Chet Williamson is a freelance writer who has published nearly 20 books, most of them in the fields of suspense and horror. Among his novels are Ash Wednesday, Soulstorm, Lowland Rider, McKain's Dilemma, Reign, Dreamthorp and The Searchers series. His books have been translated and published in many languages and countries, including France, Germany, Russia, Italy and Japan. His most recent books are Figures in Rain, a collection of his short stories, Pennsylvania Dutch Night Before Christmas, a picture book, and a centennial history of Elizabethtown College.

Nearly a hundred of his short stories have appeared in such magazines as The New Yorker, Playboy, Esquire, Twilight Zone, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and many other magazines and anthologies. He has been a final nominee for the World Fantasy Award and the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award, and a six-time nominee for the Horror Writers Association's Stoker Award.

When he's not writing, Chet can be found either listening to or making music. He plays with Rambles.NET editor Tom Knapp in Fire in the Glen, a Celtic duo, and he loves and collects nearly every kind of music. His long-suffering wife Laurie is good enough to share the house with him and his collection. Their son Colin lives in Tokyo, where he works for Square, developing video games.

Reviews by Chet include:

Beegie Adair
• Centennial Composers Collection

Agatsuma
• Beyond

Darol Anger
• Diary of a Fiddler

The Darol Anger-Mike Marshall Band
• Jam

Astral Project
• VooDooBop

The Bailey Brothers & the Happy Valley Boys
• Take Me Back to Happy Valley

The Battlefield Band
• Out for the Night
• Time & Tide

Baucom, Bibey & BlueRidge
• Come Along With Me

Leonard Bernstein & Stephen Sondheim
• West Side Story

Alan Bibey
• In the Blue Room

Norman Blake
• Old Ties

Ron Block
• Faraway Land

Rory Block
• From the Dust
• I'm Every Woman

Bluegrass Alliance
• Re-Alliance

Chris Botti & Friends
• Night Sessions: Live in Concert

Bob Bovee & Gail Heil
• When the Cactus is in Bloom

Paul Brady
• The Liberty Tapes

Lenny Breau Trio
• Lenny Breau Trio

Alison Brown
• Fair Weather
• Replay

Mason Brown & Chipper Thompson
• Am I Born to Die: An Appalachian Songbook

Robin Bullock
• Between Earth & Sky

R.L. Burnside
• My Black Name A-Ringin'

Sam Bush
• Ice Caps: Peaks of Telluride
• King of My World

Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater
• Reservation Blues

Michael Cleveland
• Flame Keeper

Jeff Coffin & Mu'tet
• Go-Round

Alice Coltrane
• Translinear Light

John Coltrane
• The Classic Quartet: Complete Impulse! Studio Recordings

Brian Conway
• First Through the Gate

John Cowan
• John Cowan

Harry Cox
• What Will Become of England?

The Crooked Jades
• Seven Sisters: A Kentucky Portrait
• The Unfortunate Rake: Vol. 1

Les Daniels & Rick Lee
• Dr. Daniels and Mr. Lee

Hazel Dickens
• By the Sweat of My Brow
• It's Hard to Tell the Singer from the Song

Double Standard String Band
• self-titled

Jerry Douglas & Peter Rowan
• Yonder

Dry Branch Fire Squad
• Hand Hewn

Ronnie Earl
• Healing Time

David "Honeyboy" Edwards
• Don't Mistreat a Fool

Danny Elfman
• Red Dragon

Duke Ellington
• Black, Brown & Beige
• Ellington at Newport 1956 Complete
• Such Sweet Thunder

