Brand New Strings (CD - 2004)

Personnel: Ricky Skaggs (vocals, guitar, claw hammer banjo, mandolin); Cody Kilby, Bryan Sutton (guitar); Johnny Hyland (electric guitar); Jim Mills (banjo); Mike Snyder (claw hammer banjo); Molly Skaggs (dulcimer); Andy Leftwich (mandolin); Stuart Duncan (fiddle); Jeff Taylor, Tim Laure (accordion); Mark Fain (bass instrument); Sam Bacco (spoons, percussion, bells); Keith Sewell, Paul Brewster, Rebecca Lynn Howard, Sharon White (background vocals).

Given his instrumental virtuosity, superb taste in personnel and songs, and his consistently excellent discography, it seems almost impossible for Ricky Skaggs to make a bad album. BRAND NEW STRINGS does nothing to shake that standard. With Kentucky Thunder, Skaggs's fiery, spot-on backing band, the singer/composer/multi-instrumentalist mixes traditional and progressive tendencies on this album, reeling off dizzying musical feats, while keeping the whole as cool and down-home as a glass of lemonade in the summer.

Skaggs's easy tenor singing leads the way on most tunes, but it is his blistering mandolin playing and Kentucky Thunder's fiddle-and-guitar work that really take the spotlight. The opener, "Sally Jo," has a classic blues-drenched bluegrass quality, and the slower-tempoed "Lonesome and Dry as a Bone" is infused with a plaintive, yearning feel. Skaggs has a soft spot for reflective songs with positive messages, as on the narrative ballad "Love Does It Every Time," but he never fails to bring back a propulsive energy, as with the breathless title track. BRAND NEW STRINGS is another impressive notch in the belt of contemporary bluegrass's leading light. minimize