Company We Keep
Though the Del McCoury Band has earned renown for its wide-ranging repertoire--drawing from the rock, blues, and folk songbooks for its bluegrass adaptations--The Company We Keepfinds the revered vocalist sticking close to his musical roots. McCoury's songwriting collaborations provide autobiographical highlights, from the eternal innocence of "Never Grow Up Boy" to the age-old wisdom of "If Here's Where You Are" ("then here's where you're supposed to be"). Del and his band, including sons Ronnie (mandolin, co-producer) and Rob (banjo), survey a bluegrass range that extends from the Appalachian strains of "Mountain Song" to the instrumental romp through Ronnie's "Seventh Heaven" to the deeply spiritual gospel of "I Never Knew Life." Best of all is the album's centerpiece, "Fathers and Sons," which finds the family band harmonizing on the bonds of blood. While the shifting time signatures of the opening "Nothing Special" serve notice that the music won't be bound by tradition, the album serves to celebrate that tradition and extend it.--Don McLeese