Through Stellar Writing and Production, Lonesome River Band Produces their best project… Ever?
Hyperbole aside, woah. From the first strikes of Shelor and the sliding bass this album seems destined to finally be the album that puts the sound they have been searching for since Turn on a Dime together. After Bringing the Tradition and Mayhayley’s House relied on traditional and less stellar material, Outside Looking in miraculously never drags and contains consistently clever song writing and novel instrumental and production techniques. Take the opener “Generosity Killed This Cat”, a common tale of female infidelity and male frustration undoubtedly, but written in such a way that the tale gains new life similar to how the chorus is reenergized out of nowhere due a teetering 4-I-4-5 repetition that is finally realized in the second half of the chorus and immediately reinforced by a momentous 4. This three chord chorus moves in more directions and has more shocking transitions around each four bar corner than countless originals from more new grass acts. Add in stellar bends and inflection by Brandon Rickman, and you have a future bluegrass standard.
Anger turns into morose reflection on “New Ballards Branch”. When countless albums dismiss thematic and tonal similarities when concocting a song order, this album sticks out like, say, placing your song subjects on your album title in big “theater sized” font. One of those themes is, of course, murder which is the theme of the title track. Well, very justified murder. “Outside Looking in” tells the story of a young woman, whose father’s escape after violently striking her mother, is curtailed by the fact that she cut the brake line from his car. Music nerds out there, hook me up with a song with the same story, I would love to hear it.
Escaping the soundscape of the past three songs before it, “If I had a Cheating Heart” seems like a return to straight forward grass with no frills (besides the drums). And in some ways it is, but the song raises above its pay grade with the chemistry that mandolinist and lead vocalist Jesse Smathers and Brandon Rickman have accrued over the years after Jesse replaced Andy Ball. The pauses between “Baby” and “You’re making it hard” and their extended “haaaddd” leading into “A cheating heart” is what bluegrass has been about since its prenatal stage in the 1930s with brother duets.
“Little Magnolia” also highlights the group’s vocal abilities, but also shows how improved production has enhanced the bands sound. The transition from three part to solo in the second half of the chorus sounds like it’s attacking you from a surprise vantage point like a musical Sun Tzu. This same disposition can be heard by the momentum building fills by Mike Hartgrove.
“Going with the Flow” seems innocuous and almost goofy in its verse. The galloping of the drums and bass sound out of touch until the chorus enters and the swaying nature of the song takes effect. The song “swims with the tide” so easily, again, with the seamless harmonies of Rickman and Smathers and the way Rickman can make one note sound fifty different ways within 2 seconds.
After another dreary infidelity tale in “Circle of Lies” the chunky LRB staple is back with “Wreck of my heart”. If there was one word to describe each instrumentalist’s style: it would be clarity. That clarity pays dividends on the fills for a song with such distinctive breaks in the lyric delivery. A clever use of a 2-5 after “Going with the Flow” ended its chorus with it is also a sign of stellar songwriting.
Probably the most shocking addition to this album is “Your Memory Wins Again” a song with a vocal phrasing more aligned with disco than bluegrass along with being emphatically enhanced by the addition of the drums. A rule of thumb in genres as diverse as disco and minimalism is that repetition is a necessary component for tension and release, and this song proves that without question.
Instrumental virtuosity is established on “Home of the Red Fox” in case any were skeptical. On this track Smather’s Jesse Brockesque chameleon mandolin style comes out in spades which is something that I have respected of both musicians for a long time. Speaking of respect, I think this album won’t garner them more, simply because their reputation has been grown to such a height in the last 30 years, but this album should mean something to the band members themselves. Listeners and members alike could tell there was something there in their previous two releases, and here they have finally actualized it.
