“Deep in the Mountains” by Longview

Longview
Deep in the Mountains
Rounder Records
3.stars (out of 5)

Comprised of six of bluegrass music’s premier singers — James King, Don Rigsby, Lou Reid — and instrumentalists — Marshall Wilborn, Ron Stewart, and J. D. Crowe — the current lineup of Longview makes their recording debut with a neat and concise twelve-track disc that showcases the finest elements of each of its principals.

The spotlight is most assuredly on the lead vocalists and while there is too little King — only five tracks out of twelve —for my tastes, one mustn’t quibble when presented with a collection that celebrates the history of the music while maintaining a modern approach. Two of King’s lead numbers — “Baptism of Jesse Taylor” and “Georgia Bound”- should be bluegrass radio hits.

The three lead singers take turns on Marshall Wilburn’s “Weathered Grey Stone” to excellent effect. Rigsby and Reid swap lead and tenor harmony parts on “Room at the Top of the Stairs” and “I’ll Love Nobody But You.” Wilborn and Stewart add some baritone to select cuts.

The instrumentation is more than fine, but not as flashy as some might like. There is only one instrumental, a take on “Cotton Eyed Joe” that might raise an eyebrow or two before listening; do we really need another version of this tired jam standard? The answer is apparently Yes, as the band seems particularly fired-up with Stewart’s fiddling leading the way; Rigsby drops in a nice mandolin break as a bonus.

Deep in the Mountains, the fourth Longview album but first in six years, showcases not only the talents of the individual musicians and singers, but shows how well an occasional super-group can come together to celebrate a mutual love of (mostly) traditional bluegrass.

by Donald Teplyske

“Bang Bang” by Tim Carter

Tim Carter
Bang Bang
Self-released
2.5 stars (out of 5)

On “Bang Bang,” Tim Carter (The Carter Brothers) explores new acoustic music and Americana, making his debut solo effort one of considerable stylistic range.

Long-time fans will be pleased with two new-acoustic instrumentals: the third recording of “Cracks In the Floor,” and the audience favorite, “Chronicle.” On “Dogpatch,” co-writer Alison Brown helps Carter give the banjo a chromatic workout, while guest guitarist, Jim Hurst contributes a fiery break.

The Celtic-flavored bluegrass of “I Can’t Settle Down” (with guest vocalist, Tim O’Brien, sets the stage for two numbers that Carter wrote about his experiences touring Ireland. “Into Carrowkeel” is a new acoustic instrumental track with Carter’s banjo prominently featured. Carter’s brother and musical partner, Danny, lends harmonies to the wistful “Where I Belong.”

Danny also guests on the sinuous, lowdown blues of “I’m King of the Hill.” His slide guitar positively sizzles, while Tim’s banjo supplies a steady, smoking riff.

On “Vassillie’s Lullaby,” Carter matches musical wits with a slide guitarist of a different sort. Dobroist Rob Ickes, the only other musician on this track, helps create a fascinating sonic texture.

“The Signs” was co-written by Tim Carter and Tim Stafford (who guests on guitar.) Its minor-key melody provides a hair-raising complement to a vivid lyric that puts the listener smack in the middle of a group of churching snake handlers.

If there’s emotional depth on this record, it lives in the lyrics. That’s due both to the reliance on new acoustic music with its limited dynamic range, and Carter’s indifferent vocals. He’s a versatile player and songwriter, and “Bang Bang” would have had the impact its title suggests if Carter had simply played to his strengths.

by Maria Morgan Davis

“The Best of the Vetco Years” by Dave Evans & River Bend

Dave Evans & River Bend
The Best of the Vetco Years
Rebel Records
3.5 stars (out of 5)

Outside of James King, Dave Evans is likely the most expressive singer in bluegrass. His Rebel recordings for the past many years are some of the most cherished and frequently played within my collection. He has never released a less than stellar recording.

