Potent bluegrass sound with many musical moods
J. Ross | Roseburg, OR USA | 10/01/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Playing Time - 33:43 -- This band's sophomore release on Blue Circle Records has a slightly different feeling than their debut, "A Stop in South Port Towne," on Tom T. Hall's label. While the hardworking band is still fully dedicated to presenting a fully traditional bluegrass sound with a copious amount of personalized charisma, they've had personnel changes on guitar and bass. Jerry Butler (formerly with Knoxville Newgrass Boys, Lynwood Lunsford & the Misty Valley Boys, and Pine Mountain Railroad) now plays guitar and is one of several lead vocalists with Carolina Road. His rhythm and lead guitar playing are substantially rooted in tradition. As the lead vocalist for six songs on this project, Jerry infuses Carolina Road's blend with a smoother, less biting delivery than David Guthrie's incisive high tenor did when he was with the band. With a new vocalist in their mix, Carolina Road might want to explore some arrangements that stack two harmonies in choruses above Jerry's singing. On bass, Virginian Todd Meade is a young man who spent a year touring and playing fiddle with Ralph Stanley. The rest of this group still includes leader Lorraine Jordan (mandolin, vocals), Josh Goforth (fiddle, vocals), and Ben Greene (banjo, vocals). Guest musician Kim Gardner plays Dobro on one cut, Tom T. and Dixie Hall's "Come and See Me."
While still proud of their traditional music foundation, the band covers fewer old traditional numbers in favor of newer tunes from contemporary writers like Becky Buller, Mark Brinkman, Jerry Williamson, Tom T, and Dixie Hall, and Glenn and Vivian Taylor. While the Halls penned the album's title cut, it is Lorraine Jordan's own propulsive "Carolina Hurricane" that closes the album. Their potent bluegrass sound may not be as high and lonesome as it was before, but it still includes some various vocalists, twin fiddling, gospel offerings, and all-around accomplished musicianship that captures the heart of the genre. You can count on "Carolina Road" for a nostalgic journey home, and songs like "Carolina Rain" are full of pain and loneliness. If their 192 beats per minute equated to wind speed, then "Carolina Hurricane" certainly registers as a category five. A storming windstorm of solid bluegrass, this disc and its many musical moods should certainly create a tempestuous frenzy among DJs and fans. (Joe Ross, staff writer, Bluegrass Now)
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Track Listings (12) - Disc #1