Highlights: Levi, Ain’t It Enough, Genevieve
There’s a great chance
that had it not been for that song
(which is every bit as ‘classic’ as ‘classic’ ever gets), the world would care
as much (little) as it did before 2004. But since the world does indeed care,
since Old Crow Medicine Show are among the most exciting bluegrass bands in
business and since Carry Me Back
sounds like the band’s greatest achievement, why not give it an honest,
objective (subjective) review?..
Obviously bluegrass as a
genre has a fairly limited appeal and what sounds fun and invigorating at a
festival does not always translate into exciting studio releases. Plus, there’s
no getting around it: a generic melody is a generic melody. All of the above
are pretty much default issues I have with this album – and yet Carry Me Back is a fiery, brilliantly executed
Americana delight. Old Crow Medicine Show try to bring a certain edge, certain
roughness to this music, free it from its conventional bluegrass jail. All the
instruments (fiddle in particular) are taken to their blood-raising limit,
which makes you enjoy such (un)forgivable O
Brother Where Art Thou? clichés as “Steppin’ Out” or “We Don’t Grow Tobacco”.
Still, Carry Me Back sounds best when it comes
with a great melody, and both the elegiac “Genevieve” and especially “Ain’t It
Enough” (almost “Wagon Wheel”-worthy, no less) qualify as sure contenders for
the band’s future compilations.
In the end, what makes the
album this good is the fact that a couple of ballads aside, it is traditional
bluegrass played with an irresistible punk spirit, daring and defiant. For that
alone Carry Me Back can be recommended to anyone with a passing interest in American music.
7/10
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