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.

Songs:
Sally Goodin
Used To Be
Colleen Malone
Faded Love
If I Needed You
Carolina Blue
Love Me Tonight
Samantha
When You Are Lonely
I Wonder Where You Are Tonight
Dark Hollow
East Tennessee Blues

Copper Creek Records
P.O. Box 3161
Roanoke, VA 24015
CCCD-0186
c 2000

Maro Kawabata's musical journey started not in the hills of Caroline, but in Japan. After college in the United States, he returned to the United States with his American bride and raised a family and developed a love and commitment to bluegrass music. His guitar and singing skills are first-rate and he has assembled a great ensemble of musicians to present his vision of bluegrass and original music. All of the "sidemen" are household names in bluegrass and it is a credit to Maro and the other musicians that all of the groups have a refined band sound as if they had played together for years. Seven of the songs feature Maro as the lead vocal with harmonies by the other singers.

The blend is traditional and very pleasing. The other tunes are either bluegrass classics or MaroKawabata originals such as Carolina Blue and Samantha, named after one of his daughters. One highlight is the Townes Van Zandt song, If I Needed You featuring Lesley McFerron's fine voice. The sessio! ns were recorded over a period of three years and tender care was placed on each song and the result is a CD worth playing again and again.