Flower from the Fields of Alabama
Norman Blake is probably best known as a bluegrass guitar  picker, but the music onFlower from the Fields of Alabamashows  he is really a master of the early ballads, blues, and Appalachian  fiddle tunes thatBill Monroecombined to create the high lonesome sound. On instrumentals like the  fiddle tune "Texas Gales" and "Bonaparte's Grand March," which despite  its bombastic title is played as a delicate mandolin solo, Blake  demonstrates his instrumental virtuosity by emphasizing taste, tone,  and phrasing over rapid-fire picking. Blake is a singer in the "ragged  but right" tradition, and his dry delivery is well suited to a wide  range of material from the slightly lewd "Salty Dog" to the wistful  "Chasin' Rainbows" and the maudlin pieties of "The Dying Gambler's Last  Words." The music onFlower from the Fields of Alabamadoesn't  push the envelope, but that's exactly why it's so charming. You get the  feeling that Norman Blake released this music on CD only because he  couldn't find a record company to put it out on a 78-rpm record.--Michael Simmons