This debut album from Rebel Records introduces a rock-solid bluegrass outfit from Texas. Guitarist/vocalist
Karl Shiflett has a classic grasser's voice, and his five bandmates can certainly pick it. Perhaps the most intriguing thing about this group's sound is the way in which touches of country & western musical vocabulary work their way into the otherwise contemporary bluegrass sound. There are times in these tracks when a bluegrass tune feels like it's about to fly off into Texas swing.
Shiflett may be a self-professed student of
Bill Monroe, but his fiddler, Kirk Brandenberger, has obviously been listening to
Bob Wills,
Johnny Gimble, and their like. This tension between classic grass and country & western gives
Shiflett's music a dynamic that is uncommon in bluegrass and very appealing. In addition,
Shiflett and his boys have recorded a song titled "The One I Love Is Gone," which
Monroe sang for
Shiflett at the 1995 Bean Blossom Festival and suggested it would be a good tune for
Shiflett to sing. (
Monroe never recorded the song.) This is an auspicious debut album from a group that seems bound for bigger things. ~ Philip Van Vleck