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Northern California Bluegrass Society provides this CD review. You can find our most current reviews on our Message Board, where you can comment or query the author directly. Our monthly magazine, Bluegrass By the Bay also publishes them. Return to CD Reviews. |
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| Lou Reid & Carolina | Blue Heartache |
| Review by Keith Rollag | |
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REB-CD-1762 Personnel: special guests |
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Lou Reid has been a "player" in the national bluegrass scene for many years. A member of Doyle Lawson's original Quicksilver band, Reid has also done stints with Ricky Skaggs and IIIrd Tyme Out, and also tours with the most recent version of the Seldom Scene. Carolina was formed in 1992, and the latest configuration includes Gena Britt on banjo, Brian Stephens on guitar and Jeff Deaton on bass. Young but dead solid on their respective instruments, the ensemble has a contemporary style similar to Blue Highway, Alison Krauss, IIIrd Tyme Out, etc. Though founding member Terry Baucom's absence is clearly noticeable in the mix, the result is still pretty good. The title track "Blue Heartache" is country-ish bluegrass with lots of three part harmony, and "I Stood and Watched You Go" is a Alison Krauss-style ballad that showcases Gena's fine voice. Then the band dips into the Bill Monroe songbook with "Letter From My Darlin," and segways into a Christian Contemporary song Gena sings called "Living In Our Country World." "Helen" is a straight-ahead bluegrass standard, and "Out on the Highway" is a slow, country waltz ballad. The band then performs a pro-bluegrass tune called "Grass Lover" that is a little too hokey for my taste, but redeems themselves with a strong version of the folk standard "Take This Hammer." Gena sings another slow country ballad called "Memories Don't Die," and then comes the best song on the CD - a rolling, traditional-sounding Lou Reid original called "Ain't Nobody Gonna Tie Me Down," complete with a Tony Rice-like guitar break. They then reprise the Old & the Way song "The Hobo Song" and finish with a more contemporary bluegrass ballad entitled "I've Been Over You Before." Overall, I think the album lacks the drive and energy of previous Lou Reid projects, and the song selection is a bit weak, but it's not bad. If you enjoy the newer shades of bluegrass this probably wouldn't disappoint. |
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