This collection goes back almost thirty years to present most of the tracks Evans recorded for the Vetco label. The mastering of this set places Evans’ voice well in front of the fine but unremarkable instrumentation.

What makes this collection notable is that these early recordings of a relatively unschooled Evans are widely available for the first time. Why Rebel elected to hold back six cuts from the Vetco sessions is unknown, but the fifteen numbers included are more than appreciated.

The album starts with Evans’ “Highway 52,” a love song of sorts for a gal, rambling, and a certain path through the southern United States. “99 Years is Almost for Life” is where one realizes that Evans as far back as 1979 had something special in his voice; the song fairly aches. There is no shortage of tracks that keen listeners will appreciate: “Carry Me Back to the Bluegrass” is one that even prairie pickers will understand, while “When the Snow Falls on my Foggy Mountain Home” will be understood by all who have heartbreak and regret in their lives.

Timeless favorites including “Barbara Allen,” “The Train that Carried my Girl from Town,” “Dark as the Night, Blue as the Day,” and “Short Life of Trouble” will provide familiarity amongst the largely unknown songs from Evans’ own pen.

If you haven’t yet experienced Dave Evans’ brilliance, this collection from Dave Evans & River Bend is a fine place to hear it while it was being formed.

by Donald Teplyske

“Live at Silver Dollar City” by Monroe Crossing

Monroe Crossing
Live at Silver Dollar City
Self-released
4 stars (out of 5)

In the spring of 2007, Monroe Crossing recorded four days of all-request shows at Branson’s Silver Dollar City. This album collects the cream of the crop, interspersing them with MC and mandolinist Mark Thompson’s slick stage patter to recreate the feeling of the live show. The result is a fine example of bluegrass and classic country Monroe Crossing style – versatile and energetic with a definite Midwestern accent.

They start things off a bracing, folk revivalist “Fox on the Run,” driven by Benji Flaming’s coruscating banjo. Flaming does a convincing impression of Little Richard’s piano, while guitarist Art Blackburn and bassist Mark Anderson lay down a kicking roots rock groove (showing why Bill Monroe is a cross-genre Hall of Famer) on “Rocky Road Blues.”

“20-20 Vision” proves that Monroe Crossing is just as comfortable with traditional grass as they are with the more modern style of Becky Buller’s “The Rain.” The latter boasts simultaneously the best vocal harmonies and the best solo vocal (from fiddler/vocalist Lisa Fuglie) on the album.

Fuglie is just as good on Jim & Jesse’s “Just Wondering Why,” conveying emotional fragility without using the standard technical cheat of breathy vocals. She’s the band’s ace in the hole during many of the “Oh, no, not that one!” moments that come up when a band starts taking requests. “Jolene” shimmers with Fuglie’s raw emotion, terrific trio harmonies, and Flaming’s relentless banjo. On “Crazy,” Fuglie retains that lovely vulnerability without overplaying it, and gets some beautiful mandolin backup from Thompson.

“At Last” (Yes, that one) is a particular fan favorite. Fuglie spins some wicked licks, but the song’s cocktail jazz structure doesn’t suit this or any other bluegrass band.

Earl Taylor’s “The Children Are Cryin’” should suit almost any bluegrass band. But, in a bit that may work better live, Thompson explains the bluegrass-specific tension between upbeat melodies and painful lyrics. Then, the band sidesteps the challenge with a parody so broad it would have given the cast of “Hee Haw” a run for their money.

They redeem themselves with a rambunctious canter through Bill Monroe’s “Scotland.” The band’s theme song, “Nail That Catfish to a Tree,” is equally as exciting (with what I’m guessing is Anderson using his doghouse bass as a bodhran), and could be considered an Irish-accented counterpart to “Scotland’s” simulated bagpipes.

