Customer Reviews

Mountain Treasures

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This is a pleasant duet album featuring two consummate traditional musicians. George Shuffler plays guitar and bass, while Laura Boosinger picks banjo using a clawhammer style. The songs are familiar favorites, many follow standard arrangements, but George and Laura also put their own signatures on some of these treasures by arranging "Little Annie" and "Little Georgia Rose" as instrumentals or serving up Clayton McMichen's obscure version of "In the Pines" with their rendition of "Grave in the Pines."

North Carolinian George Shuffler is best known as the man who made the guitar solo an integral part of the "Stanley Sound" when he was with The Stanley Brothers in the fifties and early sixties. After Carter's death in 1966, he worked with Ralph for a short time, then joined Don Reno and Bill Harrell until 1970 when he formed the Shuffler Family Band with his brothers and children, playing traditional southern gospel music. In 1996, Shuffler received IBMA's Distinguished Achievement Award. In 1999, he came out of retirement to work with Ralph Stanley's Clinch Mountain Boys, playing bass (replacing Jack Cooke for several months, when Jack had health problems).

For nearly 20 years, Laura Boosinger has entertained and taught at concerts, workshops and schools throughout the east. As an indication of her avid interest and devotion to traditional music, Laura earned a degree in traditional music and old-time banjo from Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, NC. For thirteen years, Laura performed with the Luke Smathers String Band.

Shuffler and Boosinger have a nice sound together, their vocal and guitar/banjo/bass blend well-suited to traditional mountain music. This album conjures pleasant images of an evening of front porch picking at a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains. (Joe Ross, staff writer, Bluegrass Now)

I'm learning to play the guitar and sing traditional Blue Grass music...this CD is great!