Search - Rhonda Vincent :: Destination Life

Vincent's "Destination" of Greater Things to Come

T. Yap | Sydney, NSW, Australia | 06/16/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Prime Cuts: I Can Make You Whisper I Love You, Crazy What a Lonely Heart Can Do, What a Woman Wants to Hear



Vincent's on a mission to make bluegrass music cool again. Her slick, glamorous, and multi-million dollar look on the CD sleeve looks like it's a page torn out of the latest Cosmopolitan magazine. Nevertheless, bluegrass fans need not fret as this is solidly a bluegrass record, with all the good old rustic instruments (e.g., fiddles, mandolin, and steel) on display. Nevertheless, the songs address the malfeasance and triumphs of modern living that ought to crown her mission with success. Assaying help mostly from her touring band the Rage, with band member Hunter Berry sharing production chores with Vincent, there's a more in-house feel to the album. This breeds an endearing familiarity and ease which avails for Vincent the opportunity to express herself more intimately and passionately.



There are lots of positives, most of which are to be found in the songs Vincent has garnered. Vincent brings an aching torment to Pete Goble's "I Can Make You Whisper I Love You" that you can't help but feel the morose and pain to this slow barroom ballad of regret and love abandoned. Like a perfect follow-up to "I Can Make You Whisper I Love You," instead of brooding of a love that has left, Vincent gets in a car for a getaway on the title track "Destination Life," a somehow more hopeful entry coming from the pens of New Zealand's bluegrass artist Donna Dean. And prepare for some goose bump harmony moments when band member Ben Nelson joins the angelic vocals of Vincent on plaintive "Crazy What a Lonely Heart Can Do." Yet love does take on a efficacious turn with the languorous "What a Woman Wants to Hear" (one of the three Vincent co-writes). Here this bluegrass diva allows her male suitor into her psyche in revealing a litany of things that would make her go gaga.



As with her previous albums, Vincent re-visits the vaults. Among the three chestnuts she resurrected, Rusty Young's "Crazy Love" gets a spirited reconfiguration with some fazing banjo and fiddling moments. While W. S. Stevenson's "Stop the World" is driving, empathetic and dynamically rich. Gospel is never far from Vincent's heart as she gives a reverent and a soaring version of the hymn "When I Travel My Last Mile." Nevertheless, not everything works. "Last Time Loving You," "Heart Wrenching Lovesick Memories" and "Eight of January" are your typical bluegrass romps where it's more a furious sprint of lightning speed instrumentation over pretty average melodies. They are not ropey, just that they are blasé and of a light hearted elan.



As the purveyor of modern bluegrass music, Vincent carries the torch well. She has a way of singing of contemporary issues without selling out the grits of what gives bluegrass its identity. Thus, "Destination Life" has enough songs to win new fans as well as to keep older ones. With an album so good, Vincent is certainly on the right path to her destination of greater things to come.

"

Could Be Rhonda's Best Work Ever

Sam Sattler | Spring, Texas | 07/21/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A product of the same family band (The Sally Mountain Show) in which her brother Darrin Vincent honed his own bluegrass skills, Rhonda Vincent has released fifteen albums since 1990 when she went out on her own. Admittedly, most of her chart success has come with the last five albums, all on the Rounder Records label, but "Destination Life" may just prove to be the strongest album she has ever recorded.



"Destination Life" marks the first time that Vincent has recorded an album using only her touring band, The Rage. No studio or guest musicians were involved. The Rage lineup, however, did change toward the end of 2008 with the exit of Kenny Ingram and Darrell Webb and the addition of Ben Helson on guitar and Aaron McDaris on banjo. Helson and McDaris join Mickey Harris (bass) and Hunter Berry (fiddle and co-producer of the new album) to form the current version of The Rage.



Bluegrass enthusiasts will be pleased to find that the songs chosen for "Destination Life" are a bit closer to Rhonda's bluegrass roots than are some of the more country-oriented material she included in recent albums. Even "Stop the World and Let Me Off," the 1958 Carl Belew song that was a Top 10 hit for Johnny & Jack, is done in straight forward bluegrass style and has been, I think, chosen as the album's first single.



A real strength of the album is the excellent harmony work provided by new band members Helson and McDaris. Helson particularly shines on the slower, more country-oriented "Crazy What a Lonely Heart Will Do" but the harmony the pair produces on the faster paced "Heart Wrenching Lovesick Memories" is simply flawless.



Pete Goble's "I Can Make Him Whisper I Love You," a "hurting song" of the first order, is perhaps the standout song of the album. Rhonda's voice and delivery are perfect for this song about a woman who has come to realize that her memories (and her ability to manipulate those memories with her imagination) of a lost love are much better than what the real thing with him could ever be again.



"Destination Life" closes with two gospel songs sandwiched around the album's lone instrumental offering, the rousing "Eighth of January." Both of the gospel tracks emphasize the fine harmonies of which this band is so capable, and their a cappella version of "When I Travel My Last Mile (He Will Hold My Hand) is an especially fitting way to end the album and the show.



The Wall Street Journal once called Rhonda Vincent "The Queen of Bluegrass" and I have felt for a long time that the title does belong to her. Those needing further evidence that Rhonda is indeed the Queen, need only listen to "Destination Life."



Case closed."

Destination Life is Destination Great

Sharon Haught | West Virginia | 11/16/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is my favorite Rhonda Vincent CD ever! Loved every song. What a great idea to do a CD with just the regulars. The members of the Rage are just the best!"