I recently caught fiddler Deanie Richardson with the highly-acclaimed bluegrass band, Sister Sadie, at the Wintergrass Music Festival, and then I proceeded to dig out her solo album released on the Pinecastle label. Deanie hails from from Kingston Springs, Tenn. (near Nashville), and she is an award-winning fiddler who has worked with country and bluegrass artists such as Vince Gill, Patty Loveless, Emmy Lou Harris, Hank Williams Jr., Marty Stewart, Travis Tritt and Holly Dunn.  Deanie Richardson first performed at the Grand Ole Opry at age 13, and in 2016 she became a member of the Grand Ole Opry staff band.  In 1989, she was with The New Coon Creek Girls. In 1991, she had her own band called Second Fiddle that released an album called In the Mood (Webco).

In 2013, Richardson joined The Likely Culprits, and several members of that band are featured on Love Hard, Work Hard, Play Hard including Ashby Frank (mandolin), Ronnie Bowman (lead vocals on “Stoney Mae” a song Deanie co-wrote with Bill Tennyson), Brandon Bostic (guitar, Dobro on “Chickens in the House”), and Austin Ward (bass). We also hear several other guests on this project include vocals by her former Sister Sadie bandmates Dale Ann Bradley and Tina Adair on the country two-stepper, “Tears will be the Chaser for Your Wine”), learned from an old Wanda Jackson record. Dave Racine’s drums and Steve Hinson’s steel color that track. Patty Loveless sings on a haunting arrangement of “Jack of Diamonds,” and Amanda McKenney’s lead vocals are featured on the closing “East Virginia Blues.”

Three tracks feature some banjo, “Soppin’ the Gravy” with Gena Britt (another Sister Sadie bandmate), her self-penned “Chickens in the House” with well-known Nashville session musician Scott Vestal, and also an original, “Meadow Dancing” with Mike Snider playing some clawhammer banjo.

At track eight, Alyth McCormack’s vocalizing on “Murchadh Tobha Churraig Dhuibh” (Murdo Tobha's Black Cap) kicks off a medley of four Celtic tunes that reflect the time in Deanie’s life when she toured with The Chieftains beginning in 2012 and lasting for several years.

A year after releasing this album, it’s no wonder that the eclectic Deanie Richardson was recognized as the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Fiddle Player of the Year. She demonstrates great technique, tone and ability to masterfully fiddle in a variety of styles. There are classic contest fiddle tunes like “Black and White Rag,” “Soppin' the Gravy,”  “Jack of Diamonds,” “Kentucky Waltz,”  “Lost Indian” and “St. Anne’s Reel,” all presented with hot bowing and picking, but the real treasure of this album is to hear the sweet variety of tasteful, nicely-arranged acoustic music with a fantastic fiddler always in the spotlight. (Joe Ross, Roots Music Report)