In closing, Thompson tells the crowd that Monroe Crossing plays over 130 shows a year. “Live at Silver Dollar City” is a highly entertaining demonstration of why they’re in such high demand.

by Maria Morgan Davis

“The SteelDrivers” by the SteelDrivers

The SteelDrivers
The SteelDrivers
Rounder Records
4 stars (out of 5)

Pressing play on The SteelDrivers for the first time while looking at the title of the first track (”Blue Side of the Mountain”), one would expect to hear more of the same old thing. Especially from a bunch of session players making a side project out of pickin a little bluegrass.

But after a few guitar strums, Chris Stapleton lets loose with “There’s a place in a piney hollow / that no one but me can find / some Choctaw built it in the hillside / stone by stone in a simpler time” in a full-throaed holler - somewhere between Journeyman-era Eric Clapton and Mountain’s Leslie West - and you realize this quintet isn’t trying to make their version of So Long, So Wrong.

“So deep and dark / like a hurtin’ down in my heart,” sings Stapleton in the chorus of “Blue Side,” offering as good a description as any of his vocal approach that dominates the disc and distinguishes it from the rest of anything remotely as grassy you’ll hear this year.

Joining Stapleton’s guitar to form an always-bluesy foundation to these 11 tunes are Richard Bailey’s banjo and Mike Fleming’s thumping upright.

Tammy Rogers’ fiddle and Mike Henderson’s mandolin provide all the tasty fills and breaks your ear can handle, and all of the songs are better than most.

The only quarrel with The SteelDrivers is that, as different as their sound is from the rest of the bluegrass and Americana pack, it doesn’t vary much on this disc.

They stick to their potent formula without experimenting with something as raw and satisfying as Stapleton’s voice.

by Aaron Keith Harris

“2:10 Train” by Jimmy Gaudreau & Moondi Klein

Jimmy Gaudreau & Moondi Klein
2:10 Train
Rebel Records
4 stars (out of 5)

Two voices, one mandolin, one guitar, and no place to hide. That’s the challenge that Chesapeake alumni Jimmy Gaudreau and Moondi Klein have set for themselves on their debut release. They win the day with an inspired mix of songs, and a style that fuses ’30s-style brother harmonies with new acoustic music and ’70s folk-pop.

Gaudreau and Klein effectively channel James Taylor (Harvey Reid’s “Dreamer or Believer”), Tony Rice (Tom Paxton’s “The Last Thing on My Mind”), and Tim O’Brien (Pete Goble’s “Colleen Malone”). The results are always listenable but the duo is at their best when they let their own unique style come through.

They do Harley Allen’s “High Sierra” proud by underplaying the lyrical drama, keeping their harmonies simple, and making subtle use of Gaudreau’s mandolin, as delicate as fine lace.
Their approach to traditional numbers is decidedly modern, but the performances are so engaging that they escape the chilly abstractionism so common to new acoustic music. “Shady Grove” closes the album with a scintillating arrangement that zigzags between the melody’s forbidding minor key and breezy, progressive grass. “Sweet Sunny South” benefits from a straight-up folk approach, while a new acoustic vibe gives a lift to both “Black Jack Davey” and the instrumental medley of “Arkansas Traveler” and “Soldier’s Joy.” Klein excels on the latter: You’d be hard-pressed to find a more delectable bass tone.

Two swing numbers make a nice change of pace from the overall new acoustic/folk flavor. “Evening” (Mitchell Parish, Harry White) boasts enough sparkle and drive for a full orchestra, but Klein and Gaudreau get such round tone from their instruments that you’ll never miss the horn section. “Any Old Time” is less infectious, but still swings.

The album reaches one of two high points with Eric Bogle’s “And the Band Played ‘Waltzing Matilda’,” the story of the World War I battle at Gallipoli, and the tragic aftermath for one Australian veteran. Klein gives a nicely nuanced vocal performance that lets the story unfold naturally.

