Rating: 5/5
Review:
A fine bluegrass album
This is a fine bluegrass album by two very good musicians. I tried it because I loved (and still love) Edie Brickell's Shooting Rubber Bands At The Stars all those years ago and although it's nothing like that great record, I still enjoyed it a lot.
The album contains 13 compact songs featuring Brickell's vocals, Steve Martin's banjo and some very discreet percussion, plus some richer string arrangements at times. The songs are original and listenable, and many tell a story as bluegrass songs so often do. They are all original compositions with Martin's music and Brickell's lyrics and are unpretentious and straightforward but have genuine quality about them. Melodies and words are interesting and at times arresting, and the performances are very good indeed.
It has been said before but it's worth repeating that Steve Martin is genuinely a very good banjo player and musician. Edie Brickell, too, is a terrific singer with an individual style which I love, and she writes thoughtful, quirky and intelligent lyrics. This adds up to good songs, very well performed. My only reservation is that, somehow, I found that listening to the whole album at once got a bit much and I could have done with a little more variety to leaven the experience, but in smaller batches of a few songs at a time it's really good.
Recommended to anyone who likes original and intelligent bluegrass music.
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