David Greenberg And Harpeth Rising
Album: The End Of The World
Label: Grimm Rising
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.harpethrising.com

This quintet has already received favourable column inches elsewhere on this site, having impressed the reviewer with the energy and musicianship of its live performance at the prestigious Cambridge Folk Festival and other UK venues a couple of months back. Now it's time for their third CD release, a collection of spirited original songs (by David) that stylistically take string-band, folk, country, bluegrass and tex-mex elements with a soupçon of classical influence and make it into a melting-pot all their own. They've been billed as "an Americana sensation", and while not quite attaining that tag in my estimation this disc certainly contains enough to make me keep them well in mind for the future in the "must catch live" category.

The lineup, somewhat fancifully described on the package as "a quartet of musical rebels", would appear to consist of four classically-trained young musicians, headed (steered) by guitarist David, who's described as "a crazed doomer, a radical farmer and an occasional optimist" (so far, so good!), "husband to Miriam and father to Jordana", the latter being the group's violinist. The roster is completed by banjoist Rebecca Reed-Lunn, cellist Maria Di Meglio and percussionist Chris Burgess. The classical influences are brought into service to expand texture and provide variety in timbre as well as musical interest per se, but the group sound is also charged with a togetherness of ensemble that also encompasses a gutsy rock-out sensibility, while the tough strength of David's songwriting also proves very persuasive.

Strongest songs here are probably the plaintive Out Of Sight, the thoughtful Nowhereland, the gently-rolling narrative of Truck Stop Mama and the swooning title number (shades of a carnivalesque Leonard Cohen there, I thought), but the uptempo Goin' Goin' Gone moves at a nice breakneck lick and provides a good contrast. I do like the full-textured sound this band makes, the versatility of the lineup (there's at least three good lead vocalists too) and their overall sense of musicality: enough to make me want to check out their earlier two albums should the chance arise.

David Kidman