JEREMY GARRETT, THE RV SESSIONS

JEREMY GARRETT
THE RV SESSIONS

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   Jeremy Garrett, of the Infamous Stringdusters, recorded (and largely wrote) this album in the RV in which he lived. Hence the title. Garrett can’t you tell where it was recorded. It could just have easily been Sun Studios. What recording in an RV does, however, is evoke an image and that adds a little background color. Even if the background color doesn’t add anything to the experience, there is still the music, which is what recordings are about anyway. There are 12 songs here, all of them were written by Garrett, either solo or in collaboration with Jon Weisberger and Benny Galloway. Garrett also plays all the instruments in different combinations.

He uses just guitar on “Lucky Guy,” creating a rich, rhythmic mix of strums and fills that is airy and engaging and underscores how he feels about being rescued by love. “Oh, Little Darlin’” uses guitar and mandolin on a song in which he captures the feel and form of an old-time mountain ballad better than any in recent years. “The Cold Hard Truth” philosophizes (over guitar and fiddle) about there being more downs than ups in life, while the straight bluegrass of “What’s That You’re Doin’?” (the album’s best track) uses all three.

All of those are highlights, along with the guitars and fiddles of the instrumental “Grand Mesa.” After that, with the exception of another highlight, “Lean On Love,” the songs, though still well-done, don’t offer quite the interest. The six highlighted tunes, however, are strong enough to make this recording worthy of attention. (Jeremy Garrett, 625 Bakers Bridge Ave., Ste. 105 #77, Franklin, TN 37067, www.garrettgrass.com.)BW