Doug Dillard - Banjo Album (CD)

All Music Guide

The Banjo Album is first and foremost an album of traditional bluegrass played by musicians firmly rooted in the work of pioneers like Flatt Scruggs, the Stanley Brothers, and Bill Monroe. These same musicians, however, are all topnotch, secondgeneration players influenced by the rock scene. Consequently, Doug Dillard and crew manage to breathe genuine new life into many standards without sacrificing the integrity of the originals. In fact, the musicians not only play ferociously, but often completely reinterpret the old chestnuts, occasionally making them sound even better. In many cases, Dillard employs droning harmonic tonalities characteristic of Indian music and Indianinfluenced psychedelic rock guitar. The record also features atypical bluegrass instruments such as harpsichord, harmonica, drums, dembek, and tablas. Rather than coming off as gimmicky, though, the use of exotic instrumentation serves to add exciting new textures and moods to music which, during this pre"newgrass" ...period, rarely deviated from very strict stylistic guidelines. Plus, nearly every performance here is simply an allout jam, with Dillard playing particularly explosively. Special mention should be made of his fantastic version of "Clinch Mountain Backstep," which shows a confidence, boldness, and energy that rivals even the definitive version by Clarence White's Kentucky Colonels. - Pemberton Roach, All Music Guide Read more Less