Sierra Hull “Secrets” (Rounder Records) will be released tomorrow, May 6, 2008

Time is ticking and May 6 is almost here. Mark it as a date in Bluegrass History.

Why the big fuss? May 6, 2008 marks the date 16 year old mandolin prodigy Sierra Hull releases “Secrets,” her first solo album on Rounder Records.

Sierra is a one of a kind, pure gem with an astounding talent for playing our beloved Bluegrass. The technical knowledge she possesses for Mandolin and Guitar is decades beyong her years.

But wait, it gets better. The girl sings with emotion, phrasing and intonation that I can only compare to the singing on Alison Krauss’ 1987 album “Too Late To Cry.” To tell the truth, I have not heard a young female in the Bluegrass genre since Alison’s ‘87 release with more promise than Miss Hull.

“Secrets” does not disappoint the hype surrounding its release. Co-Produced by Hull and Ron Block of Alison Krauss and Union Station fame, the album is incredible. Yes, “Secrets” is jam packed with great pickers. Sierra and Block recruited some help from the guys in Union Station, Tony Rice, Chris Jones, Jim VanCleve, Stuart Duncan, Rob Ickes, Jason Moore and Cory Walker, an incredible 18 year old banjo picker that also plays in Sierra’s band Highway 111.

The real story here is Sierra herself. There is not a track on this album I do not love. It’s the first album in a while where I have not found myself using the fast forward button on the old CD player. Just one listen to the songs “The Hard Way,” and You’ll fall in love with this album. The song is mature, mellow, tasteful and beautiful.

The tune “Hullarious,” written by Sierra, is a lesson in flawless mandolin picking. Another beautiful song on the album, written by Sierra and Stacey Hull is “Two Winding Rails.” It is another testament to this young lady’s seemingly endless talent.

Obviously this is an album I believe everyone should have on the shelf and in the CD player. Sierra Hull is the real deal. “Secrets” is the first stepping stone of what I believe to be a future legend.

I am so looking forward to listening and watching Sierra Hull’s career blossom.

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The Two Man Gentlemen Band “Heavy Petting” (Serious Business Records)

The Two Man Gentlemen Band is comprised of Andy Bean ( Vocals, Banjo, & Foot Tambourine, Piano) and Fuller Condon (Vocals & Bass) who got there start spending two years as street musicians in New York’s Central Park. The CD also includes Travis Harrison on percussion and Justin Smith on “violin.”

“Heavy Petting,” the Gentlemen’s 3rd record on Serious Business Records, features a batch of songs that are chock full of humor, heavy innuendo, wit, energy and some raucous grooves. Bean and Condon’s music is a veritable melting pot of influences seasoned with vaudeville, swing, jazz, blues and old time country. The pace on the CD runs from a trot to absolutely frenetic with some of the haughtiest kazoo solos you’ve ever heard.

The CD kicks off in high gear and sets the tone for what’s to come with a tongue in cheek ode to the United State’s largest President, “William Howard Taft,” touting “you can’t sneak nothing past William Howard Taft.” The Gentlemen have also released a video for “William Howard Taft.”

“The Square Root of Two” is an upbeat geeky romantic serenade for those who are more mathematically inclined. The wit of Andy Bean proclaiming “My love is like the square root of two written as a decimal” will surely come to be the “pop the big question” theme song for mathematicians everywhere. After one listen you’ll agree, how could it not?

“Heavy Petting” is one of the funnest albums I’ve listened to in a long time. On the first, second, heck even the third listen, the Gentlemen’s songwriting leaves you on the edge of your seat throughout the album wondering what hilarity or subtle twisted lyric is coming down the pipe. Andy Bean, the group’s main songwriter, writes lyrics  so off the beaten path they are virtually cliche free.

The Two Man Gentlemen Band , at the very least, should go down in the history books as the duo who made the kazoo hip again.

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The Kruger Brothers “The Suite”

Maybe I wasn’t paying that much attention to the PR material that had come my way or had been posted on the Internet. I was under the mistaken impression that “The Suite,” the new Kruger Brothers release, would be based on the group’s recent ventures with symphony orchestras.

Suite. Symphonies. Orchestras. Get where I may have been coming from?

Well, “The Suite,” recently released on the brothers’ own label, Double Time Music, is just the Kruger Brothers — Jens on banjo, Uwe on banjo and their longtime music collaborator, Joel Landsberg on bass. Saying “just the Kruger Brothers,” however, is a terrible injustice.

