Here is a group of polished musicians playing bluegrass tunes and a few non bluegrass tunes that have been recorded by the likes of Tony Rice and other modern sounding artists.
"Above the Town", has coined their band as "contemporary bluegrass ensemble, blending a mixture of traditional bluegrass sounds with Celtic influences, jazz, and swing'. Whether they are called or considered contemporary, modern, polished or any other label, the bottom line is that they are excellent in all aspects of playing bluegrass music.
For example, you can feel it in the songs that these musicians are definitely driving even when the song is done a bit slower as with the song Clinch Mountain Backstep. They are able to take Clinch Mountain Backstep that is usually played with an upbeat tempo and slow it down quite a bite and still be able to "find the groove". Oh, to be able to present a song like that as well as this group does. Then they turn around and give us Gold Rush with a faster than usual rendition. Taking care in playing within the boundaries of the melody and without the additions of unneeded notes the song comes across as clean, uncluttered and tasteful. Most of all, you will want to play it more than once in order to enjoy it to the fullest.
Hopefully, I now have your attention enough to talk about the singing and then some. "Above the Town", is able to tackle any tune with ease. Every song as performed on this CD is now one of my favorites. So now it's just the degree of favorite that I point out for you a few songs. For the top of the top picks and not to list too many I'll take for the instrumentals, Clinch Mountain Backstep and Gold Rush. For the vocals and this is a tough pick I'd go for Ginseng Sullivan, Fare Thee Well and High Lonesome Sound which grows and grows on you.
All of these musicians are at the top of their form. Not taking anything away from any of them I will say that Jon Peik, the banjo player is so perfect with the roll and tasteful licks that I will just focus on his playing on some of the songs. Then I'll listen again to the same tune but this time I'll focus on Bill Brenckle, the guitar player who is about as clean a picker, as you could ever want to hear. When he is done playing his break you can still remember most all of the notes he played since he does not go overboard with quantity of notes. He does it all with quality.
"Above the Town", has sound bites of all their songs on their web site. For sound bite samples Click Here
This is one of those CD's that you do not want to pass by. You can listen to this CD over and over and over and .......