The album’s title cut bears a striking resemblance to “Sweet Home Alabama,” even though it predates the Skynyrd classic. The boys have a blast improvising over the familiar changes, but their digressions are always tasteful. Gaudreau pays joyful tribute to “Sweet Home’s” iconic guitar riff, and the outro is a classic rock lover’s delight, but the musical hijinks never detract from the bittersweet lyric (about visiting day at Big Ben prison). Klein gives the album’s most affecting vocal performance here, and the brush strokes of longing harmony from Gaudreau perfectly highlight the most yearning parts of the melody. This one is sure to be a huge hit in concert.
Gaudreau and Klein have crafted an instant summer soundtrack that’s as comfortable and durable as a favorite pair of jeans.

by Maria Morgan Davis

“Never Say Never Again” by Dwight McCall

Dwight McCall
Never Say Never Again
Rural Rhythm Records
3 Stars (out of 5)

Never Say Never Again is the second solo release from second generation bluegrasser Dwight McCall. The mandolinist for J.D. Crowe & The New South brings bandmates, buddies, heritage, and talent to a predictably solid set of mostly predictable bluegrass.

The fourteen tracks follow what seems to be the standard formula for mixing original, traditional, cover, and classic material. This includes the requisite pair of gospel numbers, a Civil War song, and a country crossover (Michael Martin Murphy’s “Lost River”). McCall honors his deceased brother with “Goodbye My Friend” and classic combos the Bluegrass Cardinals, the McPeak Brothers, and the Country Gentlemen with songs each popularized.

McCall’s mandolin remains in its case for all but two tracks, but he does surprise with nice banjo work on “Little Bessie.” Mandolinist Alan Bibey heads the house band of New Southers Ron Stewart (banjo, fiddle) and Harold Nixon (bass), Brian Stephens (guitar), and Randy Kohrs (Dobro). Steve Gulley, Lou Reid, and Rickey Wasson contribute guest harmonies.

These pickers certainly pack plenty of speed, precision, and drive. However, except for a striking grassification of Paul Van Dyk’s “Time of Our Lives” and the original gospel “He Never Turned Away,” the set simply lacks enough edge. Nevertheless, this disc should please purists, who surely will hope Dwight McCall will Never Say Never Again to a follow-up recording.

by Tim Walsh

“Sounds Like Home” by Steve Gulley & “The Road Headin’ Home” by Grasstowne

Steve Gulley
Sounds Like Home
Lonesome Day Records
4 stars (out of 5)

Grrasstowne
The Road Headin’ Home
Pinecastle Records
3.5 stars (out of 5)

The general impermanence of band line-ups in bluegrass is often frustrating for fans, and no doubt to the musicians themselves. But the byproduct is often the welcome launch of a new band or solo artist.

Or in Steve Gulley’s case, both.

Gulley, the lead vocalist on much of Mountain Heart’s material since 2000, left that popular unit recently to form Grasstowne with other prominent pickets Phil Leadbetter and Alan Bibey.

First, he finished up his first solo project, Sounds Like Home, a disc full of fine examples of Gulley’s versatile voice.

Even within traditional bluegrass arrangements, he can switch from fun and hard-edged (”Big Rock in the Road,” Reno & Smiley’s “Another Day”) to free and easy (”Little So & So” and the Flatt & Scruggs-styled “Cheater of the Year”).

Gulley is also at home with slighlty more modern bluegrass: the “B-chord slammer” of “Livin’ it Down,” the distinctly Kraussian “It Ain’t the Leaving” and “Mountain Heart,” which features all of Gulley’s old bandmates and serves as a perfect coda to the work of one of the better touring and recording lineups of the past decade.

We also get some well-chosen gospel material that’s clearly close to Gulley’s heart from his list of special guests. J.D. Crowe contributes a gentle but firm banjo foundation to “Prepare to Meet Thy God,” a Baptist hymn which also features Adam Steffey, Dale Ann Bradley and Jeff Parker joining Gulley in the quartet.

Gulley’s shares the lead vocal with friend Vic Graves on another Baptist hymn, the soft “No Not One,” and does a brother-style duet with Barry Abernathy on “All Alone.” “Nearer My God to Thee” gets a Louvin-like treatment from Gulley, his father Don and Doyle Lawson.

