A playful live set by two bluegrass virtuosi
Joe Sixpack -- Slipcue.com | ...in Middle America | 07/02/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Banjo plunker Tom Adams is a veteran player who's been in quite a few high-powered bluegrass bands, including gigs with Jimmy Martin, Rhonda Vincent and the Johnson Mountain Boys, while fiddler Michael Cleveland is best known for his work with Dale Ann Bradley and Rhonda Vincent. Here they team up on a lively, often dazzling set of mostly-instrumental duets, zipping their way through around two dozen tunes, most of 'em played at a lightning pace on fiddle and banjo. The vocal material is nice, too -- in fact, an album highlight comes when Tom Adams flubs the lyrics on "Shady Grove," and improvises with the inspired line, "Blah, blah, blah..." Nice to sometimes see a few cracks in the super-musicianship of the bluegrass upper crust."
Bluegrass
Amy K. Ewert | Saguache, Colorado USA | 11/11/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"If you're looking up this album, you know who they are. The thing that is so exceptional and hasn't been mentioned here is this: the level of improvisation on this album is absolutely spectacular. Most bluegrass albums recorded in the studio have instrumental fireworks carefully thought out beforehand. On this live album Cleveland and Adams throw breaks back and forth with each one spiraling closer and closer to the edge of control; these guys don't know what the next lick to come from their fingers will be any more than you do. At the finest moments this album accomplishes the rare feat of having the player become invisible, an unconscious conduit for the music flowing from some unknown source, through the fingers and out into the air. A fantastic recording. If only more bluegrass recordings followed this aesthetic . . ."
Absolutely excellent Old Time-Bluegrass Pickin' and Fiddlin'
Michael | Placerville, CA USA | 01/02/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Tom Adams and Michael Cleveland are veteran masters of Banjo and Fiddle. If you are a veteran Old Time-Bluegrass listener or album collector, this is a must have gem of a CD. If you are a veteran musician with this music, you will appreciate playing along if you can keep pace as they fly through the songs. This is toe tappin' and foot stompin' American music at its best. It's a whole bunch of music through most of the CD from just two wonderfully gifted musicians."
Track Listings (23) - Disc #1
