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Various Bluegrass, Blues and
Jazz Albums
Reviews By Steven Stone
Forget The Miles
Black River Entertainment
This electric guitar-laden pop-country romp by the three-front-man amalgamation, Due West, is slick, slick, slick. It's also mastered for max volume for radio friendliness. But despite its more than slightly "hot country" tendencies, the tunes are strong and the picking is Brad Paisley quality. Although it's only a six-song EP, Due West has enough notes for a full-length album.
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Amy Speace
Land Like a Bird
Except for the overly long introductions to the tunes, Amy Speace's latest is perfect vehicle for her latest batch of songs. Displaying a softer, more introspective side than her last release, Land Like A Bird is more ambitious with a denser sonic landscape thanks to producer Neilson Hubbard. Even the spacy ambient synthesizer washes on the title tune work.
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Cara Jean Wahlers
Goodnight Charlotte
This collaboration between singer/songwriter Cara Jean Wahlers and cellist Grover Parido, produces a spare but hardly Spartan musical landscape of moody folk/Americana. At times Wahlers sounds like mid-period Joni Mitchell. I also hear some Kate Wolf in her phrasing and songwriting. Parido proves to be a versatile accompanist using a full palette of chops and long bowing to fill out the arrangements.
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Sarah Darling
Angels & Devils
Jimmy Nichols' multi-textured production elevates Sarah Darling's Angels & Devils from standard Nashville pop to something else – a finely honed singer-songwriter showcase. With her original songs taking up ten of the twelve slots on the CD, which oddly enough is on TWO CDs, Ms. Darling displays a flare for writing and singing torchy, highly emotional epic tunes.
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