When Rebel Records decided to pull together a compilation of Claire Lynch\u2019s work with the Front Porch String Band, they really only had two albums in their catalog from which to pull material.\u00a0 But such is the strength of the songs from those two records that Hills Of Alabam<\/i> works well.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Claire Lynch has been well known and respected in the bluegrass field for decades, so a compilation featuring her is a good place to spend some marketing energy.\u00a0 For those uninitiated to bluegrass, the Front Porch String Band served as a bridge in the late \u201870s and early \u201880s between the original bluegrass style of Bill Monroe and the more progressive style that is popular today.\u00a0 The Front Porch String Band was occupying much the same progressive bluegrass space in the era as the Seldom Scene was (see my other SS reviews on the DV for more information). These \u201csecond generation\u201d artists still stuck close to the traditional line on a lot of songs, but instrumentation and interpretation were different in many cases.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Hills Of Alabam<\/i> offers some great tracks and Claire Lynch\u2019s voice is superb on all of them.\u00a0 \u201cHard Times,\u201d Where Dear Friends Will Never Part,\u201d and the gospel track \u201cCome Unto Me\u201d are true standouts.\u00a0 \u201cThe Day That Lester Died\u201d speaks to the role as a bridge that the second generation bluegrass artists served, and \u201cHills Of Alabam\u201d seems produced for country radio.\u00a0 In their sound, those songs stand out somewhat from the sound of the rest of the album.\u00a0 \u201cWabash Cannonball\u201d demonstrates the instrumental prowess of the group as well.\u00a0 Taken as a whole, Hills Of Alabam<\/i> is a very enjoyable collection of songs.\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":31228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8997],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-42920","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-front-porch-string-band","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42920","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=42920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42920"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}