It's Just the Night (CD - 2003)

IT'S JUST THE NIGHT was nominated for the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album.

Personnel: Joe Rice, Wilson Waters (tenor saxophone).

Audio Mixers: Steve Chandler; Brent King.

Recording information: Signal Path Studios; Skaggs Place Studio.

Photographer: Erick Anderson .

Don't be put off by the strikingly cheesy album cover, IT'S JUST THE NIGHT is a jewel in the crown of hard-hitting bluegrass champs the Del McCoury Band; it even garnered Del and the boys a Grammy nomination. Just as they did on their previous release (appropriately titled DEL AND THE BOYS), the band starts off with a grassed-up version of a Richard Thompson song; this time around it's the broken-hearted survivor's song "Dry My Tears and Move On." As always, McCoury and company are masters of turning out hardcore, no-frills bluegrass, while simultaneously introducing just a little something extra to turn one's ear slightly to the left--the vaguely Eastern-sounding scale present on the hard-charging "My Love Will Not Change" is a perfect example. The band's keening, razor-sharp vocal harmonies and terse, electrifying instrumental interplay provide as exultant a kick as ever. minimize