Used with permission. From the Pacific Northwest comes One More Mile from Sockeye, featuring some excellent original material, imaginative arrangements and fine picking talent. Guitar player and lead singer Robert Bulkey has contributed five songs here. If you're interested in hearing a good example of the traditional themes of bluegrass music applied 3000 miles west of Blue Ridge, check out Chester County .
Sockeye demonstrates an wide range of musical taste, with varying degrees of success.
The highlights of the recording are the new tunes from Bulkey, and strong, bluesy vocals from bass player Paula Waters on Texas Blues and Sweet Dreams . The instrumental work is solid throughout, but the vocals suffer a bit in spots. There are some shaky harmonies and a few questionable notes. He's not the only lead singer like this in the business, so maybe it's a style, rather than a problem. Either way, I don't find it all that appealing.