Here at the Lonesome Highway review desk we have received a wealth of newgrass and bluegrass albums released in recent months. So we are posting this selection of some of the best of these.
All these reviews are by Eilís Boland.
Tray Wellington Black Banjo Mountain Home
Rhiannon Giddens’ bravery and the recent Black Lives Matters movement have given permission (not that it should have been needed) to young black artists like Tray Wellington to come into the spotlight in American music. Although still in his early 20s, Tray (christened Trajan) has a mastery of the banjo that is way beyond his years, as he demonstrates on his debut solo album, produced by the ubiquitous Jon Weisberger. No show-offy playing here on this mainly instrumental record, just a joyful celebration of his chosen instrument, accompanied by a host of equally talented players including Avery Merritt on fiddle (Tony Trishka, Missy Raines), Jon Stickley on guitar, Kevin Kehrberg on bass and Wayne Benson (a relative veteran!) on mandolin. Across the eight original compositions and three covers, Tray shows he is equally comfortable in the traditional bluegrass style, with breakdowns like Georgia Turnaround or in New Grass style with Port of Manzanita and Wasted Time, on which he shares vocals with Tim O’Brien. There’s a demonstration of his love of jazz in a lovely cover of the gently meandering Strasbourg/St. Denis (written by the late Texan jazz musician, Roy Hargrove), where guest fiddle player Lyndsay Pruitt also shines.
Andy Leftwich The American Fiddler Mountain Home
Andy Leftwich is a force of nature and I predict this album of instrumentals will leave you breathless, as it does me!
A phenomenal fiddler player at a young age, Leftwich won many competitions as a junior and went on to play in Ricky Skaggs’ Kentucky Thunder for fifteen years, until 2016. Since then he has concentrated on work with his mandolin playing wife Rachel, studio production and Christian ministry. The American Fiddler demonstrates his talent at composition, as well as arranging and producing.
The opening title track is an Irish influenced tune, and he is joined here by his mentor Ricky Skaggs, whose mandolin keeps up with the breakneck speed. Next, his great friend and also Kentucky Thunder alumnus, Cody Kilby, joins him on Over Cincinnati and indeed lends his flatpicking on many of the tunes. Pikes Peak Breakdown is a bluegrass original, where the guitar duties are taken by Bryan Sutton, and Scott Vestal contributes banjo. Elsewhere, Matt Menefee plays banjo on several tracks, including a cover of the well known Biréli Lagrène gypsy jazz classic, Made In France. Leftwich learned this tune from his Three Ring Circle band mates, Rob Ickes and Dave Pomeroy. Ickes also features on this album on the aforementioned Over Cincinnati.
I have to admit that I hadn’t realised just how proficient a mandolin player Leftwich is, until this album, where he plays most of the mandolin parts as well as the fiddle. However, he bows to the current mandolin queen, and invites Sierra Hull to duel with him on his reworking of Bill Monroe’s Big Mon. Mark Schatz is better known as a bass player (Nickel Creek, Bela Fleck) but on Through The East Gate he gets to indulge his first love, contributing claw hammer banjo and ‘feet’ to this lovely tune, written to show the evolution from traditional style fiddle playing to the modern style.
Upright bass on most of the album is provided by another stalwart veteran, Byron House. And there’s lots more to discover on this essential album.
Unspoken Traditions Imaginary Lines Mountain Home
The latest album from this well established and popular touring band will more than satisfy those who like their bluegrass hard driving and traditional. Mind you, the N Carolina quintet push out the boundaries a little here - hence the album name.
They have chosen songs by many well known contemporary writers and interpreted them with superb musicianship, lead vocals and harmonies. The band is made up of Sav Sankaran (bass and vocals), brothers Audie McGinnis (guitar and vocals) and Zane McGinnis (banjo), Ty Gilpin (mandolin) and Tim Gardner (fiddle). There are songs of pining for the old days (Charles Humphrey III’s Lookout Mountain), and story songs like Bounty Hunter and Crooked Jack, sung to the tune of ‘Star of the Co Down’, with Ireland’s John Doyle (a former Asheville resident) guesting on bouzouki and sharing lead vocals. Standout song for this reviewer is Justin Carbone’s At The Bottom Again.
