Search - Emmitt-Nershi Band :: New Country Blues (Dig)

The Emmitt-Nershi studio debut does not disappoint

Nobody important | 11/21/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Drew Emmitt (from Leftover Salmon) and Bill Nershi (from String Cheese Incident) have been playing together semi-frequently on the bluegrass jamband touring scene for a while now, and fans have been waiting for an official release with better sound quality than the bootlegs floating around out there. New Country Blues does not disappoint. The pairing of Emmitt and Nershi makes perfect sense. Their respective bands both have their roots in bluegrass, but play music with utter contempt for the concept of genre boundaries, and the two play complementary instruments (mandolin and guitar). What is most surprising about the Emmitt-Nershi Band, then, is how traditional they frequently sound. Leftover Salmon billed themselves as "polyethnic cajun slamgrass," and while SCI didn't have their own genre moniker, they blended their bluegrass with more rock and jazz. When Emmitt and Nershi play together, they seem to meet on common ground-- bluegrass. The result is an album that is more traditional than one might expect from a Leftover Salmon-String Cheese Incident cross-over, or even from Drew Emmitt's wonderful solo albums. Of course, "traditional," is relative. Bill Monroe would scoff at the very idea of calling this one bluegrass, but John Hartford would surely love it, and one gets the impression that the band was going for something in the vein of Hartford's classic, Aereo-plain. Of course, they stretch out instrumentally, and they incorporate some Grisman-type newgrass, but compared to anything by LoS or SCI, this album sounds almost anachronistic. That isn't to say that the album lacks vitality. It is an all-around satisfying album that doesn't have the energy you would get from one of their live shows, but has better sound quality than the bootlegs. It is also more lively than Nershi's previous side project, Honkeytonk Homeslice. Here's hoping Emmitt and Nershi put out a well-recorded live album soon.



Finally, if you like this stuff, do yourself a favor and check out Larry Keel."