Tommy Emmanuel
• Endless Road

Fiddlers 4
• self-titled

Ben Freed
• Suite for Bluegrass Banjo

Eugene Friesen
• Arms Around You

Front Range
• Silent Ground

Lonnie Gasperini
• Turn Up the Gas

The Gibson Brothers
• Bona Fide

Grand Slam
• Live at the Regattabar

Corey Harris
• Downhome Sophisticate

John Hartford
• Hamilton Ironworks

Ginny Hawker & Tracy Schwarz
• Good Songs for Hard Times

Aubrey Haynie
• The Bluegrass Fiddle Album

Berline Crary Hickman
• Chambergrass

Hot Rize
• So Long of a Journey

The House Band
• October Song

Jim Hurst & Missy Raines
• Two

Rob Ickes
• Big Time, with Blue Highway
• What It Is

Kazuhiro Inaba
• Teardrop on a Rose

Irishtown Road
• self-titled

Skip James
• I'm So Glad: The Complete 1931 Paramount Recordings

Jim & Jesse
• 'Tis Sweet to Be Remembered

Richard Leo Johnson
• Language

Bessie Jones
• Put Your Hand on Your Hip

Jones & Leva
• Vertie's Dream

Kathy Kallick
• My Mother's Voice

Mike Katz
• A Month of Sundays

Geoffrey Keezer
• Sublime: Honoring the Music of Hank Jones

Pat Kilbride
• Nightingale Lane

Alison Krauss & Union Station
• Live

Bruce "Creeper" Kurnow
• Harmonicaland

Sonny Landreth
• Levee Town

Roger Lasley
• Dinner on the Ground
• Duck & Let the Wave Go By
• What Cheer Road

Jim Lauderdale
• Lost in the Lonesome Pines, with Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys

Stevie Lawrence
• Standing Alone

Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver
• Gospel Parade
• The Hard Game of Love
• Just Over in Heaven
• Thank God

James Leva
• Memory Theatre

The Lilly Brothers & Don Stover
• On the Radio 1952-1953

Lonesome River Band
• Talkin' to Myself

Johnny Mandel & Gerry Mulligan's Jazz Combo
• I Want to Live

Sherrie Maricle & Diva
• I Believe in You

Mike Marshall & Chris Thile
• Into the Cauldron

Mary McCandless
• Lipstick Legend
• Mary Christmas

Del McCoury
• High Lonesome & Blue

The Del McCoury Band
• The Family

Ronnie McCoury
• Heartbreak Town

Rex McGee
• 24 Creations for Solo Banjo

Tony McManus
• Ceol More

Mark McNeil
• Reporter's Notebook

Joe McPartland
• Songs o' Bonnie Scotland

Jesse McReynolds & the Virginia Boys
• New Horizons

Brad Mehldau
• Elegiac Cycle

Ian Melrose
• A Scottish Legacy

Jim Mills
• My Dixie Home

Bruce Molsky
• Poor Man's Troubles

Bill Monroe
• Live from Mountain Stage
• Live: Volume 1, with the Blue Grass Boys

The Monroe Brothers
• What Would You Give in Exchange for Your Soul?

Little Brother Montgomery
• No Special Rider

Lynn Morris
• You'll Never Be the Sun

Nashville Bluegrass Band
• Twenty Year Blues

NewGrange
• NewGrange

New Lost City Ramblers
• 40 Years of Concert Performances

Nickel Creek
• self-titled
• This Side

Robert Nighthawk
• Live on Maxwell Street 1964

Mollie O'Brien
• Things I Gave Away

Tim O'Brien
• The Crossing
• Fiddler's Green
• Traveler

Kotaro Oshio
• Dramatic
• Starting Point

Tommy O'Sullivan
• Legacy

Dolly Parton
• Halos & Horns
• Little Sparrow

Phillips, Grier & Flinner
• Looking Back

Dirk Powell
• Hand Me Down
• Songs from the Mountain, with Tom O'Brien & John Herrmann

James Reams & the Barnstormers
• Barnstormin'

