Bernice
AllenBluegrass Hills Of Home
BY ROBERT STEELMAN
Bernice
Allen
Bluegrass Hills Of Home
BY ROBERT STEELMAN
This album from Bernice Allen offers a generous helping of no
less than 17 songs. All but one, the traditional Pig in a Pen, was penned
by Allen herself. According to the liner notes, most of these songs were written
more than 30 years ago and the CD is a product of her desire to put them
together in a collection as a gift to her family - a noble aspiration, which she
has chosen to share with the rest of us. The album kicks off with the title cut,
Bluegrass Hills of Home, and ends up with Pig in a Pen, a personal
favorite among her family. A particularly effective song, There Comes a Time,
was written in memory of a close personal friend who passed on too early in
life. Various musicians appear on this project. Justin Hoke, who is Bernice’s
grandson, appears on every cut, singing and playing a variety of instruments. BMP