COUNTRY: OLD-TIME & BLUEGRASS

Bluegrass phenom Billy Strings teams up with his adoptive father on a terrific set of mostly old-time classics. Billy’s virtuosity shines, as you’d expect; but the payoff comes from the sense of closeness in the collaboration and the homemade feel of the recordings. Additional musicians include two Del McCoury offspring, Jerry Douglas. This reminded me of the wonderful Will the Circle Be Unbroken sessions.

FCC clean

1 * fast. Traditional bluegrass tune; very fine picking & duet singing (2:57)
2 * slow. Dad sings George Jones’s forlorn prison song in a Roy Acuff style. (3:06)
3 ** fast. Traditional (I think) but associated with Doc Watson; this version is terrific (3:07)
4 slow. maudlin folk song about daddy’s drunken ways (3:12)
5 * mid-tempo. Instrumental folk dance w fiddle, banjo & mandolin solos (3:32)
6 * mid-tempo. Another prison song (originally by the Stanley Brothers); pretty good (2:08)
7 mid-tempo. Dad’s rough singing is heartfelt on this classic bluegrass gospel tune (Jimmy Martin, Doyle Lawson, others), not the recent country hit by Little Big Town. (3:22)
8 ** mid-fast. Rousing Oak Ridge Boys song with very fine ensemble playing (3:13)
9 very slow. Mournful tale of a boy who’s left home & gone bad; too slow, too sappy (3:41)
10 slow. A pretty song (the Judds & Larry Sparks both scored hits with it) about not fitting into city life and missing one’s rural home; it’s sweetly sung but not among the best (4:31)
11 mid-slow. Instrumental folk tune (perhaps slightly Celtic in origins) (2:49)
12 mid-tempo. A man rues his bad choices in this old Grand Ole Opry style song. (2:49)
13 ** mid-tempo. Terrific Bill Monroe tune is covered with respect & great style (3:23)
14 * slow. In this old-timey ballad a mother begs a judge for mercy for her son; Billy’s mom sings in a touchingly untrained Appalachian voice. (3:04)