Josh Slone is good, real good. He knows how to make a song his and get into it, and make it come alive. Slone has been blessed with a great voice plus the tight high lonesome harmonies are great.
Rural Rhythm scores again. This recording is hot, the followup of the great opening song is a heartbreak ballad "Daddies Don't Cry" and then the real upbeat "Destination Heartbreak" which is another strong offering, nice mandolin and fiddle. This recording has a good deal of reverb and compression, but it is used tastefully. When a producer or mastering engineer uses these tools right, it adds excitement and warmth to the music.
I would love to hear his four piece band live, because it is just him on guitar, a bass player, banjo and mandolin. He has a lot of guest musicians and vocalists on this CD. It is hard to pick out which singers and players are in his band, because there are seventeen people listed as singers or musicians on the CD. But the vocals are tight and there is great Dobro, Banjo and Fiddle.
I love the material, some great song writers stuff. Songs are more like country songs done the bluegrass way. Mark Brinkman, Larry Cordle, whose "Big Blue Raindrops" is a classic. Josh really sounds like a pro, not someone who is doing his first CD.
"Bluegrass and Me" by Mike Wells who wrote alot of these songs is a great uptempo song. The arrangements may be sparse at times, but the music is always top flight. There is a great guitar solo on "Hillbilly Girl", which I'm guessing was done by Josh, because he is the only guitar picker listed.
The closer "Long Legged Woman" is a hoot with some great fiddle playing by Gerald Evans who I read that this was his last CD. That is sad news, Sounds like a man that will be missed by many.
Josh is also a very good guitar player. This is a very good CD overall with lots of great original bluegrass, wish Josh The best!!!
http://www.joshsloneandcoaltown.net/
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