NewTown – Old World (Mountain Home Music, 2018)
The group NewTown has on tap Old World on the Mountain Home Music label and this sweet little bluegrass recording will certainly get the juices flowing. Following up on recordings Harlan Road and Time Machine, this Lexington, Kentucky based group gathers up all the goodness of bluegrass by way of fiddle, banjo, mandolin and guitar and still manages to put a fresh voice on the genre. Putting polish on NewTown’s bright sparkly sound is producer Barry Bales from Alison Krauss and Union Station fame.
NewTown members, fiddler and vocalist Kati Penn, banjo player and vocalist Jr. Williams, guitarist and vocalist Aaron Ramsey, bassist Travis Anderson and mandolin player Mitchell Cannon have crafted a fine sound that is grounded by tradition and set free from those traditions by degrees through their own sound. NewTown is fresh and inviting.
Opening with “Fly Away,” NewTown takes flight with Ms. Penn’s vocals sure to raise the hairs on the back of your neck, add in fiddle, guitar, mandolin and bass and all is right with the world.
Moving through tracks like “Evangeline,” “Heart of Stone,” “Laura Lee” and “Forgotten War” NewTown grows as sweet and comfortable as driving down a long road in a old truck with a good dog.
“The Harvest” is certainly a standout with soulful vocals and some brilliant fiddle lines, just as “Naomi Wise” shimmers bright and clear with Ms. Penn’s crystalline vocals against a truly twangy goodness.
Closing out with “Never Miss the Sun.” Old World wraps up potent mix that sure to snag fans.
Old World puts NewTown squarely on the musical map and we can’t wait to see where we’re going next.
Buy Old World
Author: TJ Nelson
TJ Nelson is a regular CD reviewer and editor at World Music Central. She is also a fiction writer. Check out her latest book, Chasing Athena’s Shadow.
Set in Pineboro, North Carolina, Chasing Athena’s Shadow follows the adventures of Grace, an adult literacy teacher, as she seeks to solve a long forgotten family mystery. Her charmingly dysfunctional family is of little help in her quest. Along with her best friends, an attractive Mexican teacher and an amiable gay chef, Grace must find the one fading memory that holds the key to why Grace’s great-grandmother, Athena, shot her husband on the courthouse steps in 1931.
Traversing the line between the Old South and New South, Grace will have to dig into the past to uncover Athena’s true crime.
