The Roys’ spirited bluegrass at CMA Festival in Nashville

The Roys

The Roys

Americana Music News — Bluegrass duo the Roys were all over the CMA Festival in Nashville  this week and we caught them in a makeshift concert hall adjacent to the Nashville Visitors’ Center. They played a brief and entertaining set that included a preview of their new album Gypsy Runaway Train and a fun cover of the Johnny Cash hit “Ring of Fire.”

We’re always going to be partial to an album that includes a spirited cover of Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” the flip side of – ahem – Sun209, the first Elvis single. The Rays find a middle ground between the original and the frenetic Elvis cover.

The title track on this engaging album celebrates music fans: “We love your smilin’ faces standing in the crowd.” When you play this well at a mid-day show, competing with the volume of a much louder show next door, for an audience that largely just wandered in, that sentiment rings true.

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