The Banjo seems to be making a comeback. Don’t get me wrong, I know that the fine instrument has been living a healthy and vibrant life inside the world of Bluegrass for many years now. The comeback I am referring to is the one that is being made on the backs of young and decidedly non-traditional Bluegrass artists in today’s indie-world. Bands such as The Hackensaw Boys, Old Crow Medicine Show, Split Lip Rayfield and maybe more than any of these, The Avett Brothers have given the twangy, high-pitched strings a new swagger, if not a new life altogether. Add to the list of young troubadours that make the Banjo a cool item to throw around you shoulder Graham Lindsey.
With his 3rd and most recent release, We Are All Alone in This Together (Spacebar Recordings), Lindsey weaves pain, travel and loneliness into a cloth that is stitched together quite strongly with banjo, acoustic guitar, fiddle, a bit of pedal steel and his smoother-than-Dylan, Dylan-esque vocals. In “The Good Life” one of the somber highlights of the album, Lindsey pleads for the Lord to ”help me live the good life“. This despair is as eloquent as it is vivid. Some tracks, such as “S**t on the Shovel” and “”I Don’t Know Babe” take a turn into Country territory while still keeping it’s outsiders perspective of loneliness.
Graham Lindsey never attempts to keep up with the break-neck pace of The Avett’s or Hackensaw’s of the world, as the gentle and meandering strums are more than capable of telling the stories that create this fine album. We Are All Alone in This Together succeeds in showing how “old-time music” can actually sound anything but old.
Go to Graham Lindsey’s Myspace to hear more
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