Streets, Rivers, Dreams & Heartaches

Gena Britt, who brings a long, impressive resume to the recording studio — she’s a multi-IBMA winner with top-of-the-game Sister Sadie—steps out for highly regarded personal projects and is in demand for fill-ins and studio work. Her new project, Streets, Rivers, Dreams & Heartaches, adds yet another checkmark to that career that’s solid and fun to listen to and features contributions from an all-star cast. 

What’s interesting about this project is that while it features plenty of straight driving bluegrass from one of the premier banjo players in the business, Britt stretches out onto some new ground. “What Kind of Memory Will You Be?” is the opening track and sets up the tone of what to expect on the album. A couple of cuts later, “Streets of Wenatchee” is Britt’s original instrumental that showcases her picking, and that there is plenty of traditional bluegrass to be had, as does the Tim Stafford penned “Heading Back to Heartache.”

Britt is joined by Balsam Range’s Caleb Smith as the perfect choice for “Bend of the River,” which was written by Billy Droze and hints at the sounds and styles of all three artists and is one of the best on the CD.  One of the strongest tracks is a Shawn Camp tune (of course), “Dear Departed,” where Britt is joined by Jason Carter. This song just begs for radio play.

There’s a Sarah Jorosz offering, a good ol’ gospel tune, and the bluesy-bluegrass “Goodbye to the Blues” to round things out. In addition to all the name-dropping above, other noted contributors are John Meador, Alan Bartram, Heather Berry Mabe and a host of others. 

Streets, Rivers, Dreams & Heartaches is a fun listen and yet another notch earned in Britt’s belt.