Bill Evans
Album: In Good Company
Label: Native & Fine
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.billevansbanjo.com

Banjo ace Bill, trusty bluegrasser of more than 35 years' standing and mentor to a whole generation of players, has here gathered round him what's described as a powerhouse guest list, a host of musical friends to help him spread the gospel that neither the banjo nor bluegrass itself need be regarded as insurmountable musical barriers to any true music lover.

Bill takes the spirit of the acknowledged bluegrass repertoire and largely through his own intuitive and onwardly mobile, forward-looking compositions he expands it outwards from its artificially imposed ghetto, presenting it as a living, breathing experience that encompasses all manner of content and stylistic variation, though without ever compromising either its standards or its basic values of good playing, good singing, good musicianship and good communication: all's in the quest to serve as ambassador for the music and the banjo and introduce its delights to potential new audiences.

Well there's the theory that Bill's brand of alt-grass propounds - and to a large extent he succeeds here, for as well as setting an accomplished benchmark, there's certainly also a deep joy permeating the performances on this disc. Here Bill's own peerless and authoritative picking, while often a primary focus, is tellingly augmented by a core team consisting of Mike Marshall (mandolin), David Grier (guitar), Darrol Anger with Tashina & Tristan Claridge (fiddles) and Todd Phillips (bass), the relaxed virtuoso instrumental Some Other Creek being the most straightforward example. Then for added interest, making appearances on specific tracks we find Tim O'Brien (Follow The Drinking Gourd), Rob Ickes and Matt Flinner (Dakota and Big Chief Sonny, the latter also featuring banjoist Neal Luberecki), crack outfit The Infamous Stringdusters (John Martin's Walk To The Water), and rising combo Joy Kills Sorrow (Sarah Siskind's On And On).

Although Bill's banjo ia the element that unifies the album sessions, of that there's no doubt, maybe in the end there's not quite sufficient artistic focus to the package as a whole, a feeling that's reinforced by the inclusion of a (for me) fairly expendable four-track-long Beatles medley towards the end of the record. After which, admittedly, the appealingly laid-back, thoughtfully jazzy final track, on which Bill's joined by his percussionist daughter Corey and double bassist Cindy Browne Rosefield, lets us down very gently indeed and leaves us with the smoothest and most favourable of impressions.

David Kidman