by Ken Reynolds
This is one for you folks who like to hear the guitar played to perfection.
David Grier is one of the top guitar pickers and has won IBMA's "Guitar Player of the Year" on more than one occasion.
David assembled some of the best in the business to back him up on this all instrumental recording. David delivers a wide range of musical selections on the CD ranging from a beautiful waltz like "Engagement Waltz" to a very blues sounding "Porkchops and Applesauce" to some tunes that have a straight forward bluegrass sound like "Smith Chapel" and "That's Just Perfect."
The tune "That's Just Perfect" features David on guitar and Ronnie McCoury on mandolin. Even though there are only two instruments played on this song, it has a rich full sound.
There is some outstanding instrumental work on this CD aside from the obvious guitar playing. The mandolin work done by Mike Compton, Adam Steffey, Sam Bush, and Ronnie McCoury is as good as you're going to hear. Stuart Duncan provides some of his pristine fiddle playing on this recording.
Mark Schatz plays some very nice frailing banjo on the tune "Lone Soldier." With Gene Libbea playing some rock solid bass, and Craig Smith and Bela Fleck providing the five string banjo sound, you have a combination that's hard to beat.
I don't generally get too excited about an all instrumental recording, but I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this latest effort by David Grier.