CD: The Flood
Artist: Rock Ridge
Artist Website: https://www.daleadkins.com/store/p10/Rock_Ridge_The_Flood_Download.html


There is an easy groove that flows from West Coast Bluegrass that is as organic to that part of the country as the hard edge that hails from Kentucky and Appalachia. They both appeal to me: the more uncluttered, the better. Rock Ridge has a full dose of the easy groove. All the rough edges have been smoothed in the most delightful way. Rock Ridge is Dale Adkins, Suzanne Adkins, Rick Grant and Josie Grant.

I've listened to The Flood a dozen times or more. At first, this was because it was in my car's CD player for a few trips. I had plenty of other CDs to listen to, but I kept this one in there. It appealed on the first listen and grew.

Here's the songs:

1. The Flood
2. Lonely River
3. Sleeping Cold
4. Forget the Hard Times
5. Climb That Hill
6. Blue Night
7. Sweetest Waste of Time
8. Farmer's Lament
9. Don't Let the Stove Go Cold
10. Enough on My Mind
11. Foolish Heart
12. Your Worries and Troubles Are Mine
13. What Will Become of Me

I love for bands to introduce to new, original songs that may just become tomorrow's standards. There may be a couple here that work their way into that category. There are five band-original tunes on here, and a some are just fabulous.

When I first popped in the CD, I was enjoying some good music from a good band, just like most of the CDs I listen to. Then, song number three came up. I listened for a minute, then hit the back button to start it over. I listened all the way through, then hit the back button again. ìSleeping Coldî (songwriting credits to Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson), is a powerful song, powerfully done. Melody, lyrics, band groove, harmonies, instrumentation, originality...what more does one need? It's just the type of song I wish I had written and done in the way I wish I had done it. The droning tenor guitar just sent me into orbit. I thought this was the best song on the CD. I'm not familiar with songwriters Chambers and Nicholson, or where this song was first recorded, if it was, but I can't imagine how it might have been done any better.

I was so smitten with ìSleeping Coldî, it took me a whole day or so just to get to song number four, ìForget the Hard Timesî, written by Rock Ridge's Suzanne Adkins. There, again, was that impeccably played tenor guitar, and this time accompanied by an understated but powerful, beautifully played fiddle (Greg Spatz) and just the sweetest, most harmonious love lullaby that completely soothed in that West Coast Bluegrass way. And then, after being so softly lullabyed, I was shocked into a toe-tapping joy like someone had socked me in the eye with a cold Sockeye Salmon fresh from a rushing torrent of a raging Oregon river. I was watching for blue lights in my rear-view mirror as the pace and edge of ìClimb That Hillî made my foot heavier on the accelerator. I want more of Dale Adkins' songwriting.

The Sam and Kirk McGee song ìBlue Nightî was done particularly well. I enjoyed the fiddle work of one Chad Manning.

ìSweetest Waste of Timeî is anything but. Sweet is the word, but it didn't waste any of my time. A country love ballad, crooned as a duet between Adkins and Adkins, or Grant and Grant, or Adkins and Grant. The credits don't say. I'd like to know.

Rick Grant's ìFarmers Lamentî is lonesome: a true lament. Then the old-time, jubilant song by Dale Adkins, ìDon't Let the Stove Go Coldî takes me from mourning to dancing. It's a lot easier to keep the stove going than to restart it after it went cold. ìLamentî and ìStoveî are both more examples of some great songwriting. There is one bent guitar note in ìFarmers Lamentî that is the perfect punctuation between phrases. The banjo in ìDon't Let the Stove Go Coldî was perfect. I particularly enjoyed the Candace Randolph and Ralph Stanley composition, ìYour Worries and Troubles Are Mineî. West Coast smoothness was traded for Appalachian edge.

If you spend your money on The Flood, then I expect you'll think you got your money's worth. Salute, Rock Ridge, on performances, songs, production, and performance. The Flood is enjoyable through and through.

And I'm not through, yet.