Lonely Street (CD - 2009)

Doyle Lawson's been recording with various versions of Quicksilver since 1980, quietly perfecting the art of contemporary bluegrass over three decades, and the weight of that experience is immediately audible on 2009's LONELY STREET. Lawson and company are among the very few who manage to really bring bluegrass into the 21st century while both holding onto the music's roots and avoiding hidebound traditionalism. Standout tune "Ain't a Woman Somebody When She's Gone" is essentially acoustic honky-tonk, but the high-lonesome feel of "Oh Heart, Look What You've Done" could have come straight from the Bill Monroe playbook, and the focus on original material shows a forward-facing attitude too rare in bluegrass artists of Lawson's vintage.

It's been 30 years since singer and mandolinist Doyle Lawson first put together a group of hot young bluegrass talents and called it Quicksilver. The band has gone through countless permutations, but two things have remained constant: a startlingly strong balance between vocal and instrumental chops, and an ensemble harmony sound that is jaw-dropping in its perfect intonation and creamy sweetness. As usual, everyone sounds great on this album, but lead vocalist Darren Beachley is especially strong, and the mixed program of gospel and secular tunes shows off his voice very nicely. Some of these songs are a little bit surprising: you don't necessarily expect to hear messages of environmentalism and social justice in bluegrass music, but "The Human Race" expounds powerfully on both subjects; you also don't expect a romantic happy ending in a bluegrass song (messy death and prison followed by hanging are the more common tropes), but "Johnny and Sally" presents a hillbilly version of the Romeo and Juliet story in which everything turns out fine in the end. It shouldn't be surprising that the album's finest track is a gorgeous gospel number titled "When the Last of Our Days Shall Come," but another of the album's best moments is actually an instrumental, "Down Around Bear Cove," which sounds a bit like "Grandfather's Clock" and prominently features resonator guitarist Josh Swift. Lawson has never made a bad album, and if this one doesn't stand head and shoulders above the rest of his catalog it's only because his work has always been so consistently good. ~ Rick Anderson minimize