Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver is one of the lightning-fastest group of pickers in contemporary bluegrass, but it's not all just speed that makes these guys and their new album, More Behind the Picture Than the Wall (Rounder Records, 2007), so great. As songs like "Can You Hear Me Now" attest, the band is just as comfortable taking it slow and steady.
Great Instrumentals
While the vocals are all earnest and heartfelt (after all, the band has won Best Vocal Group from the IBMA for several years in a row), it's the instrumentals that really blow the listener away on this record. "Tulsa Turn-Around," according to the liner notes, was written when the group was on their way to Tulsa to play one show before turning around and heading home. Not only are Lawson and company's lightning-fast picking skills at full throttle here, but there's an innate road-trip turn-around energy in the song.
It takes a lot of musicianship to make an instrumental not just an excersise in showing off your skills on the fretboard, and Quicksilver does an exquisite job of delivering narrative instrumentals that are as tight in their arrangement as they are in execution.
There's More Behind the Picture...
It's not just the instrumentals that carry this record, though. The slow, heart-felt love songs and narrative observation tunes shine here, as well. "The Selfishness in Man" is a meaningful melody about how "love can lead to understanding." "Just Loving You," which Lawson and lead singer Jamie Dailey co-wrote, brings that great old-fashioned bluegrass sound, with its rich harmonies and drooling-over-some-girl lyrics. Its sweet, cheeky banjo solo drives the whole thing home.
In all, from speeding-bullet solo runs to slow, introspective love songs, There's More Behind the Picture Than the Wall is an excellent disc, as it glowingly represents everything that's so great about contemporary bluegrass, and Quicksilver in particular.
Highlights