Jeremy Garrett River Wild Organic
‘Powerful’ and ‘soulful’ are the two words that spring to mind when listening to this latest solo album from Jeremy Garrett, better known as the fiddle player with the progressive bluegrass band, The Infamous Stringdusters. When he’s not playing with the Stringdusters, a band that he helped to form in 2006, Garrett devotes his time to his solo stage work, where he performs using technological wizardry to loop his fiddle and vocals. Somewhat unusually, for a bluegrass musician, Garrett stands out as a songwriter and a vocalist as well as a musician, none more so than on the opening song, I Am The River Wild. Straight away one realises that his approach to songwriting is no more conventional than his fiddle playing, with the song written from the viewpoint of the river, which is omnipotent and threatening. The river’s ominous warning of ‘danger lurking all around me, too close you’ll get swept away’ is accompanied by atmospheric playing from Garrett and his impressive choice of musicians, including Seth Taylor (guitar), Alan Bibey (mandolin), Barry Bales (bass) and Russell Carson (banjo). Garrett’s vocal range goes from a falsetto to a very deep baritone on this stand-out song, which he also wrote (with Rick Lang).
In fact, all but one of the eight songs are written by Garrett, except for his slightly unusual take on Bill Monroe’s Kentucky Waltz, which may not suit the purists but then again, that has never bothered Mr Garrett! His co-writer on In A Song (about a songwriter!) is Mountain Hearts’ Josh Shilling, who also takes harmony vocals beautifully throughout the album.
The closest he gets to Stringdusters territory is in the big bluesy slow burner, In The Blink Of An Eye, with gorgeous dobro courtesy of his band mate, Andy Hall, grooving backing vocals and Garett’s phenomenal fiddle parts are simply chilling, adding to the song’s darkness.
There are four excellent instrumentals, the standout being Bird Of Prey, where the harmonising between Bibey’s mandolin and Garrett’s fiddle playing is memorable, as is the banjo playing of Ryan Cavanaugh. Go get this hugely enjoyable example of progressive acoustic bluegrass - you’ll be glad you did.
Lonesome River Band Heyday Mountain Home
Hard to believe but the LRB have been one of the leading bands in bluegrass since their inception forty years ago. Led since 1990 by the much awarded and coolest banjo player around, Sammy Shelor, they were going through another transition while this record was being recorded, but there is no let up in their signature driving contemporary sound. You get thirteen masterful songs, covering the gamut of the usual bluegrass themes - heartache, gospel, trains and travellin’- performed by some of the best in the business.
Stand-outs include the single Mary Ann Is A Pistol, from the pen of the late Nashville songwriter Dennis Linde, in praise of an independent ‘tomboy’ girl. Anchored as always by Sammy Shelor’s signature driving banjo, it introduces the impressive lead vocals of the new boys: Adam Miller on mandolin and Jesse Smathers on guitar. Departing guitarist, Brandon Rickman, sings lead on a couple, including his own That’s Life, and departing bassist Barry Reed plays on many of the tracks. There’s a deliciously gothic feel to the doom laden Gabriel’s Already Standing, where longtime member Mike Hartgrove’s fiddle playing really stands out. And did I mention the strength of the harmony vocals?
There isn’t a songwriter among the line-up but the band’s interpretations of mostly newly written compositions, and their excellent self-production make for a must-have album.
Fireside Collective Across The Divide Mountain Home
Asheville, N Carolina five piece show that they are not confined by the constraints of traditional bluegrass on their fourth album, where they stray into funk and blues and folk stylings. The album art cover also hints at this, with its trippy psychedelic theme, so you wouldn’t be surprised to realise that they veer towards territory established by bands such as Greensky Bluegrass and the Infamous Stringdusters. Each band member contributes original songs and indeed vocals across this collection of ten high energy songs and one instrumental. Not Today is a sad and gentle country song written by guitarist Joe Cicero, dominated by the dobro playing of Tommy Maher, and here Jesse Iaquinto adds piano, as well as his usual mandolin. Iaquinto’s House Into a Home explores a traditional bluegrass theme in a more New Grass musical style, as does another of his contributions, And The Rain Came Down, a driving number that describes the misery of a big flood. Dobro lovers will appreciate the dominance of that instrument in the excellent production by Jon Weisberger, and the harmonies are also particularly impressive. Funky folk rock is the dominant sound on Your Song Goes On, and banjo player Alex Genova wrote the catchy and hopeful closer, Rainbow In The Dark. It would be a treat to catch these songs performed live - the opportunities for improvisation in these songs by such good instrumentalists has whet my appetite for just that.