|
Bryan Sutton is a guitar player extraordinare and this CD is an excellent recording from him. Bryan's picking is clean and precise. I can't say enough about the picking on this album. It is so very enjoyable. This is a great bluegrass album with many of the top flight bluegrass pickers of today. To make it short and sweet - buy this album, you will be impressed.
He swings and flies along, seemingly without any possibility of making a mistake. No doubt about it, Bryan Sutton can really play. Decision At Glady Fork and Minor Swing, in particular, capture his technical ability and his musicianship. At first listen, I thought the the music on this disc, for all its polish, was bit soulless; and while none of the songs will make your skin crawl like that high lonesome sound of yore, this is a beautifully contrsucted disc, with a great variety of tunes. It may not have any of the terror of the Stanley Brothers, but it will make a great addition to anyone's growing acoustic music collection.
This CD is full of fast instrumentals like the opener, "Decision at Glady Fork." "Highland Rim," "Walk Among the Woods," "Grover's Glen," and the fast little reel "Tater Patch" all display similar dexterity. From U2's "Rattle & Hum," he takes "When Love Comes to Town" and gives it an old-timey country feel. Sutton who is from Asheville, North Carolina was part of Ricky Skaggs' Kentucky Thunder band. Bryan Sutton blazes on the acoustic guitar. The CD closes with a stunning instrumental of just solo guitar, "The Good Deed." The wistful emotions Sutton wrenches from the guitar and tune are worth the price of the CD. Sutton also recasts a number of songs.
Bill Monroe's "Brown County Breakdown" is remade as a fast guitar romp with Haynie's blazing fiddle dueling with Sutton's guitar.
A pitfall for a CD with many instrumentals is that they may start to sound similar.
Gospel singer Becky Isaacs Bowman does a stately folk vocal on the lovely "The Water Is Wide." Sutton played on Dolly Parton's "The Grass Is Blue"; she returns the favor with a passionate vocal on her song "Smoky Mountain Memories." George and Ira Gershwin's "Lady Be Good" is given a great treatment.
The different guitars played are lovingly displayed on the insert.
"Minor Swing" catches a bluegrass groove with Haynie's fiddle joining Sutton on guitar.
For the most part, Sutton escapes this dilemma.
Ricky Skaggs' mandolin and Aubrie Haynie's fiddle spark the bluegrass tune "Blue Night" with a guest vocal by Pat Enright of the Nashville Bluegrass Band.
The three tunes which honor his grandfather in "Chief's Medley" take you to a time in the North Carolina mountains when an 8 year old learned to play from watching his granddad.
If you've heard Sutton on The Dixie Chic's "Fly" CD or with Skaggs or Parton or are just looking for a strong acoustic guitar, this is one you'll want to take home.
A great mixture as stated by others of traditional bluegrass along with a beautiful rendition of Reinhardt and Grapelli's Minor Swing and Gershwins Lady Be Good. I don't rate many albums with 5 stars. They have to really knock me for a loop and this album does the trick. I also was very impressed with each of the vocal tracks which added a unique flavor to the collection of songs. The harmony of the Isaacs on The Water is Wide was worth the album alone.
I went to Enka High School with Bryan, in Asheville,NC,and had the opportunity to perform with him on many occasions. I doubt he even remembers the conversation. Funny stuff. Absolutely the most phenomenal talent I have ever witnessed. Let me assure you, Bryan's boundless talent is exceeded only by his genuine humility. I recall one day, shortly before graduation, Bryan and I were talking about what the future held. The best moments, however were the impromptu sessions either before or after rehearsals, when purely improvising, Bryan would completely enrichen and illuminate with his accompaniment, whatever piece was being played. I was absolutely flattered.
Bryan asked me, half-kiddng, if in the event I didn't do anything in music could he have my songs. My long since forgotten, painfully youthful, overwrought songs. Of course my chosen path has taken me away from the music industry as a profession, but to no one's surprise, Bryan is enjoying the success few deserve and even less achieve. Congratulations, Bryan, on your first solo album.
|
