Wild and Blue - Journey On

Reviewed by David McCarty

Bluegrass, at its best, is often intergenerational, passed on from parent or aunt or uncle to child like a family heirloom. For Wild and Blue, those musical keepsakes may be the most treasured things they have.

David Harvey grew up in the bluegrass hothouse of southwestern Ohio, the son of one of the greatest bluegrass mandolinists of all time, Dorsey Harvey. As a boy, David grew up with the likes of Monroe, Wakefield and other founders of bluegrass who streamed through his home regularly to jam with his Dad, who toured and recorded too little due to health problems.

Today, David Harvey is recognized as one of the finest working mandolinists, capable of playing the hottest, truest bluegrass possible, yet versatile enough to play swing and jazz when the mood strikes him. Journey On, his latest CD with his band Wild and Blue, is a recorded showcase of precision, powerful bluegrass mandolin that is sure to please any lover of traditional bluegrass.

Backed by two of the rising stars of instrumental bluegrass, Byran Sutton on flatpicking guitar and Aubrey Haynie on fiddle, Wild and Blue has never sounded better instrumentally. Vocally, David's wife Jan Harvey and her sister Jill Snider have the inimitable sibling harmony that so many of the best bluegrass harmony ensembles have had. Jan turns in a truly heartbreaking vocal on the haunting My Heart Population You that can stand with any of the current bluegrass vocal divas like Rhonda Vincent or Claire Lynch.

Journey On features wonderful blend of great picking, marvelous singing and strong bluegrass tunes. For fans of great-sounding, traditional bluegrass, I suggest taking the effort to find this CD. (Homefolks Music, P.O. Box 1345, Hendersonville, TN 37075)

Song List: Can't You Hear Me Calling; My Heart Population You; Too Late To Turn Back Now; Walker's Woods; Old Hickory; Nobody's Angel; Before I'm Over You; You'll Have Forgotten;