Bluegrass Love Songs Volume One
From the vibrant bluegrass scene of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, comes Trish Imbrogno with five stellar tracks on a new EP. Imbrogno, trained as a classical bassist, expanded her musical world to include bluegrass and roots music and has become an in-demand, well-respected, in-the-pocket bassist playing with an array of top pickers.
Joining Trish, who plays bass and handles the lead vocals on the EP, are Murphy Henry on banjo and vocals, Dede Wyland playing guitar and singing harmony, Becky Buller on fiddle, and Rainy Maitke on mandolin. The project was recorded by Chris Henry, who co-produced with Imbrogno. The music resonates with an honesty and authenticity that is at once pure old-time and profoundly modern at the same time.
Instrumentals like “Cherokee Shuffle” or “Clinch Mountain Backstep” are played at a human tempo (meaning not so fast as to lose the melody), where you hear the individual players working like gears in a fine-tuned machine, as the pickers throw in some exquisitely unexpected riffs and licks. Songs like “Bury Me Beneath The Willow” and “Don’t This Road Look Rough and Rocky” are as tight and well played as you’d expect any recording with these artists to be, but there’s something else here, a sound that recalls Maybelle and Sara or Hazel and Alice, voices joined together weaving an honest sound that stays with you long after the song is over.
