Ricky Skaggs- Country Hits Bluegrass Style

As the title suggests, this record falls directly into the wheelhouse of classic country and bluegrass fans. Bluegrass is about as innocuous of a music genre as there is, but it tends to attract some seriously expert musicians. This would make Ricky Skaggs the most innocuous of them all because he's won a shitload of awards playing bluegrass music. He started playing mandolin at the age of five, worked his way up the country ladder playing with notables Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, and Keith Whitley, then joined Emmylou Harris's band in the late 70's/early 80's. He led a very successful country life until the mid-90's when he started to focus solely on bluegrass. Country Hits Bluegrass Style is a perfect amalgamation of his styles, with a crack session band re-working a honky-tonk's worth of lost treasures. Highlights include some great solo trade-offs during Don William's "Country Boy", Skagg's silky harmonies on the re-cover of his Mel Tillis penned 1984 hit "Honey (Open The Door)",  and a beautiful steel-pedal tinged version of Goldie Hill's "I Don't Care". This is knee-slappin', toe-tappin', hand-clappin" music that you can take back to the mountaintop, or sing it off of.

Buy this record if you want to whittle a bird cage on your back porch.

www.rickyskaggs.com

Brad Paisley- This Is Country Music

I think it was inevitable when I started this blog that I'd eventually be reviewing Brad Paisley records. I'm just following in the footsteps of my father, who after he kicked his drinking, snorting, and fighting habits, found God, threw away his Dylan and Bowie records, then embraced God's music like a Mississippi maven driving his Ford F-150 through the streets of Tupelo looking for hickory-smoked barbecue and a dog to call Bubba. When Brad cackles, "she'd rather wear a pair of cut-off jeans then a fancy evening dress/ and when the windows rolled down and her hair blown all around she's a hot southern mess" on "Old Alabama" you know you've reached the promised land. It's safe to throw away my Thin Lizzy and Camper Van Beethoven records now.

Buy this record if you're living in an alternate universe and have lost the will to live.

www.bradpaisley.com

Neil Young International Harvesters- A Treasure

It's probably not fashionable to be writing reviews about Neil Young but I don't give a shit. He's a true music icon. He's written some beautiful songs, he's made some noisy songs, and he's taken a lot of detours. This is one of those detours. Culled from live performances between 1984-1985, A Treasure documents Young's country/blues exploration while backed by some of country music's greatest session players. There are 5 unreleased tracks included on this record that will satisfy hardcore fans. This is not a good starting point for the Neil Young catalog. For that I'd suggest Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, Harvest, or After the Gold Rush.

Buy this record if you wanna take some time to smell the flowers.

www.neilyoung.com