GEORGE McCLURE

GEORGE McCLURE
FREEDOM TRAIN

JIP Records
JIP-5327

George McClure is back on track with Freedom Train, a nine-song collection of some of his favorite bluegrass songs from his road warrior days in the ’90s. “As a prolific writer, I have literally hundreds of bluegrass songs and instrumentals,” McClure said. “I had some of the more popular songs started, so I decided to finish them up and get them out on the market.” All songs are originals except for Jody Gallagher’s “Diamonds From The Start.” “I dug the light Swing feel and the tongue-in-cheek Western lyrics,” says McClure. “I came up in the deep Southwest playing Swing and bluegrass and it’s my native language.”

McClure (vocals, guitar, and banjo) brought some of his favorite players into the studio for the project, including David Grier (guitar), Butch Robins (guitar), Jon Yudkin (fiddle and mandolin), John Vogt (bass viol), Shad Cobb (fiddle), Johnny Bellar (bass viol/vocals), Chris Brown (drums), and Kenny Vaughn (guitar). One of McClure’s cleverly-written “Windows Of My Mind” tells of a world traveler reflecting on longtime love Debby Fay. Above all, though, listeners will love the instrumental magical songs such as “Ticklin’ The Strings.” Here’s hoping to another quick bluegrass follow-up from McClure. (George McClure, P.O. Box 2732, Taos, NM, 87571, www.officialgeorgemcclure.com.)BC