Freedom, Love and The Open Road
Lindley Creek
Freedom, Love And The Open Road
Pinecastle PRC-1244
This band is a family affair from the Missouri Ozarks, Lindley Creek presents a contemporary approach to bluegrass. Jim VanCleve does an outstanding job on the production and the result is a highly listenable project.
On live shows, Lindley Creek is Kathie Greer, guitar, John Greer, bass, Katie Greer, mandolin and Jase Greer, fiddle. They all sing. Here they are backed by A team session players and the Greer’s concentrate on singing, which they do quite well. When you have the likes of Rob Ickes, Arron Ramsey and Todd Phillips, playing on a project you know what to expect instrumentally.
The songs are strong and the Greer’s can all sing well. The bulk of the leads are handled by Katie and Kathy. Jase does a fine job on “Right Back Where I Started.” Katie gets to the core of “The Mockingbird’s Voice,” and sounds like the voice of experience on the original, “Grounded.” The material also includes Dylan’s “Forever Young.” “Old Soul” starts with an electric guitar, another indication that bluegrass is a good point of departure for this band.
If you are a fan of the more progressive aspects of bluegrass this project will appeal to you. This is better than most of the country music out there and shares some of the values of bluegrass with a wide range of settings that are mostly acoustic and are presented with top notch production values. The feel here is definitely more Americana than bluegrass but it is very bluegrass friendly. Top quality songs, great vocals and topnotch instrumental support make this a strong release by this family band.
REVIEWED BY Robert C. Buckingham
