Traditional bluegrass keyed by warm lead and harmony vocals

Guitarist Audie Blaylock and his hot-shot bluegrass group return with their second release in as many years, and it’s another fine album of feeling vocals, tight-harmonies and finely crafted musicianship. The quintet’s been reduced to a quartet with the departure of mandolinist Jason Johnson, but their sound doesn’t suffer, as fiddler Patrick McAvinue performs double duty. The group’s instrumental talents live up to their hot-picking name, but it’s the more reserved playing that’s their real strength. McAvinue’s work on the lovelorn and lonesome “All I Can Do is Pretend” and Evan Ward’s laconic banjo picking on “Talk to Your Heart” are graceful additions to the songs rather than flashy look-at-me solos, and group’s vocal blends impress with their subtle textures.

A couple of new titles mix with selections from Bill Monroe, Jimmy Martin, the Stanley Brothers and others, and the thematic focus, as Johnnie & Jack’s title tune suggests, are troubles of the heart. There’s bitterness born of loneliness in “Matches,” betrayal in “Stay Away From Me” and omnipresent dark clouds on “Troubles Round My Door.” The album’s remedies include facing one’s demons (“Can’t Keep on Runnin’”), a healthy dose of prayer (“Pray the Clouds Away”), and devotion to faith ( “He is Near”). The closing instrumental gives the players a chance to hot things up, but it’s the emphasis the group puts on singing that gives the album its warmth. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

Audie Blaylock’s Home Page

Sisterly bluegrass harmonies

Gold Heart is a trio of sisters whose bluegrass harmonies follow closely (and high and tightly, of course) in the tradition of country family singing. The Texas-born Analise plays mandolin, the Tucson-born Jocelyn plays guitar, and the Georgia-born Shelby plays fiddle. All three trade off singing lead and harmonies, and all three contribute original songs (nine of this dozen tunes are originals). Their father Trent tours with the group and plays bass, though the bottom end is held down on their third CD by Alan Bartram. Aaron McDaris and Andy Hall add banjo and dobro, respectively. Singing individually you can hear a fetching youth in each sister’s voice, but banded the three voices blend into an ageless whole. They’re particularly adept at shifting the harmony by having one or two singers change pitch while another sticks to a through line. Their songs are filled with joy, family, love, faith and optimism in hard times, leaving one to assume that more challenging adult experiences are still on the road ahead. There’s an a cappella original (“Heavenly Home”) and fellow Rural Rhythm artist Brandon Rickman appears on “Never Be Through With Lovin’ You.” [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Gold Heart’s Home Page

Bluegrass album of both substance and form

If you’re wondering what happened to the protest and social commentary that once pervaded popular music, you can still find plenty of it in the non-mainstream margins. Such is the track, “Heartland,” from Tommy Webb’s third album of bluegrass. This open letter to the president provides a moving plea from America’s working men and women. The societal disconnection between Midwest farmers and Wall Street bankers stands in contrast to the American economy’s impossibly arcane web of financial interconnections, and provides poignant subtext to the song’s simple wishes.

The bulk of the album is more standard country fare, starting with the opener’s story of lies, heartbreak and murder. The murderous intentions of “Teardrop Inn” are magnified by lazy fiddle and easy-going vocals that sound like the last drops of emotion wrung from a warm heart turned cold. The lack of an overt breakdown in Webb’s voice makes lyrics like “I’d rather see a cold stone above you, than to see you in the arms of Tina at the Teardrop Inn” all the more chilling.  In addition to five originals of love celebrated and lost, Webb picks up the traditional “River of Jordan” and bluegrass staple “Little Sadie,” and terrific fiddle-and-harmony tunes from Wayland Patton (“Something in My Heart”) and Robert Braddock (“She Told Me”).

Webb expands upon his concern for the family farmer with Ricky Skaggs’ “A Hard Road to Hoe” and reworks Daryl Worley’s blue collar lament “Good Day to Run” into a winning acoustic arrangement. The original “If It Weren’t for Bluegrass Music (I’d Go Crazy)” arrives just in time for the summer circuit, where the group’s low-key approach will be a restorative moment amongst the typical festival program’s parade of fireworks. There are plenty of tight bluegrass harmonies and dexterous string picking here (check out the synchronized and syncopated playing on, “Clinch Mountain Backstep”), but it’s Webb’s naturally sincere lead singing that really sells these performances. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

Listen to “Teardrop Inn”
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