The Krugers are nothing short of magnificent, the classiest of acts as can be found on today’s bluegrass and acoustic scene. Their music defies description. Especially when one considers it’s made by a trio. The Krugers’ sound is both intense and tranquil, it’s classic, classy and classical, and it’s jazzy and grassy — all at the same time and packed into one CD or one of the brothers’ mesmerizing concerts.

“The Suite,” according to the sparse liner notes, came about in three consecutive nights of recording.

“We feel certain songs that we’ve written over the years compliment each other when connected seamlessly, even though some of them were written or recorded as individual pieces,” the trio states on the CD cover, adding an explanation that “The Suite” has been part of their concert program since December 2005. That may explain why such an awesome and virtually flawless project was tracked in three evenings in the studio.

Several of the songs on “The Suite” are no strangers to Kruger fans. Uwe revisits “Choices,” the brothers’ subtle and thought-provoking gospel message. Jens does a new take on “Shower,” a classical-like banjo tune that makes me want to jump up from my desk and look out the window for the approaching thunderstorm.

“Winterport” and “Roll Away,” two other vocals on the CD, are sea-themed melodies.

Jens Kruger very evidentally sees no limits to what can be produced on the native American five-string banjo. He’s as much of a pioneer to today’s banjo fans as Earl Scruggs was 60-some years ago.

“Premonitions I-IV” is nearly six-minutes of mostly unaccompanied banjo, written by Jens, that could have easily come from the pen of some 18th Century composer as a work for solo piano. The lovely piece is a testament that Jens Kruger very evidentally sees no limits to what can be produced on the native American five-string banjo. He’s as much of a pioneer to today’s banjo fans as Earl Scruggs was 60-some years ago.

And just when you think this CD is all about gently rolling seas, autumn leaves, all things of ethereal beauty, near the end is this rockin’ little tune called “Theme From Pacific Morning.” It starts out with some Chuck Berry-esque guitar and banjo, takes a hard right turn into a banjo breakdown, swings back to the old bluesy rock mode and finishes up with a syncopated, jazzy sound.

The CD’s finale puts a real stamp on what the Kruger Brothers really are. Like everything on this CD, the last song is one of their own tunes, “I Know Some Day,” a sweet melancholy song of parting that could have been written — and performed just as it’s performed on the CD — 100 years ago. It, perhaps, is the Krugers’ own “Happy Trails.”

The Krugers are from Switzerland, but now live in North Carolina. They have a real feel and love for American music of the past, as evidenced by many of the songs they’ve recorded through the years. “I Know Some Day” captures that feel.

“The Suite” joins the stack of Kruger recordings that strongly proves a point: Switzerland, America, North Carolina, it makes no difference where they reside. The Krugers’ music comes from deep inside places that few musicians ever reach.

A FOOTNOTE: At the outset, I mentioned the venture the Krugers are promoting with symphony orchestras across the country. The score, penned by the Krugers and entitled “Music From the Spring,” has been performed with the Bangor, Maine, Symphony. A DVD of the performance is in the mix-down process and will be available later this year.

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Longview “Deep in the Mountains” (Rounder)

True-blue bluegrass fanatics, rejoice! Longview is back!

Not just back, but roaring back, soaring back like a shuttle launch in Florida.

Rocket science? You bet. Don Rigsby, an original member of the bluegrass super-group, even sounds a bit like a scientist in discussing the latest Longview project.

“When I’m playing, my goal is to make them all sound good; and that’s their goal, too,” Rigsby comments in a press release announcing the April 8 release of Longview’s “Deep in the Mountains” on the Rounder label. “Because if I can’t make them sound good, they’re not going to be able to make me sound good. That’s just one of the laws; the whole is no greater than the sum of its parts. That’s bluegrass physics.”

Hmmmm, heady stuff, there, Mr. Rigsby. But your theory, your “law,” as you call it, is proven well on every track of “Deep in the Mountains.”

This is Longview’s fourth CD and the first in six years. It features a revised lineup from the original band that included Rigsby, James King, Dudley Connell, Marshall Wilborn, Joe Mullins and Glen Duncan.

The 2008 version has Connell, Mullins and Duncan out of the mix and replaced by J.D. Crowe on banjo, Ron Stewart on fiddle and Lou Reid on guitar.

