CD review: Blue Highway, “Some Day: 15th Anniversary Collection”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Bluegrass
Blue Highway “Some Day: The Fifteenth Anniversary Collection” (Rounder Records)
Influential contemporary bluegrass band Blue Highway commemorates its 15th anniversary with a new compilation showcasing the group’s exceptional musical skill, harmony and range.
Founded in 1994, the quintet actually celebrated 15 years together in 2009. Rounder Records last week marked the occasion with a special collection of favorites from the band’s tenure with the label, which started in 2001, along with a few new songs.
Remarkably, Blue Highway still boasts its original lineup — Jason Burleson (banjo, guitar, mandolin), Rob Ickes (dobro, Weissenborn-style slide guitars), Shawn Lane (mandolin, fiddle, guitar), Tim Stafford (guitar) and Wayne Taylor (bass) — with all five sharing lead and harmony vocals.
The progressive group crafts music that is undeniably bluegrass but sounds fresh. The title track is a new recording of the band’s most-requested song, a richly beautiful gospel original brilliantly executed a capella. It sounds as classic as the group’s thoughtful a capella rendition of the venerable hymn “Wondrous Love.”
The album opens with a new song, “Cold and Lowdown Lonesome Blues,” a deceptively uptempo heartbroken ballad. Another new track, “Bleeding for a Little Peace of Mind,” takes a poignant look at depression, but guest singer Darrell Scott doesn’t quite have the vocal gravitas to pull it off.
Blue Highway offers two different takes on the archetypal redemption theme with the sweet “Seven Sundays in a Row” and the clever “Wild Urge to Ramble.” The band creates goose-bump-inducing atmospherics on “Sycamore Hollow,” a Civil War-era romance that leads to violence, and “The Seventh Angel,” taken from the biblical Book of Revelation and featuring Alison Krauss on background vocals. But the compilation shows the group’s scope, with the jangly perseverance anthem “Still Climbing Mountains” offering a clear contrast to these spooky songs.
— BAM
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