Chatham County Line, IV
Featured Album
A bluegrass album that will satisfy diehards and dabblers alike.
Even some of the sharpest genre revivalists have a hard time when it comes to songwriting. More interested by nature in preserving a tradition than extending it, they fall back on commonplace, cliché and worse in their mission to create new copyrights. And sure enough, when this Raleigh acoustic country quartet starting making some noise, they seemed to have all the markings of a likeably generic touring band, resting their rep on the requisite musicianly bona fides that satisfy bluegrass diehards.
But Dave Wilson has a real knack for allowing his melodies to meander — the ascendant four-note hook that rambles through various permutations on "Chip of a Star" is a model of expert minimalism. What's more, he's got a pretty voice that follows those tunes wherever they lead without worrying whether it sounds pure or authentic. And thematically, his lyrics wander as well, as he tends toward mourning missed connections with women and other travails of life on the road. There's nothing generic about the music either, which even rocks a little — though more so on the sharply-sawed fiddle showcase "I Got Worry" than the more easy-rolling "Let It Rock." And if "Birmingham Jail" isn't quite as timely a political song as you might hope, a country band that keeps the nation's racist past in mind is a rare commodity.
