The Leon Hunt n'tet
Album: Farewell Blues
Label: Get Real
Tracks: 14
Website: http://www.leonhuntntet.com

"n is often used by mathematicians to denote a number that is liable to change" after playing with a varying number of musicians at different shows Leon Hunt used "n" to "sidestep all this confusion". For this tribute to the music of bluegrass pioneer Earl Scruggs Hunt uses my kind of string quartet: he plays 5-string banjo and employs Jason Titley on guitar, Ben Somers on bass and Joe Hymas on mandolin. Naturally, they can all sing.

The catalyst for the recording of the tribute album that Hunt had always wanted to do was the death of Scruggs earlier this year. Of the dozen tracks here a couple were written by Scruggs, a couple by his previous employer Bill Monroe plus traditional songs including the quickly added 'Deep River Blues' as the flat top guitar maestro Doc Watson passed only days before the album was recorded.

'Farewell Blues' is everything you would expect from an album of this nature. The playing is exemplary and the track choices are fine but subject matter is necessarily restrictive and has been covered many times before. It's hardly strictly essential but is a fine listen nethertheless.

John 'The Jacket' Hawes