In 2008, I was at the Appalachian String Band Festival in Clifftop, West Virginia, when 14-year-old Tatiana Hargreaves won first place in fiddle, the youngest person ever to do so. I did not see the final because the skies opened in a very heavy downpour just before it began. But I did go to her CD release party and met her dad. I met Tatiana years later when we were both participating in the California Bluegrass Association’s contingent, Bluegrass Pride, in the parade in San Francisco. I also met Allison de Groot at a CBA event, the annual Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival, where she was playing banjo with Molsky’s Mountain Drifters. Later, I saw the duo perform at a small club in Berkeley, the Back Room.

This is their second release, and it has nine tracks. “The Banks of the Miramichi,” sung by Allison and Tati in tight harmony, was written by Patrick Hurley, a lumber fisherman in New Brunswick, Canada who died in 1912. Allison heard it sung by the late Marie Hare on a Smithsonian release. “Wellington” is an original instrumental by Allison. The hard-driving “Nancy Blevins” is an old fiddle tune played by Albert Hash which was apparently written by Nancy Blevins, who was born in 1852. “Each Season Changes You” was written by Roy Acuff, and Tati learned it from a Rose Maddox recording. The title cut, another original this time by Tati, is medleyed with John Salyer’s “Brushy Fork of John’s Creek.” “Hurricane Clarice” was inspired by the book, “The Chandelier” by Clarice Lispector. This rendition of “Brushy Fork” is the epitome of powerful rhythm. “I Would Not Live Always” is based on a melody written by ML Swan and played by Tennessee fiddler Clarence Ferrell and a poem by William Augustus Muhlenberg. Tati’s deep bass fiddle drones set a somber mood which is augmented by the drumlike sounds of Allison’s banjo. Tati and Allison combined two similar tunes fiddled by Mississippi fiddler Butch Cage, “Dead and Gone” and “Hen Cackled,” to make their own tune. “Ostrich with Pearls” includes short statements by the pair’s grandmothers with an instrumental by Tati. “The Road Walked by Fools” was written by autoharpist Kilby Snow about a musician’s life on the road.

Allison and Tati combine tremendous virtuosity with emotional sensitivity to produce songs and tunes of very high caliber. This recording reveals new subtleties with each listening.

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