The disc’s two nicest treats are country tunes — a duet with wife Debbie on the Putman/Sherrill hit for George Jones and Tammy Wynette “My Elusive Dreams” and Gulley’s spine tingling take on the Possum’s “The Grand Tour”—  that make one wish for a whole album of the same.

There’s a Jonesian cut on Grasstowne’s The Road Headin’ Home — “You’re Right, I’m Wrong,” penned by Gulley — but the project as a whole aspires to be the kind of band album popularized by the Lonesome River Band and copied by dozens of others.

For the most part, they succeed, hitting both the high notes and the pitfalls that such albums usually have.

Joining Gulley (guitar, lead & harmony vocals) are veterans Alan Bibey (mandolin, lead & harmony vocals) and Phil Leadbetter (resonator guitar, harmony vocals) and relative newcomers Jason Davis (banjo) and Lee Sawyer (bass). Stuart Duncan and Tim Crouch provide studio help on fiddle.

As you might expect from such a lineup, the picking is solid throughout, with Bibey’s hard-hitting fretwork and Leadbetter’s concise lines working above a solid foundation from the rest of the group.

Bibey and Gulley are fine combo of lead singers, but the album’s song selection sometimes inhibits inspried performances, both vocally and instrumentally.

“Black Lung Blues” is a standard-issue coal-minin’ and moonshinin’ song with an almost-interesting arrangement, but it never catches fire. Neither does “Love You Don’t Know” or  “Bluest Case of the Blues,” which, I’m willing to bet, is a barn burner when these guys play it on stage.

Gulley sounds just fine on four mid-tempo numbers of varying quality — “Here Comes that Feeling Again” being the best — but there’s just not much he can do with them to make them sound different from the pack

He sounds great — just like Bobby Osborne, almost — on Felice & Boudleaux Bryant’s “Lizzie Lou.”

Bibey’s best vocal cut is “Devil’s Road,” one of those happy-melodied, bloody-lyricked tunes that are so tough to get just right.

The cut from this project that stays in one’s head is “Dixie Flyer,” which has everyone getting into the act on a full-speed-ahead train song with a nice harmonic twist on the chorus and blistering mando from Bibey.

A track like that proves that while their debut isn’t a great album, there’s no question Grasstowne is a great band.

by Aaron Keith Harris

“DoorWay” by Ron Block

Ron Block
DoorWay
Rounder Records
2.5 stars (out of 5)

Ron Block is the sort of Christian artist who opens minds simply because his presentation is so atypical. But on DoorWay, his second solo outing, that freshness is only partially evident.

“The Kind of Love” gets the album off to a passionate — perhaps even challenging — start. “I want to get inside your heart/To have your heart to live in me/The two to make one beat.” As Block writes in his song notes, “God created us for union with Himself; the Bible is full of depictions of God as a lover.”

Block explores this concept further in the title cut (“Hands and knees on the desert floor/Pounding out a prayer to the Lover of his soul”) and “The Blackness of the Need” (“I knew I knew the answer ‘cause I’ve seen it all before/You’re the only answer I can see/And when the question’s ended I will say forevermore/I found You in the blackness of the need.”) This is as far away from “Jesus Loves Me” in whole notes as you can get — a spiritual palate cleanser that brings new inspiration with every reading.

“Love’s Living Through Me When I Do” succeeds with a plainspoken lyric about our faulty perception of separateness from God: “The problem lives in what I see/A separate Him outside a separate me.” “Someone” offers more subtle pleasures. It’s the story of a man who leaves the spiritual home of God’s loving embrace to seek his own vision of Paradise. That it follows the same arc as the “leaving home to seek greener pastures” stories so often told in classic bluegrass gives it a cultural resonance both deep and haunting.

