JUNE 2008 ONLINE EDITORIALS
Spring Creek Bluegrass - Lonesome Way To Go
By Erik Myers
Lyons-based foursome’s latest effort, Lonesome Way To Go, is a collection of no-nonsense bluegrass tunes. While the band is far from breaking new ground, it has sparked a wave of buzz throughout Colorado’s bluegrass scene.
The album switches between swinging singsong beats and lovesick wailings; a trough of songs that instill memories of photogenic riverbanks and Grandpa’s cabbage farm into the listener’s head.
Spring Creek’s fierce set of instrumentals is the candy core of the album. The listener gets to know the dazzling Chris Elliot early on in the album with “Fiddler’s Banjo”, a fiddle tune that Elliot smoothly translates into banjo banging on his five-string. Dedicated to Elliot’s dog Blue, “That Dog’ll Hunt” is adventurous, piling on sections and key changes that leave the listener with the impression that good improvisation requires a degree of preplanning. By embracing a “yee-haw” attitude, Elliot’s frantic banjo tracks could make for the soundtrack to a wild mine cart ride.
The vocals of upright bassist Jessica Smith are the easy standout among the band’s lead vocals. Every track she leads is enriched by the crisp and balanced harmony of her versatile voice, summoning the spirits of a variety of musical legends whenever the backing melody calls for it.
There are moments when you’ll wish the group avoided tradition, particularly in a few of the slower uninspired tracks. Maybe a few meandering tracks are to be expected in the traditional bluegrass; it is, after all, a careful formulated genre.