Crowe follows Rigsby’s line of thinking about the band, but in a less scientific analogy. “You have to have a band sound, be a unit,” he says. “Just like a baseball team, one man can’t win it. And that’s kind of what Longview is all about …”

So much for the philosophy and the hype. How’s the CD sound, you ask? Well, a few one-word descriptions come to mind: Awesome. Powerful. Energized. Terrific.

The band’s lineup leaves little doubt that the instrumentation on “Deep in the Mountains” is going to be top-notch — and it certainly is that. Nobody picks hard-driving, traditional banjo quite like Crowe, and nobody does fill-in and background fiddle licks quite like Ron Stewart. Throw in the factor that Stewart, up until recently, was a member of Crowe’s The New South for quite a few years, and you can guess the magic these two masters yield in the Longview setting.

But the pure joy this band exudes doesn’t lie so much in the instrumentation as it does the vocal work. It’s incredibly good — as good as any version of Longview, maybe even a dollop or two better, with Lou Reid’s voice now part of the formula. Reid takes the lead on the CD’s first cut, “Eating Out of Your Hand;” the old Jim and Jesse tune, “I’ll Love Nobody But You;” and the Louvin Brothers’ “I’m Gonna Love You One More Time.”

Rigsby, with his high-in-the-sky tenor, also steps into the lead vocal role on “Room at the Top of the Stars,” “Old Log Cabin” and “At the First Fall of Snow.”

Then, there’s James King and his powerful, soulful vocals. Where Reid, and even to a greater extent, Rigsby, have that polished, high-lonesome sound, King brings Longview deep down to earth with his dirt-farmer, gritty vocal deliveries. His contrasting style is especially effective on an old Whitey Shafer-Dallas Frazier song, “Baptism of Jesse Taylor.”

The CD has one instrumental, a rousing Ron Stewart arrangement of the old fiddle tune, “Cotton Eyed Joe.” It’s a scorcher.

You can’t help but believe that “Deep in the Mountains” is going to be a huge success. It has the right pickers, the right singers, the right songs. To follow Rigsby’s way of thinking, every element in the handbook of bluegrass physics is here — and in just the right combination.

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Stacy York “Kentucky in the Rain” (Blue Circle Records)

I’d never heard Stacy York sing until a promotional copy of her new CD, “Kentucky in the Rain,” came across my desk. I confess, my first glimpse of the CD told me it was one to put on the back burner, something I’d get to on a rainy day in Illinois. It just had that semi-pro look — not a lot of splashy, eye-catching graphics on the cover and, hmmm, room enough on the back page of the insert to promote a car dealership, a photographer and a Holiday Inn Express.

Well, I didn’t wait. I gave it a good listen a couple days after receiving the CD, which is on Tom T. and Miss Dixie Hall’s Blue Circle Records label. I’ve been listening for several days now and my conclusion: Forget the rains and the clouds, this gal shines when she sings.

York has been associated for several years with Joe Isaacs & Mountain Bluegrass, so it’s no surprise that Isaacs and several members of his prominent musical family play supporting roles on several tracks. Needless to say, the Isaacs know how to embellish a good thing.

York has one of those strong, pure voices that’s crystal clear and well suited for the material she chose for “Kentucky in the Rain.” It glistens right out of the starting gate, on the first track, the title cut, which was written by the Halls. Tom T. even makes an appearance on the cut with some fine bluegrass rhythm guitar playing that has all the bass runs tucked in all the right places. In fact, before I even knew it was Hall playing guitar, my ears perked up at the production on the song, which gives the rhythm guitar an unusual prominence in the mix.

York tackles some standards on this CD with gusto. Notable are Bill Monroe’s “Can’t You Hear Me Calling,” and Carter Stanley’s “I’ll Just Go Away.” The Halls have another delightful tune on the track list, a swing-style ditty called, “I Don’t See What I Once Saw in You.” York also gives special treatment to the country classic-sounding, “Where the Roses Never Fade.”

Joe Isaacs brings his hard-driving banjo style on most of the cuts and also adds the harmony vocals on the bulk of the CD. He also steps up to sing lead on an Onie Wheeler tune that’s become a bluegrass gospel standard, “Go Home.”

Others handling instrumental chores are Rebecca Isaacs Bowman on rhythm guitar, Curnie Lee Wilson on lead guitar, Jesse Stockman on fiddle and Sonya Isaacs on mandolin.

Co-production credits go to York and Joe Isaacs.

“Kentucky in the Rain” veers little off the beaten path of traditional bluegrass. But York’s pleasant voice is strong enough to hold the attention of bluegrassers, newgrassers and even fans of classic country.

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