Search - Johann Sebastian Bach, John / McCartney, Paul Lennon, Charlie Provenza :: Bach >> Beatles >> Bluegrass

Monstrously good!

J. Ross | Roseburg, OR USA | 05/25/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Playing Time - 50:51 -- With over a decade under their belts, The Nashville Mandolin Ensemble has now trimmed down to a tight-knit and lean sextet for their fourth album, a presentation of 15 numbers recorded live at Vanderbilt University. The group features mando-family instruments (mandolins, mandola, mandocello) supplemented with 5-string viola, guitar and bass. The artists include Butch Baldassari, Stephan Dudash, Walter Carter, John Hedgecoth, Van Manakas, and David Spicher. In keeping with the program and album's title ("Bach, Beatles, Bluegrass"), the album opens with three neat classical Bach compositions, followed by three meaty selections from John Lennon and Paul McCartney.



The "bluegrass" is much more than just that with tunes from the genres of jazz, Gypsy, swing, Dawg, new acoustic and old-time music. Contempoary compositions from mandolinist Charlie Provenza and guitarist Roger Hudson are first-rate-and-a-half. It's amazing to hear what these hot pickers do with a number like "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed," written by Dickey Betts, who was lead guitarist with the Allman Brothers in the sixties and seventies. Then, they can also evoke images of a moonlit evening at a café in Paris with their simply dee-lish appeteaser, "Nuages" from Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. It's a joy to hear musicians of this caliber take on a wide range of material from "Stardust" to "Happy Birthday, Bill Monroe." Ensemble member Butch Baldassari contributes a bouncy original "Jack Rabbit Trail," which provides some icing for this mandocake. Not losing sight of their roots, two traditional numbers close out the album. Walter Carter, mandola player, is deserving of special recognition for his quality and classy arranging of seven of the songs. For a live recording, the sound quality is excellent and fortunately no annoying audience applause is included. This album is monstrously good, and it is further proof that Nashville currently sports one of the finest mandolin ensembles in the world. (Joe Ross, staff writer, Bluegrass Now)

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