★★★★★
All of you mainstream musical modernists out there will be missing one major down-home treat if you stear clear of this latest effort by Hot Rize, a brilliant bluegrass unit based in Boulder, Colorado. As you might expect, there's chops aplenty: mandolinist-fiddler Tim O'Brien, bassist Nick Forster, banjoist Pete Wernick and guitarist Charles Sawtelle are all unquestionably virtuosos...
- www.rollingstone.com
2009-06-08
★★★★★
All of you mainstream musical modernists out there will be missing one major down-home treat if you stear clear of this latest effort by Hot Rize, a brilliant bluegrass unit based in Boulder, Colorado. As you might expect, there's chops aplenty: mandolinist-fiddler Tim O'Brien, bassist Nick Forster, banjoist Pete Wernick and guitarist Charles Sawtelle are all unquestionably virtuosos...
- www.rollingstone.com
2009-03-22
★★★★★
Traditional Ties is the first album Hot Rize recorded for Sugar Hill, and it is arguably their best effort ever, capturing their skill for both traditional material, originals (Tim O'Brien's "Walk the Way the Wind Blows," which became a Top 10 hit for Kathy Mattea), and progressive bluegrass (Keith Whitley's "You Don't Have to Move the Mountain").
- music.aol.com
2008-08-28
★★★★★
No sophomore highjinks on this release. Solid album, highly recommended.
- music.aol.com
2008-08-28
★★★★★
The combo of vocalist/fiddler/mandolinist Tim O' Brien and banjo player Pete Wernick was never stronger than on Hot Rize's 1987 release Untold Stories. Never as "progressive" as some of their peers (New Grass Revival, the Seldom Scene, Country Gazette), Hot Rize were able to hold on to the trappings of traditional roots music without ever letting it sound stale or too "old-timey...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-28
★★★★★
Take It Home, Hot Rize's final album, demonstrates that the group continued to improve the longer they stayed together. The group's instrumental interplay is astonishing and their harmonies are quite beautiful -- their performances are effortlessly graceful, making it a farewell album to treasure.
- music.aol.com
2008-08-28