REVIEWS

Fortune's Name

Art Edelstein for the Times-Argus Tammie Awards:
""Best Vocalist: We have some really fine singers to choose from. One who has emerged in the past couple of years is Colby Crehan, the female vocalist with the Bluegrass Gospel Project and lead singer in the bluegrass band PossumHaw. Crehan wins for her work with PossumHaw and the album "Fortune's Name." Hers is the perfect bluegrass voice. She has just enough "southern" in her inflection to give that musical style authenticity while also rendering the songs with the neccessary drive this music demands. Women singers don't shine much in the bluegrass genre thus Crehan's stands out. Should she choose to, her voice is so good it could lead a country band as well."

"Best Song: Again we look to Crehan and the song "Road to Mora" on PossumHaw's "Fortune's Name" album for Best Song of 2010. I had to check the songwriting credits because this song is so well crafted that I thought it must come from the Nashville or Austin, Texas, song factories.
Here is a song with a poignant story about life and love in the southwest, and a melody that other songwriters would give their eyeteeth to have created. In terms of style, think "Pancho and Lefty" by the late Townes van Zant. This song needs to be entered in Merlefest. It could win top honors."

Robert Resnik for Seven Days:
"PossumHaw delivers sterling arragements that are polished to a shine...Colby Crehan shines like a diamond...she digs in or soars at just the right moments."
Read the full review here.

Art Edelstein for the Times-Argus:
"Crehan is, in this writer's estimation, a shooting star in the world of bluegrass music...PossumHaw, with Colby Crehan starring, has now entered the top level of Green Mountain bluegrass bands."
Read the full review here.

Brent Hallenbeck for the Burlington Free Press:
"Slice-of-heaven vocals"
Read the full review here.

Madtom

Robert Resnik for Seven Days:
"One of the CD’s outstanding features is that it demonstrates how well the band knows their genres: When a song is meant to sound high and lonesome or bluegrass bop, it delivers...many of the PossumHaw originals...feature compelling stories strengthened by riveting musical arrangements."
Read the full review here.

The Times-Argus says,
"The band's lead singer Colby Crehan has one of the better voices in bluegrass/old-time music circles. ...In all, this gives her singing the authenticity so often missing from traditional American music wannabees."
Read the full review here

The Rutland Herald:
"While I may be deemed blasphemous by some, I'm gonna go on record and say that the vocals of Colby Crehan rival the likes of Rani Arbo and Patti Casey. And the band is right there behind her musically, with some great vocal harmonies to boot. ...I'd recommend this disc to anyone who enjoys...that bluegrass/gospel/"newgrass" sound.
Read the full review here

Michael Devlin, Music Matters, Issue 25:
"Colby’s voice is front-porch real and otherworldly sweet, singing her mountain styled songs without a twang. The voices of the men in the band blend well with each other and Colby, giving PossumHaw depth and variety to the sonic palette. Sweet New England bluegrass!"
Read the full review here

The Burlington Free Press:
"This is definitely a case of a band that sounds like its name; the music of Burlington foursome PossumHaw is a slice of Appalachia on the shores of Lake Champlain. “Madtom” rides on the strength of Colby Crehan’s charming but assertive vocals and the keen harmonizing and string playing of Ryan Crehan (banjo), Charley Eiseman (guitar) and Matt Kolan (mandolin)."

The Vermont Music Shop says,
"The lyrics tell stories of birth, love, and death. Folk, country, and bluegrass combine into a slice of classic Americana."

Split-rail

Seven Days:
"Split-rail is an immensely enjoyable debut."
Read the full review here.

An anonymous fan living in New York City wrote,
"After hearing all these slicked up bluegrass bands with these dazzling soloists playing contrived breaks and intricately figured arrangements it just gets boring. The spontaneity and flow of your band was a breath of fresh air. It sounds like four people sitting in a room and playing music purely for the love of playing and the beauty of the melody. I felt like a fly on the wall, privileged to hear it."