Finding The Way
This collaboration with dobrologist extraordinaire Jerry  Douglas, the Lonesome River Band's sixth release, breaks no new ground  yet continues a successful formula for a younger generation of  bluegrassers. Masterful nods to the tradition of Flatt and Scruggs-- "Cardboard Mansion," with Don Rigsby's wailing vocal lead--accompany  elegant, almost contemporary-folk-influenced arrangements. If there's  anything amiss, it's in the occasionally homiletic tone--the  Bowman/Douglas original "Let It Go," smacks of soft, new-age  spiritualism--and in other strained attempts at lyrical grit--the far- too-literal murder ballad "Perfume, Powder, and Lead." But with a trio  of some of the best singers in bluegrass, lyrical power may matter  less, and there's plenty of instrumental zip and singalong melodies to  carry the whole.--Roy Francis Kasten