Bryan Sutton, Bluegrass Guitar (Sugar Hill Records, 2003)
Jim Lauderdale, Headed For the Hills (Dualtone Records, 2004)
Norman & Nancy Blake, The Morning Glory Ramblers (Dualtone Records, 2004)
Bluegrass music. It's that special genre born in the hills of Kentucky. Bill Monroe. Mandolins, banjos, dobros, acoustic guitars, played with a fervour seldom seen in other genres. Speed, accuracy, AND a feel that is unique. It's a kind of country jazz. Much of bluegrass music is a showcase for virtuosic instrumentals. But there's the songwriting side of it too. Lyrics are important, because a great deal of the pleasure in bluegrass music is the tight high harmonies found in the singing. It's a blend, an almost perfect blend, of instrumentation and vocalization. Parts and precision make bluegrass work. Or not. The three albums under consideration in this review show both sides of the coin.
I've been listening to Bryan Sutton's Bluegrass Guitar album since last September. It has proven very difficult to review. I even passed it on to an associate in another part of the building, who returned it with the following comment: "I just don't know what to say about it. Obviously the guy can play the guitar. . . but it's so much flash!" That's exactly what I thought. Bluegrass Guitar defines what it's all about. Bryan Sutton can play the guitar like a monster. He's fast, precise, and clean. In another context, he can be amazing. As part of Dolly Parton's band on her Sugar Hill trilogy, he was extraordinary, filling the space around Dolly's pure soprano. Fronting a band, he is simply another guitar player, trying to impress. As far as that goes, this album is a success. There are many spots where the listener holds his breath and then utters a soft, "Whew!" but listening to this album never became fun. It always seemed like work. "Oh, yeah, I have to review this!"
The production is clean and woody. The backing band plays brilliantly. Dennis Crouch on bass, Tim Crouch on fiddle, Tim O'Brien on mandolin and David Talbot on banjo. Not a problem. The songs are traditional. Reels and fiddle tunes transposed to feature guitar, a rag ("Beaumont Rag"), a couple of bluegrass standards (Monroe's "Roanoke" and A. P. Carter's "The Storms Are On the Ocean") and two or three originals. Each tune exists as a framework for the musicians to hang their skill on. And as such, it's all a glorious display of picking and grinning. Except, one gets the sense that there's more gritting (of teeth) than grinning going on. Spectacular, but dull.
Jim Lauderdale is one prolific cat. Albums with Donna the Buffalo, Ralph Stanley and a variety of bluegrass stalwarts have led to this new collection. The songs were co-written with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, and one gets a sense of Jerry Garcia's ghost hovering off to the side as this album's baker's dozen tracks run out.
"High Timberline" brings along Emmylou Harris on harmony vocals, Darrell Scott on lead guitar, Tim O'Brien on mandolin, Byron House's bass and Lauderdale's guitar and vocals on the first of a very special set of songs. The band is freer than Sutton's band, and there's more air around everything. The vocals add a depth that simply didn't exist on an all instrumental album. Scott's flatpicked lead uses fewer notes to much greater effect than Sutton's blistering fingerwork. What is it that's "special" about this set of songs? They were co-written by Lauderdale, with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, so you get his somewhat skewed look at the world, set in a bluegrass context. And it works.
Hunter plays with images and words to create a lyrical lacework. At times finely wrought, at others loose and ragged, Hunter's lyrics exploit the timeless quality of the music, with reflections about people, places and things that exist outside time. Lauderdale's twangy vocals, true enough, blend well with guests like Harris, Gillian Welch ("Headed For The Hills"), Buddy Miller ("Paint and Glass"), Allison Moorer ("Tales from the Sad Hotel" and "Leaving Mobile") and Donna the Buffalo ("Upside Down"). His acoustic rhythm guitar is strong, and sets the tempo for the more virtuosic pickers who accompany him. Bryan Sutton is one of those guests. His lead playing on "Joanne" and "I'll Sing Again" shows more emotion and feeling than any example from his solo album.
One of Bryan Sutton's guitar heroes is the great Norman Blake. Together with his wife, Nancy, Blake has a new album, too. The Morning Glory Ramblers is the other side of bluegrass. Not the showy, but the homey. The Blakes sound just like they look in the cover picture. Homely, a little tired, rocking chair bound, deeply in love, with a pair of Martin guitars right at hand. That's what you get when you spin the disc, too. Loose harmonies of the sort that a long married couple might sing together on the front porch, or even while washing the dishes! The songs are classics, whether new or old. My copy of the CD is a pre-release version with no liner notes or song information. . . but each song sounds like it has a history reaching back to the middle of the last century, or earlier. Gently played guitars, a whining dobro, Norman's wobbly tenor and Nancy's harmonies carry the listener to the Appalachians, and through time, in much the same way Johnny Cash's American Recordings did.
"Precious Memories (was a song I used to hear)" speaks of remembrances of singing in church; "The Sunny Side of Life" is a new song with the same message as the standard; "Little Log Hut in the Lane" is an old man thinking back, and provides opportunity for a few hot licks from Norman's Martin. Love songs, songs of life and loss, church songs and ballads, whatever they sing, Norman and Nancy Blake set the tale in a beautifully picked context.
These are three contemporary attempts to embrace the essence of bluegrass. In their own way they each capture a side of a music that is multi-faceted. Together they make up a workshop of what this music can be. Individually they each offer something to our understanding, and appreciation for this most American of musical genres.
Dualtone Records has a Web site here. Sugar Hill Records has a Web site here.
