As lead singer and mandolinist for the acclaimed jam band
Leftover Salmon,
Drew Emmitt is at least partially responsible for putting Colorado on the acoustic music map. His second solo album finds him teamed up with an interesting array of bluegrass and newgrass luminaries, including
Del McCoury (harmony vocals) and
Ronnie McCoury (mandolin),
Jim Lauderdale (with whom
Emmitt wrote several of the songs on this program), fiddler
Stuart Duncan, and fiddler/mandolinist
Sam Bush. Singer
John Cowan is here as well, but luckily he leaves most of his customary faux-soul-man histrionics at the door, contributing harmony vocals only. The material is a combination of fairly traditional bluegrass (
Emmitt and
Lauderdale's very fine "This House"), newgrass-style instrumental originals ("Big Ice," "Silvanite"), and border-transgressing fusion numbers (like an acoustic funk arrangement of
Bob Dylan's blues-based "Meet Me in the Morning" and a laid-back arrangement of
Little Feat's "All That You Dream"). This album would be rated more highly if
Emmitt were a stronger singer, but as it is it's sure to appeal to fans of his band and of adventurous acoustic music in general. ~ Rick Anderson