Laurie Lewis
is a leading practitioner of what certain scribes once referred to as California
bluegrass
, a more cosmopolitan version of
traditional
music that shouldn't be confused with
contemporary bluegrass
. While
Lewis
' brand of
may lack the high lonesome authenticity of
Flatt & Scruggs
, it possesses an eclectic, proficient core lacking in the more polished sounds of
.
The Golden West
finds fiddler
and her cohorts, mandolinist
Tom Rozum
, guitarist
Scott Huffman
, banjoist
Craig Smith
, and bassist
Todd Phillips
, in fine form, full of vim and vigor, pep and pizzazz. The album kicks off with the free-wheeling
"Your Eyes,"
a jazzy-
ride with a vibrant acoustic arrangement.
' warm, natural lead imbues the songs with a fun sense of abandoned, while
Rozum
and
Huffman
's harmony on the choruses tops it off with a high-flying flourish. Following
"Your Eyes"
takes a more
turn, with
's more countrified voices taking their turn at the microphone. Even
' fine version of
"Rank Strangers"
leans closer to Kentucky than California. Other material, like
"A Hand to Hold"
on which
shares the choruses with
Linda Ronstadt
, stretch these boundaries, however, and
John Hartford
's
"Goodbye Waltz"
brings
to a gentle close. ~ Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr.