River Wild

This exquisitely conceived and rendered third solo project by Jeremy Garrett, best known for his membership in the award-winning band The Infamous Stringdusters, is chock-full of finely textured and nuanced arrangements and original songs informed with sometimes urgent emotional intensity.

Garrett, who wrote or cowrote all but one of these twelve cuts, of course serves up some dazzling fiddle tours de force, including the tender “Foxtail,” the eerie “Bird Of Prey” and the kinetic “Potato Farmer”—the latter song featuring Seth Taylor on guitar, Barry Bales on bass, Alan Bibey on mandolin and Ryan Cavanaugh on banjo. Garrett goes it alone on a fiery fiddle solo called “Burning The Slash.”

Just as impressive are moving story-songs such as “In A Song” (cowritten with Josh Shilling), the playful bluegrass outing “What’s That You’re Doin’?” (a cowrite with Benny “Burle” Galloway) and the motivational “Time To Get With The Change,” which features killer lyrics like, “What if we could see one reality once get free of the past?”

Some of the most powerful selections are charged with portent and mystery and somewhat cryptic and elusive lyrics. So it is with the ominous title tune (cowritten with Rick Lang), the looming disaster of “Oh Little Darlin’” and the near-frenzy of “In The Blink Of An Eye” (a cowrite with Jon Weisberger).

Garrett, who is joined on this album with line-up of top-flight musicians, mellows out with a reprise of “Kentucky Waltz” that draws out all the longing and romance in this Bill Monroe signature song.