Rating:
Genre:
Country
Release Date: 08/01/2006
Ricky Skaggs has featured instrumentals on his various albums before (where they're often among the highlights), but this set is the first time
Skaggs and his
Kentucky Thunder bluegrass ensemble have released an album solely of instrumentals, which makes this a special treat. From the Irish feel of the opening
"Going to Richmond," Skaggs and the band hit a confident and assured groove that is at times as much
string band jazz as it is
bluegrass, and on the absolutely huge-sounding
"Crossing the Briney," which makes used of
the Nashville String Machine, the sound shifts closer to
classical music, complete with massive, swelling crescendos. But this set has a
traditional side, too, highlighted by the easy-rolling
"Missing Vassar," and while
Skaggs wrote all the pieces here, it isn't difficult to imagine
Skaggs and
Kentucky Thunder as an
old-timey string band hanging out on the porch and playing a set of local favorites on a Saturday afternoon. It is this ability to stretch the boundaries of
bluegrass while still adhering to a
traditional base that makes
Skaggs and company so interesting, and when
Andy Statman brings his clarinet to the gentle, bright
"Gallatin Rag" in a guest spot, the music ceases to be
bluegrass or
jazz or
traditional or anything in particular, but emerges instead as a hybrid of everything at once.
~Steve Leggett, All Music Guide
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