So the day didn’t start of really great, when I pulled into the 7-Eleven where I get coffee every morning the sign on the door said “No Coffee!!” oh no well it wasn’t the end of the world, it just made the day a little blah. So I went through the rest of the day just not really finding anything that I was listening very interesting, kinda’ like when you want to eat something and nothing really appeals to you! I had heard a song from Jim Lauderdale on the Bluegrass station on XM radio as I was driving to my second stop for coffee, so when I got to the office I downloaded Bluegrass Diaries onto the mp3 player and gave it a listen. Now the album won a Grammy and the songs were ok, but really couldn’t get into it, maybe another day. So the next thing I tried was Bela Fleck and the Flecktones Flight of the Cosmic Hippo but still not quite there. So it was onto The Grascals and their CD The Famous Lefty Fynn’s now this one was a little closer to what I was looking for and I really liked some of the tracks like “Blue Rock Slide”,”The Famous Lefty Flynn’s” and “My Baby’s Waiting on the Other Side” but other tracks just didn’t make it. So on the way back to the office after lunch I heard a good track by a dobro player names Randy Kohrs, so when I got back to the office I found him on Rhapsody and listened to the album “Old Photograph” while I working. Again while the music was good, the overall tone just wasn’t there.
So I had pretty much given up on the day, when I looked over at a pile of CDs sitting near the computer and there near the bottom was Rhonda Vincent’s 2003 release One Step Ahead. Now I’ve not listened to this CD a lot so I put it in heard the first track “Kentucky Borderline” and thought now that’s what I’ve been waiting for great vocals, great lyrics and great picking! The album really is a fine album with a number of fine tracks five of which were co-written by Rhonda and Terry Herd. “Kentucky Borderline” was one of the five along with “Caught in the Crossfire” a song about a divorce written from the child’s perspective, “Riding the Red Line” a great truckin’ song and “One Step Ahead of the Blues”. Vincent has a lot of great pickers on the album including: Aubrey Haynie on mandolin, Bryon Sutton on guitar, Ronnie Stewart, banjo, the great Stuart Duncan on fiddle and Darrin Vincent on bass and she does some fine mandolin picking, too! Overall, it was just what I needed to help me get over those Tuesday blahs!
So if you need some good music and you just can’t find the right tunes give Rhonda Vincent a try! As for all those other CDs, I will listen to all of them again and you know I’ll probably like then all just fine!!