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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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| Mark Newton | Follow Me Back To The Fold |
| Review by Brenda Hough | |
| Songs (with duet partner):
We Can’t Go Wrong - Rhonda Vincent Used To Be - Dale Ann Bradley A Child Again - Kathy Chiavola Candle of Love - Lynn Morris If It Ain’t Love - The Whites High Lonesome - Kim & Barb Fox Pain of Loving You - Gloria Belle Voice of My Saviour - Claire Lynch My Darling - Valerie Smith Never Looking Back - Lynn Morris The Day That Lester Died - Claire Lynch On The Lonesome Wind - Gina Britt Follow Me Back To The Fold - “The Girls” |
Rebel Records Personnel: |
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Though “Follow Me Back To The Fold” is the last song on the CD, it serves as an introduction to this concept album by Mark Newton. After finishing a previous CD, Newton realized that he had not recorded with any female musicians and that there was not a CD recognizing the many female artists in the field. With this project, he has created a compilation with most of the top females in bluegrass and has gathered songs from the past and present. It follows in the tradition of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Will The Circle Be Unbroken and brings the talents of some of the earlier singers such as Gloria Belle and pays tribute in the title song to Mother Maybelle Carter. The title song was written especially for the project by Dixie and Tom T. Hall. Mark has been in bluegrass for much of his life and was part of Knoxville Grass and the Virginia Squires. While most of the focus is on the vocalists and songs, there is a powerful group of backup musicians involved in the project: Missy Raines on bass, Kristin Scott on banjo, Tony Rice, Fred Travers, Dudley Connell, Ronnie Stewart and Alan Bibey are on most of the songs. Each song deserves to be a “highlight” piece but “Voice of My Saviour” and “The Day Lester Died” with Claire Lynch stand out as a strong gospel song and a tribute to Lester Flatt, one of the bluegrass pioneers. A particularly touching song, it also mentions the “second generation” with bluegrass “changing and moving to the here and now.” Mark's album shows this passing of the torch to the new generation of singers. “High Lonesome” with the Fox Sisters has some beautiful harmonies accompanied by some beautiful dobro solos. Lynn Morris is on “Candle of Love” and plays clawhammer banjo on this song and crosspicking guitar on “A Child Again.” Other outstanding songs are “On The Lonesome Wind” written by Ronnie McCoury and Billy Smith, “My Darling,”by Mike Burns and “A Child Again", written by Terry and Billy Smith. Many of the other vocalists are the namesakes of their own bands but Valerie Smith of Liberty Pike and Gina Britt from New Vintage are brought out front and center. Their band CDs will be worth looking for in the stores. All in all, a tremendous achievement by Mark and a CD worth finding. |
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