“Salt of the Earth” by Ricky Skaggs & The Whites
April 6, 2008 by lonesomeroadreview
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