Fans of Block’s bluegrass work will be pleased to find two bluegrass numbers here. “Along the Way” is driven by the superstar trio of Block on banjo, Dan Tyminski on guitar, and Stuart Duncan on fiddle. “Be Assured,” one of the highlights of Tyminski’s first solo project, boasts equally capable instrumental work from Block and Duncan, especially.

The prickly guitar intro to “Flame,” and its vivid lyrical images, wouldn’t have been out of place on U2’s classic album The Joshua Tree. After spending a lifetime lost in a spiritual wilderness, the wandering soul who tells this story has the devil’s number: “You crucified the Son of Love/He called your work His Father’s cup/Risen from among the dead/Messiah’s heel crushed Serpent’s head.”

With all that promise, “Flame” falters with a generic B theme that’s much weaker than its thrilling opening. That, in essence, is DoorWay’s fatal flaw. Despite some worthwhile — even extraordinary — elements, the album is marred by generic melodies, performances, and production values.

Block’s most powerful lyrics (“The Kind of Love,” “DoorWay,” “The Blackness of the Need,” “Flame”) are blunted by the kind of one-size-fits-all melodies that are all too prevalent in terrestrial radio formats from smooth jazz to adult contemporary to New Age to Christian (The album’s back-to-back instrumental tracks, “Secret of the Woods and “I See Thee Nevermore” are just as anonymous.) Lyrics this intense deserve music to match, and it simply isn’t to be found here. And, while Block (who sings lead throughout) is a competent vocal technician, he lacks the nuance, power, and distinctive delivery necessary to be a memorable lead singer.

“Love’s Living Through Me When I Do,” with its promising minor key melody, is emblematic of the way the entire album is undercut by a undercut by a production style that’s almost numbingly homogenous. Block has assembled a stellar roster of guest musicians, but their distinctiveness is buried in the production.

The uniqueness that made A-list musicians out of Alison Krauss, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Sonya Isaacs, Suzanne Cox, and Homer, Lisa, and Lori Forbes are smothered in a production that harkens back to the country music of the 50s, with its anonymous choirs of backing vocalists. Only Tyminski’s vocals (barely) escape this fate.

“DoorWay” was made to fulfill a spiritual hunger, and it succeeds admirably on that level. Those looking to fulfill a musical hunger will have to look elsewhere.

by Maria Morgan Davis

“Salt of the Earth” by Ricky Skaggs & The Whites

Ricky Skaggs & The Whites
Salt of the Earth
Skaggs Family Records
4 stars (out of 5)

A gospel album by Ricky Skaggs & The Whites ought to be mighty good, and Salt of the Earth is just that.

Each of the the 13 tracks is a setting for Skaggs’ clean, crisp Kentucky tenor and The Whites’ lush family harmonies, with Sharon (Skaggs’ wife), Cheryl (Sharon’s sister) and Buck (Sharon and Cheryl’s father) each offering lead vocals on three different tracks.

In spite of the presence of Andy Leftwich (fiddle) and Cody Kilby (guitar) throughout — and pedal steel guitar hero Paul Franklin on “Homesick for Heaven” — this isn’t a picker’s project. The country/bluegrass/Southern gospel arrangements are there so the singing can shine.

Skaggs’ lead vocals on modern material like the title track, “Love Will Be Enough” and “One Seed of Love” are achingly sincere and just rustic enough to link them to the gospel standards that form the backbone of the project.

Sharon’s sensitive vocal on “Let it Shine” and Cheryl’s emotive lead on the album closer “The Solid Rock” reveal how gifted they are even outside the familial trio or quartet.

And you can practically see Buck grinning away at the piano on the bouncy Southern gospel of “This Old House.” His “Wreck on the Highway” is the other side of the coin in all its gory, Gothic glory.

Salt goes from good to great on “Farther Along,” “Blessed Assurance” and “Wings of a Dove,” each sung by the quartet with passion and precision that’s hard to achieve without singing and living together for more than a quarter of a century.

by Aaron Keith Harris