Greg Blake
Album: Songs Of Heart And Home
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 13
Website: http://www.gregblakemusic.com

Greg grew up in the mountains of southwest West Virginia, and the rich twang of his singing voice quickly betrays his connection to earlier generations of mountain singers; for sure, he’d grown up immersed in the mountain music traditions. He then moved to Kansas City, spending a number of years playing in various bands, most recently progressive bluegrass outfit Jeff Scroggins & Colorado, at the same time creating a niche for himself as a flatpicking champion. Now he returns to his Appalachian roots for his debut solo album, informing those roots with the sensibilities of modern bluegrass.

For this project, he’s gathered around him a host of excellent bluegrass stars, including producer Sally Van Meter (dobro), Blaine Sprouse (fiddle), John Reischman (mandolin), Jeff Scroggins (five-string banjo) and Mark Schatz (upright bass & clawhammer banjo), as well as a clutch of guest vocalists. Jewels among the latter are undoubtedly Claire Lynch (who appears on three cuts and shines particularly gorgeously on Albert Brumley’s composition Dreaming Of A Little Cabin), Jeff Brown, and Laurie Lewis (who supplies a killer harmony part to her own song The Hills Of Home, which also features some choice picking from all concerned); Sally Van Meter even gets a vocal turn, duetting with Greg on Johnny Cash’s I Still Miss Someone, a selection which pays tribute to one of Greg’s earliest musical influences.

But in spite of these noteworthy guest contributions, it’s still Greg’s voice that rings out true on this apt choice of songs in well-crafted settings that give the very best of no-frills revival bluegrass: supremely controlled, easy-going, easy-flowing and unassumingly virtuosic. All typified by Greg’s brilliantly idiomatic treatment of Bill Monroe’s Thinking About You midway through the disc, which features Jeff Brown on harmony vocal. Two more highlights come with Greg’s lovely version of Bill Staines’ Where I Live and his stripped-down-acoustic take on Joe Diffie’s late-’80s country hit Home. Indeed, the majority of the disc’s songs encapsulate the central theme that provides the disc with its title, and even the lesser-known numbers stand out as very classy interpretations. Greg’s tender take on Ian Tyson’s Summer Wages is unlikely to be bettered, while his choice of album closer, the reflective, lilting southern gospel of Turn Your Heart Toward Home (written by Steve & Annie Chapman), is both telling and extremely heartwarming. Which is exactly the appealing impression left by this uplifting disc as a whole.

David Kidman