Lost Weekend, Harbor Lights And Cowboy Blues (Redoubtable Records, 2002)  

Put a high shine on your boots and grab your favorite dance partner; Lost Weekend is playing, and it's time to hit the dance floor.

In Lost Weekend, Don Burnham has assembled a top-notch Western Swing combo. This is a big outfit -- piano (played by Shota Osabe), lead guitar (Mark Holzinger), sweet twin fiddles (Paul Anastasio and Kevin Wimmer), steel guitar (steel wizard Bobby Black), a horn section (Jim Rothermel: sax and clarinet, Bob Schulz: cornet, Kevin Porter: trombone), and a rhythm section of drums (Trey Sabatelli), bass (Bing Nathan), and Burnham's crisp rhythm guitar. There's terrific singing, too, mostly by Burnham, but also from Schulz, Black, Melissa Collard, and Tony Marcus. That's a lot of people, and not an ounce of dead weight.

There aren't any dull songs, either. Every track goes straight to the feet. This is even true of the slow ones; "Harbor Lights" will have you gliding gracefully across the floor. Most of the music is faster than that, however; good bouncy stuff. The fiddles shine on tunes like "Beaumont Rag", "Cowboy Waltz", and the Mariachi standard "Jesusita", which features some lively passages of plucked fiddle notes. The horn section is superb, playing heterophonic, Dixieland-style arrangements on pieces like "South" and "Dinah". If this recording has a flaw, it's that the horns aren't heard enough; with wind players this good, it seems a shame to have them sit idle. Rothermel plays clarinet on several tracks, but the brass is much too scarce. The guitar solos have a warm, fat tone, contrasting with the icy timbre of the piano. The steel is at the center, playing fluid solos and tasteful fills. The rhythm section is upbeat, without drawing attention away from the soloists. Nathan does have a couple of nice bass solos, and Sabatelli cuts loose on "Take The 'A' Train".

All of the vocalists have smooth, rich voices which lend themselves well to this cross between country and swing. Melissa Collard stands out, in particular. She has a clear, cool voice that is wonderful for selections like " 'A' Train", and she harmonizes beautifully with Burnham on the Bob Wills classics "Maiden's Prayer" and "Faded Love."

The insert is worth a look, if you can hold still long enough. Besides background on the songs, there are several pages of photos of Lost Weekend and friends.

This is stating the obvious, but Lost Weekend swings. What else needs to be said?

[Tim Hoke]

Swing by Lost Weekend's Web site.