The New Seldom Scene Album <\/i>is one of those albums that is hard to categorize or even to rate.\u00a0 It almost sounds as if the group was unsure of what direction to go in after several successful albums, including a critically acclaimed live album in 1975 Live At The Cellar Door.<\/i>\u00a0 Because of this, the Scene switch uneasily between songs that sound like they were meant for country radio and traditional bluegrass.<\/p>\n
\u201cBig Rig,\u201d written by Jimmy Buffett harmonica man Greg \u201cFingers\u201d Taylor is the opening track and starts the chaotic back and forth.\u00a0 This song, also recorded by Buffett in the same year, does not have the feel or emotion of a bluegrass song, and thus seems like a tongue-in-cheek joke that the band is having amongst themselves at their audience\u2019s expense.\u00a0 This is immediately followed by the Stanley Brothers classic \u201cIf That’s The Way You Feel,\u201d played with the grace and tradition that should be afforded such a classic.\u00a0 Yet this three minute visit with classic bluegrass is short-lived, because \u201cEasy Ride From Good Times To The Blues\u201d is for all intents and purposes a standard 1970s country song, complete with pedal steel guitar and drums.\u00a0 This oscillation continues for several tracks without a rest.<\/p>\n
The strongest song of the country flavored tracks (and one of the best on the album) is \u201cCalifornia Earthquake,\u201d which was written by country songwriter Rodney Crowell.\u00a0 The haunting melody, historic subject material, and harmony vocals contributed by Linda Ronstadt combine into one powerful song.\u00a0 Yet aside from \u201cEarthquake\u201d the country stylings fall flat.\u00a0 Thank goodness the album is buoyed by the straight bluegrass numbers.\u00a0 Along with \u201cIf That’s The Way You Feel,\u201d John Duffey\u2019s adulterous missive “I Haven’t Got the Right to Love You,” and \u201cRebels Ye Rest\u201d are the best of the album on the bluegrass side. <\/p>\n
While the jolting back and forth is enough to cause sonic whiplash for the listener, each song is extremely well done with great vocals and musical flares that establish the Seldom Scene as a benchmark bluegrass group.\u00a0 The country sounds come up short mainly because they are not strong songs, while the more traditional songs hold together better.\u00a0 Had the group decided to do an entirely country offering, the result may have been out of sync for their bluegrass fans but may have ultimately been more cohesive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":30951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8831],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-42631","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-seldom-scene","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42631","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=42631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42631"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}