This album is a collection of fine bluegrass and country music
featuring banjo, harmony vocals, electric guitar, mandolin, bass,
and drums. The playing and singing is excellent all around, but
the banjo playing is particularly impressive as it ventures into
rock and roll licks and jazzy soloing. On one tune the banjo plays
in a jig-like 6/8 time signature. The songs are about real life
situations such as difficult relationships, and life's trials
and tribulations. One song describes "restless riders"
on a bus to a gambling casino expressing that "we're goin'
to be all right when the bus pulls in."
Modern country music and bluegrass is part of the natural evolution
of ancient celtic songs, ballads, instrumental pieces which were
also the "country music" of their time. Still, when
I first saw the beautiful celtic artwork and design on this CD,
I had expected an older style of music such as jigs and reels,
etc. Most of the reviews I do in this publication (Celtic Beat)
are focussed toward more traditional celtic music and this album
would probably be better reviewed in a bluegrass forum.
There are some nice touches to many of the songs: a great percussion
intro to the song Broken Dreams that sounds like the drummer playing
on a collection of bottles and kitchen implements; some hot acoustic
guitar and mandolin flatpicking; and the banjo exchanging licks
with the electric guitar at various times.
At the end of the album I discovered the band's most concrete
celtic connection with a short tune intro featuring the distant
sounds of piping by Finbar Furey with audible gusts of wind, and
spoken gaelic. This intro segues into an uptempo bluegrass instrumental.