Saving Bluegrass From Mediocrity -- The Steeldrivers

The Steeldrivers - (self-titled) - Five stars
I'm a big fan of Bluegrass music. I love the community of pickers who gather around the country to share and truly revel in music. I love the old tunes, as old as the hills, resonant with the "ancient tones" and "true life" stories of adults dealing with the pain in the ass this world really can be. I dig the banjo twang, the scratchy fiddle, and the high lonesome harmonies. But most of all, I dig the underlying Blues, country style.

Where has that Blues gone? Where has the edge gone? Recent Bluegrass albums have become so sterile and formulaic, so inoffensive and tame that it's just plain boring. "You can't offend Grandma!"

You know what? Fuck that! I want my Bluegrass to smell like whiskey, echo like thunder in the mountains, and to ache like a breaking heart. Give me turmoil, despair, and grit. Let me drown my sorrows in drink and women, then repent and thump that Bible on Sunday morning. That's Bluegrass... songs of rounders and lost men and women seeking redemption and love in this cold, old world. That's the Steeldrivers on their debut album.

If you like Bluegrass, buy this album. You'll be challenged like when you first heard Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley. This is isn't your commercial descendent of Flatt & Scruggs. This isn't your Grandma's Bluegrass. There are no swear words, but your delicate Bluegrass sensibilities might be offended all the same. You'll feel young again, and it'll be good for you!

If you're an Americana/Roots music fan who swears they don't like Bluegrass (Hal and Brendan, I'm looking at you, boys...), give this album a chance. You'll be flat-out amazed. If you like solid song-writing, gravelly soulful male voices, and top notch acoustic music playing, you cannot dislike this album.

Stand out songs? Holy crap. Let's see... you gotta start with "Drinkin' Dark Whiskey." ("Drinkin' dark whiskey and tellin' white lies, one leads to another on a Saturday night...") Next listen to Chris Stapleton's Eric Clapton Blues growls on "Heaven Sent" and "Blue Side of the Mountain." "Midnight Train To Memphis," "If It Hadn't Been For Love," "East Kentucky Home." Damn... let me just list the songs I don't absolutely love, it's a much shorter list. "Sticks That Made Thunder" is a good song, but it's not amazingly great like pretty much every other song on the album. (I guess there's always gotta be one black sheep.)

I guarantee this will be in my top three albums for 2008, and it's not even February yet. This is a must-buy album, for all fans of Roots music. Five stars.