The Reese Project
• Blue Etude

Alan Reid & Rob van Sante
• Under the Blue

Harvey Reid
• Guitar Voyages

Rice, Rice, Hillman & Pedersen
• Running Wild
• self-titled

Bonnie Rideout
• Scottish Reflections

Riders in the Sky
• Christmas the Cowboy Way

Tommy Sands
• To Shorten the Winter: An Irish Christmas

Seldom Scene
• Scene It All

George Shuffler & James Alan Shelton
• The Legacy Continues

Kim Sinh
• Music from Vietnam #4: The Artistry of Kim Sinh

Ricky Skaggs
• Ancient Tones

Ron Spears & Within Tradition
• Grandpa Loved the Carolina Mountains

Terry Strongheart Band
• Tears

Subject to Change
• Live at the Landon Gallery

Susquehanna Ensemble
• Conversations: Music by Thomas Reese

Bryan Sutton
• Bluegrass Guitar

Sweetwater Reunion
• Almost Bluegrass

IIIrd Time Out
• Back to the Mac

Tom, Brad & Alice
• We'll Die in the Pig Pen Fighting

Jack Tottle
• The Bluegrass Sound

Tony Trischka Band
• Bend
• New Deal

Tony Trischka, Bill Keith, Bela Fleck
• Fiddle Tunes for Banjo

Uncle Cuckleburr's Champion Possum Carvers
• The Ozark Sheiks

various artists
• Afro-American Folk Music from Tate and Panola Counties, Mississippi
• Alan Lomax: Blues Songbook
• Allons en Louisiane
• The Art of Old-Time Mountain Music
• Ballads & Songs of Tradition
• Black British Swing
• Bluegrass Mandolin Extravaganza
• Blues on Blonde on Blonde
• Blues Power: Songs of Eric Clapton
• Box of the Blues
• Carolan's Gift: A Tribute to the Legendary Irish Bard
• Catfish Blues: Mississippi Blues Vol. 3 (1936-1942)
• The Cowboy Tour
• Dancing with the Dead: The Music of Global Death Rites
• Deep River of Song: Alabama/Georgia
• Deep River of Song: Big Brazos
• Deep River of Song: Louisiana
• Gaelic Voices
• Jazz Live from New York
• Keep It Rollin': The Blues Piano Collection
• The Land Where the Blues Began
• Negro Work Songs and Calls
• North American Traditions: The Art of Traditional Fiddle
• Orbitones, Spoon Harps & Bellowphones: Experimental Musical Instruments
• Ozark Folksongs
• Pickin' on Dylan
• The Rough Guide to the Music of the Appalachians
• Safe House
• Six Strings North of the Border, Vol. 2
• Transatlantic Sessions
• The Very Best of Japanese Music
• When the Sun Goes Down, Vol. 10: East Virginia Blues
• When the Sun Goes Down, Vol. 11: Sacred Roots of the Blues

Charlie Waller & the Country Gentlemen
• Songs of the American Spirit

Muddy Waters
• Library of Congress Recordings (1941-1942)/Early Commercial Recordings (1946-1950)

Sean Watkins
• Let It Fall

The Wayfaring Strangers
• Shifting Sands of Time

Kevin Welch
• Beneath My Wheels

Josh White & the Golden Gate Quartet
• Freedom

The Roland White Band
• Jelly on My Tofu

Claude "Fiddler" Williams
• Swingin' the Blues

Gerald Wilson Orchestra
• New York, New Sound

Nancy Wilson
• R.S.V.P. (Rare Songs, Very Personal)

Paul Winter & the Earth Band
• Journey With the Sun

Paul Winter Consort
• Solstice Gems

Hans Zimmer
• The Last Samurai


Richard Crawford
• America's Musical Life: A History

Wayne Erbsen
• Rural Roots of Bluegrass: Songs, Stories & History

Ian Fleming
• Casino Royale

Carol Gnojewski & Davis Bromwell, editors
• Decadence: 300 Years of Japanese Fetish Art

C.P. Lee
• Like the Night (Revisited): Bob Dylan & the Road to the Manchester Free Trade Hall

William Lindsay Gresham & Spain Rodriguez
• Nightmare Alley

Richard A. Lupoff
• The Great American Paperback: An Illustrated Tribute to Legends of the Book

Alexander Theroux
• The Strange Case of Edward Gorey

Andrew Vachss
• Dead & Gone
• Down Here
• The Getaway Man
• Only Child
• Terminal
• Two Trains Running

Fred von Bernewitz & Grant Geissman
• Tales of Terror: The EC Companion

Robert Weinberg
• Horror of the 20th Century: An Illustrated History

Richard Wilbur
• Collected Poems: 1943-2004


The Complete Crumb Comics: Vol. 5

Krazy & Ignatz: 1933-34, Necromancy by the Blue Bean Bush


Bela Fleck (performance review)


Battlefield Earth

De-Lovely

Red Dragon

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

The Story of Us