Bottom Line:
Take two amazing Grammy-winning musicians, a combination of songs both old and new, mix well, and what you end up with is a tremendously innovative, enjoyable disc. The artists in question are Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby; the album is a self-titled little romp meant to accompany CMT's "Crossroads" combining the two. And while I suppose it's true Hornsby has been considered a pop singer from the start of his career, it's never been a great stretch to hear him as a country singer. This disc just proves that.
Bruce Hornsby hit it big in 1986 with the triple platinum The Way It Is. He won three
Grammy Awards and has been nominated for 11. He's had four top 10 singles on Billboard's
pop charts and three top 20 albums. Ricky Skaggs was the youngest member of the Grand Old
Opry (he was 23) in 1982, but had been playing for many years before, including being a
member of Ralph Stanley's Clinch Mountain Boys when he was a boy of 15. With his label,
Skaggs Family Records, Ricky Skaggs is poised to become the next great patriarch of bluegrass
music (taking the mantle from the late Bill Monroe, whose legacy he continues to uphold).
Putting them together must have seemed one of those unusual combinations to the folks at CMT,
who may not realize just how much country and bluegrass Bruce Hornsby has done in the last
two decades. One of those Grammys he won was for the bluegrass rendition of his pop hit,
"Valley Road" on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Will The Circle Be Unbroken, Volume
Two. He's been recording with Ricky Skaggs for some time, actually, as Bruce appears on
Ricky's Big Mon tribute to Bill Monroe, as well writing, and playing piano on, the title
track of Ricky's Crown of Jewels. It's not really that big a stretch, and their work is not
that diverse (which is really supposed to be the basis of "Crossroads"). Bruce's laid-back,
delicate hand on the piano just begs for a bluegrass treatment; he knows how to play bluegrass
with the best of them, and his voice has a pure native high lonesome sound (he is, after all, a
Virginian).
Their collaboration begins with a cheerful tribute to a father who will steal your ice cream when
your back is turned entitled "The Dreaded Spoon" and naturally things just stay on a nice
high from there. Even the softness of Hornsby's gorgeous "Mandolin Rain" rendered into
a bluegrass ballad doesn't bring the overall feeling of the disc down. Like much of bluegrass,
even when the topic is grim, the music is uplifting. (One of my favorite Ricky Skaggs' albums,
2001' History of the Future, contains a warning about listening while driving.) Hornsby
wrote the bulk of the songs on the disc, but Skaggs contributes an instrumental, "Stubb,"
and of course there are a few traditional outings, such as "Across the Rocky Mountain"
and "Hills of Mexico." The disc concludes with, first, a beautiful version of "Crown of
Jewels," and then a silly, happily bluegrass version of Rick James' "Super Freak,"
wherein I'm sure I heard John Anderson's voice (there are a few tantalizing hints in the press
release that there are "special guests" on the disc, but that was the only voice I recognized
instantly - I didn't receive the complete liner notes). Like most good bluegrass albums, this is
one you're gonna love listening to, working to, even, yes, driving to. Immediately throw out any
notion that Hornsby is a "pop singer." It's a bluegrass album. Enjoy it.
Track List:
- The Dreaded Spoon
- Gulf of Mexico Fishing Boat Blues
- Across the Rocky Mountain
- Mandolin Rain
- Stubb
- Come On Out
- A Night On The Town
- Sheep Shell Corn
- Hills of Mexico
- Crown of Jewels
- Super Freak