VARIOUS ARTISTS

VARIOUS ARTISTS
COME SEE ABOUT ME
A BENEFIT FOR THE IBMA TRUST FUND

Mountain Home
MH17182

Come See About Meis not only a fine album with an inspiring theme, it’s also the culmination of a very worthy endeavor to which the contributing artists donated their time, talent, and royalties. The album was conceived and executed as a benefit for the IBMA Trust Fund, which serves to assist musicians who have one way or another fallen on hard times.

Celebrated veteran Doyle Lawson (who contributed two of the eleven tracks) and Mountain Home Music were two of the driving forces behind this project. They, along with the host of participating musicians, deserve the profound gratitude of the bluegrass community. But let’s get to the music.

To start with, it’s powerful stuff. For the most part, nearly every song, somehow or another, addresses the nobility and the rightness of caring and compassion and how in spiritual and emotional terms, helping others brings out the best in us. “Their Hands Made The Music,” by Sideline, opens the show. The song eloquently captures how dedicated musicians often follow their muse with almost spiritual earnestness, never knowing whether it will lead them to riches or rags or good times or bad. It also makes the point that we need to honor and support that commitment, if only as recompense for the many times their music has touched our hearts. Donna Ulisse’s wise and wonderful “A Little Trust” reminds us that sometimes when sorrow and tragedy strike, all we can do in the face of helplessness is open our hearts and hands to those who are suffering. Darin & Brooke Aldridge’s “Those Tears” (written by Dennis Duff and Lisa Shaffer) reiterates this truth. Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver’s “All The Good Things We Could Do” (co-written by Ulisse and Rebekah Long) imagines a better world whereall the rest of usfollow the benevolent practices of all the best of us.

If space allowed I could sing similar praises for just about every other song on here. Suffice it to say, the bluegrass community owes a world of thanks to the generosity and fine example set by everyone who made this record possible. (Mountain Home Music Company, P.O. Box 829, Arden, NC 28704, www.mountainhomemusiccompany.com.)BA