is a band whose foundation concept is a mixture of Celtic music instrumentation with a bluegrass sensibility. The group is fronted by the husband/wife team of fiddler Gretchen Priest and guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Tim May. They are joined by Tom Saffell on 8-string banjo, Al Goll on resonator guitar, Brian Christianson on mandolin and fiddle, and Dan Miller on bass.

You can find audio samples on the band’s MySpace page, and several video clips on YouTube.

Also new from FGR is Robert Bowlin’s Six String Soliloquy, a set of solo acoustic guitar pieces primarily written by the artist.

Bluegrass historians remember Bowlin as a fiddler, having the distinction of being the last to work as a member of Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys. Early reaction to his new CD suggests that his lasting mark will come instead as a flatpicker, with the wide range of emotions and his virtuosity as a guitarist being widely heralded.

You can see the full track listing on the Flatpicking Guitar site, and hear several audio samples on Robert’s MySpace page.