Blue Highway
Wind to the West

Last year Blue Highway debuted with authority. It’s A Long, Long Road established the new collection of young veterans as a force in bluegrass music. The northeast Tennessee-based quintet immediately displayed a recognizable sound, a blend of classic drive with original songs and modern touches. Now Blue Highways returns with that rarest of commodities, the follow-up album at least as strong as the debut. Wind to the West builds upon the strengths of its predecessor while introducing new aspects of the band.

Blue Highway brings the traditional soul to contemporary bluegrass. They can take something as classic as Ralph Stanley’s "Two Coats" sound modern, but no less rooted with down to earth passion than the original. The song should soar on bluegrass, gospel. and perhaps Gavin Americana radio. Just look at the name. Highways are modern, but old two lane blue highways prove atavistic relics of lost modernity.

"Two Coats" provides just one of a whole set of strong performances. Shawn Lane demonstrates unsuspected compositional abilities with the rousing set opening title cut, sure to earn significant radio play, and the closing "Between The Rows." Mark Mathewson’s "I Let A Good Woman Go," receives an energetic rendition – sad lyrics, happy music, the old bluegrass twist -- that should deliver a Bluegrass Unlimited chart topper from this undoubtedly popular CD. "God Moves In A Windstorm" allows Blue Highway to show off their vocal power on just the kind of song that populates Sunday morning southern radio.

Blue Highway has all the weapons. In recent years successful emerging bands have tended to be of two types. Some – Laurie Lewis & Grant Street, Lynn Morris, IIIrd Tyme Out, Continental Divide -- have one outstanding lead voice supported by superior back-up vocalists. The other model, such as the Nashville Bluegrass Band, Alison Krauss & Union Station, New Vintage, features two great lead singers harmonizing with and complimenting each other.

Blue Highway goes one step beyond, presenting the listener with three excellent lead vocalists. Tim Stafford, once the second voice in Union Station, understands the role of rhythm guitar player as well as anyone, while singing with the perfect voice for today’s bluegrass, somehow both up to date and ancient. Wayne Taylor’s compositions are missing this time around, but not his bass playing and excellent mountain lead singing, a touchstone to earlier bluegrass. As befits a veteran of the bands of Ricky Skaggs and Doyle Lawson, mandolinist Shawn Lane offers the most modern voice, one that could easily fit on contemporary country radio, yet he uses it to fine effect. Taylor, Stafford, and Lane all realize that feeling drives bluegrass, not technique alone.

With those three different voices forming a powerhouse trinity, Blue Highway can cover a variety of the bases that make up the bluegrass music ball diamond these days. Rob Ickes boldly explores uses of the Dobro in rhythm and helps texture their music. Jason Burleson’s banjo compliments the ensemble sound rather than reaching out for individual recognition.

Stafford, an academic historian, continues to grow as a song writer, contributing five titles to the project. What proves most impressive, however, is that Blue Highways show real ingenuity in finding just the right outside material. Besides "I Let A Good Woman Go," Blue Highway scores with the stunning "West Virginia’s Last Left Hand Loader" by rural West Virginian Carl Rutherford, whose own career in the coals hardly lasted as long as his work as a singer-songwriter. Yet he remains so obscure that his booking agent maintains not one but two day jobs as a minister.

Even more than their first compact disc, Wind to the West stresses that Blue Highway is far more than Stafford’s band. It is a team. This ensemble has collected a formidable amount of vocal and instrumental talent. Blue Highway can only get even better as these five work together. Recommended without reservation.

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Blue Highway
It’s A Long, Long Road
Rebel REB-1719
5 rating
review by Art Menius

Blue Highway’s debut It’s A Long, Long Road displays talented younger veteran professionals melding into a first rate new band. Already a formidable unit, time and work can make this into a bluegrass ensemble of the highest order. Blue Highway possesses the complete assortment of ingredients--three very good lead singers, distinctive vocal and instrumental approaches, two good songwriters, exquisite taste, and that perfect balance of experience and freshness. Blue Highway can move from original compositions to a Stanley Brothers standard to a cover of "England’s Motorway" by British singer/songwriter Ewan MacColl with equal intensity and conviction.

Tim Stafford, whose forceful, yet graceful guitar work shines throughout, formed Blue Highway after serving as a key player in the rise to the top of Alison Krauss & Union Station. Having found earlier success with Dusty Miller, he contributes his soulfully ancient sounding lead vocals to his own "Farmer’s Blues" and Norman Blake’s "Lord, Won’t You Help Me." Rob Ickes, who combines a rhythmic sensibilities with a subtle cleverness in his Dobro playing, has toured with the Lynn Morris Band and Weary Hearts, but remains best known for session work with the Cox Family, Laurie Lewis, Tony Furtado, and others. Shawn Lane, formerly of Ricky Skaggs band and Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, brings forceful fiddle and mandolin, and a strong lead voice on four songs and killer tenor on the rest. Bassist and composer Wayne Taylor also sings lead convincingly on four tracks, including the first three songs. Banjo player Jason Burleson makes his first appearance in a serious professional touring band with Blue Highway. All save for the Californian Ickes come from northeaster Tennessee or northwestern North Carolina.

The record company promotes the title (and lead off) cut written by Jack Tottle, Taylor’s "Lonesome Pine," and "In The Gravel Yard" by Virginian Malcolm Pulley for airplay. Those songs work for me, but so do the closing version of the Stanley Brothers’ "Say Won’t You Be Mine," Stafford’s emotion-packed "Farmer’s Blues," and the second instrumental "Flannery’s Dream" with Ickes’ attention grabbing kick off and rich fiddling by Lane. Despite the Dobro, it possesses a Monrovian grandeur. It’s A Long, Long Road is a deep album which belies Blue Highway’s brief time together. Blue Highway forges an easily recognizable sound, despite the multiple lead singers, blending classic drive with new material and contemporary nuances. In short, this band can lend traditional bluegrass soul to contemporary bluegrass, while making traditional bluegrass sound contemporary. That’s a winning formula few can match.

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