By Paul T. Mueller —
Acoustic music, especially folk and bluegrass, has been described in some circles as “picking and grinning.” Here’s how it works with the new album by Tim O’Brien and Darrell Scott: They did the picking, you’ll do the grinning.
We’re Usually a Lot Better Than This, scheduled for release Oct. 9, is a live album drawn from two shows O’Brien and Scott performed at the Grey Eagle in Asheville, N.C., in 2005 and 2006. These guys are great players, both as individuals and as a duo, and the sheer joy of making this music comes across clearly in these performances.
The album’s 13 tracks (actually 14 songs) are a mix of originals and well-chosen covers, providing a fine showcase for O’Brien’s and Scott’s instrumental and vocal chops. Most are either actual bluegrass songs or songs from other genres – country, gospel, ballads – done bluegrass style.
Highlights? Hard to know where to start. The duo’s acapella harmonies give Hank Williams’ “House of Gold” a beautiful gospel sound, and “White Freightliner Blues,” the Townes Van Zandt classic, features fast, precise interplay between mandolin and guitar. There’s an excellent rendition of Scott’s “Long Time Gone,” with more of a bluegrass feel than the Dixie Chicks’ hit version.
Gordon Lightfoot’s “Early Morning Rain,” a tale of lost love, features a brilliant guitar duet, while “Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning” is fueled by mandolin and guitar playing in which the little spaces between notes are as important as the notes themselves.
“Mick Ryan’s Lament” is a powerful ballad about two brothers who leave Ireland for America in the mid-19th century, only to find themselves caught up in wars in their new land. Written by Robert Emmet Dunlap, it’s sung beautifully to the melody of the traditional Irish song “Garryowen.”
War and death make another appearance in the haunting “With a Memory Like Mine,” written mostly by Scott’s father. Another ballad, Scott’s bluesy “The Hummingbird,” is a little less grim, with terrific guitar and mandolin accompanying the story of one man’s guitar and how it met its fate.
The album closes with a medley of the introspective “When There’s No One Around” (written by O’Brien and Scott and recorded by Garth Brooks) and the country/bluegrass classic “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”
The album’s title is, of course, not to be taken seriously. For fans of bluegrass, country, Americana, or acoustic music in general, it’s hard to imagine that Tim O’Brien and Darrell Scott could be even a little bit better than they are here.
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