Through These Trees

At age 16, Mei Lin Heirendt, lead singer and fiddler with this northern California-based quartet, is already a veteran of sorts. She started playing the violin at age 7, and has simply never stopped.  Since she was a child, she’s been involved with and nurtured by the California Bluegrass Association and is currently the organization’s Youth Ambassador.  Several years ago, Heirendt also participated in the IBMA’s Kids on Bluegrass program and was one of six musicians to perform at an IBMA awards show reception.

Broken Compass Bluegrass, her current band, proves a worthy showcase not only for her accomplished writing, singing and playing, but also the talents of her bandmates. They are: Kyle Ledson on mandolin and guitar, Django Ruckrich on guitar and mandolin, and Sam Jacobs on bass.

The quartet shines on this, its sophomore album, with lots of extended, genre-bending solos, solid vocals and impressive original songs.  Through These Trees opens with the playful, high-lonesome “Alien Song,” which features Ledson on lead vocals.  On her mystical, new-agey “Fairies & Lightning,” Heirendt delivers a soulful vocal and some sizzling fiddle work. Her introspective “Discovering Me” conveys similar gravitas. 

Broken Compass Bluegrass’s sophistication seldom comes at the expense of soulfulness and spontaneity in terms of extended instrumental rides with jam-like intensity. So it is on the moving ballads, “Steel & Rust” and “Set in Stone” and the Celtic-flavored instrumental “Circustown.”