JAMES
REAMS, WALTER HENSLEY AND THE BARONS OF BLUEGRASSWild Card
Mountain Redbird Music
BY ROBERT STEELMAN
Wild Card from Mountain Redbird Music is another fine collaboration from James Reams and Walter Hensley. The result is an album full of spirited, traditional bluegrass music. James Reams’ solid rhythm guitar and strong vocals lend a solid foundation to Hensley’s clean and tasteful banjo picking. They are joined by mandolinist/fiddler Mark Farrell singing baritone and bassist Carl Hayano singing tenor. Jon Glik provides fiddle and mandolin as well. This project opens up with I Caught A Keeper, a lively number from the pen of Nashville songwriter Mike Dowling. Reams reaches into the past for a rendition of The Delmore Brothers’ Kentucky Mountain and an old Eddy Arnold favorite You Must Walk The Line. There are also a couple of fine instrumentals - the title cut Wild Card and a lively version of Road To Columbus. Although Reams and Hensley have roots firmly planted in the “bluegrass havens” of Kentucky and Virginia, they first met at a 1999 New Hampshire bluegrass festival. Through their joint projects, it is obvious that they have a profound respect for traditional bluegrass. It’s a shame they didn’t meet a few decades earlier. Hopefully they will see fit to continue churning out the music. Other songs include Hump Back Mule, We’re The Kind of People That Make The Jukebox Play, Dreaming Of A Little Cabin, You Don’t Tell Me That You Love Me Anymore, Old Cane Press and Working On A Building.
BMP