“The Bluegrass Situation” on Curtis McPeake and “Leather Britches” (McPeake & May, “The Good Things”)
…The fact that [Curtis] McPeake has been named a recipient of one of 2018’s Distinguished Achievement Awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association should come as no surprise. But, McPeake will not be accepting the award from retirement: Earlier this year [McPeake] and his collaborator, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Andy May, released a full-length album, The Good Things (Outweigh the Bad). On its final track, “Leather Britches,” you can hear that same timelessness in McPeake’s duet with Nashville stalwart fiddler Aubrey Haynie. They kick the tune with fiddle and banjo only, showcasing that classic pre-bluegrass format, Haynie fiddling fantastically far and wide while McPeake holds it all together with his three-finger roll, seventy years in the making. ⇨ Read more