After a very nontraditional Act 3<\/i>, the Seldom Scene hewed much closer to the bluegrass line with 1974’s Old Train<\/i>. And, by this time they were no longer seldom seen as their name implies. They were a bluegrass powerhouse that was shaping the future of the genre. <\/p>\n
While on Act 3<\/i> the group stretched their jazz and folk muscles, Old Train <\/i>brings them back to a much more cohesive track list and to familiar themes. The train theme had been present in the group’s first two outings and comes back with a vengeance on Old Train<\/i> with the title track, “Pan American,” and “C&O Canal.”\u00a0 Their gospel performances are also perfected here and placed center stage with classic tunes that father of bluegrass Bill Monroe had done himself: “Old Crossroads,” “Traveling On And On,” and “Working On A Building.”\u00a0 Interestingly, on \u201cWorking On A Building,\u201d it is John Starling, not John Duffey, that begins with the high, lonesome vocals on the verses.\u00a0 It is not until the second verse that Duffey makes his formidable presence known.\u00a0 Starling does a good job of the high notes here, but Duffey really brings it out.<\/p>\n
If you are listening to the honky-tonk country flavored “Through The Bottom Of A Glass” and “Old Crossroads,” you may wonder who the female voice in the background vocals. That would be Linda Ronstadt, who would appear on other Seldom Scene songs as well and the Scene would also play on some of her albums.\u00a0 Ironically, these songs are placed back-to-back, and while \u201cGlass\u201d is a story of a man drowning his sorrows in the vice of drinking, \u201cCrossroads\u201d is a religious warning to a sinner, presumably wrapped up in similar vices, urging them to get on the straight and narrow.\u00a0 Both songs are beautiful, but having the two songs placed right next to each other is ironically delightful.<\/p>\n
The standout song of Old Train<\/i>, and arguably one of the best songs the group produced is \u201cWait A Minute.\u201d\u00a0 Here the Starling\/Duffey\/Auldridge trio is powerful and it is hard to imagine a more evocative way to try to hold back a lover from leaving than with this song.<\/p>\n
Old Train<\/i> leaves off much of the frill and experimentation that the Scene attempted in Act 3<\/i>.\u00a0 Strong song selection, tight vocals, and excellent instrumental precision make this album their best since Act 1<\/i> and one of the top albums from the group from this classic lineup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":30945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8831],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-42624","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-seldom-scene","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42624"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}