Blue Highway – Sounds of Home
***½ (out of 4 stars)
Label: Rounder Records
Ready for yet another consistently pleasing album of bluegrass music from Rounder Records? The album has been out for a month (and I’ve been enjoying for that long) and it’s time to share it with you. The group is Blue Highway and the album is Sounds of Home. If these are the sounds of home, I wanna move back home and never, ever leave.
Sounds of Home arrives a decade after Still Climbing Mountains, the band’s first all-original collection. Blue Highway is known for their gift for making noticeably original music that still echoes with the sound of timeless bluegrass, and this latest album continues that reputation.
The band varies its sound enough to keep the album fresh and exciting. There are solos, duos, trios, and the whole group at times. If you wonder why Blue Highway sounds so natural, so easy, and just so right it’s no doubt because all five original members remain in the band: Tim Stafford (guitar), Wayne Taylor (bass), Shawn Lane (mandolin), Rob Ickes (Dobro) and Jason Burleson (banjo). Everyone in the band has several moments to shine, but I wanted to especially mention the solid dobro sounds that come from Rob Ickes on “Bluebird Days.” It just doesn’t get any better than the rolling, forward perpetuation of his fine instrumental work.
With the exception of the traditional “Nobody’s Fault But Mine,” all 12 tracks on this album are originals. No one fuses bluegrass tradition with the future like Blue Highway. If you haven’t traveled down their musical road, it is a path well worth checking out.
To preview or purchase this album on Amazon.com, click here.
Track Listing:
1. I Ain’t Gonna Lay My Hammer Down
2. Sounds of Home
3. Bluebird Days
4. Restless Working Man
5. Heather and Billy
6. Storm
7. Roaring Creek
8. Only Seventeen
9. If You’ve Got Something to Say
10. My Heart was Made to Love You
11. Nobody’s Fault but Mine
12. Drinking from a Deeper Well
