Blue Highway - Through The Window Of A Train

If you want fine quality Bluegrass music, Through The Window Of A Train is the album for you. Mastered by Bill Wolf, the sound is polished, the musicianship is tight, and everything is just right. I'm proud to have this in my collection.

In the first song, a young boy saw what life was really about "Through The Window Of A Train." Even though with every train stop the cities and towns were similar, each person's story was different from the last and that's how he learned so much about others. My favorite line is when the man compares train traveling to moving through a picture frame. What a neat way to describe the act.

"Sycamore Hollow" is a bit dark and eerie but that's the kind of variety I like as opposed to always having one specific sound to songs on a Bluegrass (or any genre) album. Too much "happy" and too much "sad" would make for a boring album. Variety is always good, just like the dobro in this tune.

"Homeless Man" is a very sad song about a Vietnam veteran who did two tours of duty only to come back home to a wife who couldn't handle his nightmares. He doesn't talk to his son because there's no common ground. So now he finds himself pushing around a shopping cart and sleeping in an alley. At the end of the song the man dies one night and it seems like nobody cares. It's a poignant story and it really illustrates some of the problems we have with how our nation's heroes and citizens are treated.

There's an easy, breezy feel to "My Ropin' Days Are Done." He hits the road, while the woman stays at home and every year it gets tougher for her. She hangs in there so he can make a living but he finally realizes that the day has come for him to give it up to be with his wife. He's been both a sinner and a winner and now it's time for him to focus on what is important.

A man feels down and out in "Just Another Gravel In The Road," because he doesn't always understand the woman's sophisticated ways. He never wants to let it show but after a while there comes a time when you start listening to your friend's previous warnings. They knew he would not be accepted in her world and know he realizes they were right. "You keep trying to change me from what I choose to be, but you've got to know I don't play that game" he says to her. The only thing disappointing about this album, is the fact there aren't more songs. With this quality of music you just wish it could go on without ever having to end. Thankfully that's what the repeat button is for.

Release date: February 12, 2008 - Rounder Records

Song List:

1. Life Of a Traveling Man
2. Through the Window Of a Train
3. Sycamore Hollow
4. Homeless Man
5. Where Did the Morning Go?
6. Two Soldiers
7. The North Cove
8. A Week From Today
9. My Ropin' Days Are Done
10. Blues On Blues
11. V-Bottom Boat
12. Just Another Gravel In the Road