Open Road's Lucky Drive is their third album for Rounder Records, and it represents a mature, full-bodied bluegrass sound: a deep, poignant riff of familiar motifs redone with an edge of illicit moonshine. The band comes from northern Colorado, and follows a tradition of acoustic and bluegrass hybrids by merging youthful exhuberance with traditional bluegrass sounds.
I must admit that I'm something of a casual bluegrass fan - casual as in, while I don't often go out of my way to hunt for it, I find "traditional" music of all sorts interesting and often entertaining, be it folk music of whatever sort (in one sense, I equate bluegrass with Scottish bagpipes or Celtic music, in that there is an organic tradition to it that tends to stretch into the distant past as a result of its accoustic roots). The music may not be the same, but the sense of history, of timelessness in the midst of the hustle and bustle of our digitalized, sliced and diced and sampled existence - there's something that seems very human about it all.
The performances and songs on Lucky Drive represent that same sort of tradition. The lyrics are often lonesome, odes to that which was lost but not forgotten, or heartfelt remembrances of lessons learned and scars earned. The first track, "Lucky Drive," is about a country boy taken in by all the fancy cars and homes in L.A. "Wandering Blues" is full of questions from the heart of wanderer wondering if his love will wait for him. The band's excellent blend of guitar, banjo, and fiddle is represneted on songs like "Shotgun," which allows each performer the chance to shine.
In its empassioned embrace of its organic core, the band is able to offer up slices of humanity with each song - from the honky-tonk of "If I Never Have Anything Else" to the cute little nod of "Tater Patch" and the the melancholy of "It's Blowing Away" (which is about the demise of country music). This album - and the band itself - reflect one of the reasons why traditional music hasn't just dried up and blown away in the face of its digitalized competition. Here's hoping it will manage to stick around just a while longer.
Author's Note: This article was originally posted at Wallo World.
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