REVIEW: The Grascals — 20 (LP)
The Grascals’ new album 20 celebrates the band’s two-decade run while never turning their eyes away from the future. Remarkable accomplishments litter the band’s history and mark the road behind them. The band has played for two Presidents, graced the Grand Old Opry stage innumerable times, and has a long list of television appearances to their credit. They’ve performed alongside and shared stages with a wide range of major league talents such as Brooks & Dunn, Dolly Parton, Dierks Bentley, the Oak Ridge Boys, Eric Church, and Jamey Johnson. It isn’t beneficence that earned those spots. Enduring talent and professionalism have brought them to the 20-year mark.
20’s thirteen tracks suggest that enduring talent and professionalism will continue carrying them forward. The Grascals opted for a mix of well-chosen, sometimes obscure, covers and complementary originals that help best illustrate the band’s wide-ranging musical vision. They cover the gamut. Opening with a cover of Boudleaux and Felice Bryant’s “Tennessee Hound Dog” proves it. This upbeat instrumental workout hinges on humorous lyrics that the singer must deliver with a straight face or else the song doesn’t land. The Grascals do an exceptional job. The opener highlights the effortless give and take between the band’s core trio of mandolin player Danny Roberts, Jamie Harper’s fiddle, and Kristin Scott Benson’s banjo. John Bryan and Jamie Johnson contribute guitar, as well,
The bluesy inclinations of “Some People Make It” blend well with the song’s bluegrass bedrock. There are jaded listeners out there who may say writing about blue-collar travails is low-hanging fruit for any songwriter. However, The Grascals summon an authentic voice, and the punchy language of the lyrics helps reinforce the undercurrent of raw bone desperation. “I Need a Night Off” is alcohol-soaked regret delivered with classic country charm. Structuring the song with its narrator addressing a bartender in the first line is a shrewd move that sets up the remainder of the song.
It isn’t difficult to hear “Pull the Trigger” work as a rock song. The Grascals never play it that way, but it has an unusual arrangement for bluegrass material that nonetheless works in this context. It isn’t too jarring when juxtaposed with the rest of the album. “The First Step” may remind some of the earlier “I Need a Night Off” stylistically. They both cover the same downtrodden romantic ground, and the song’s broken-hearted narrators inhabit varying degrees of heartache. “The First Step” bubbles with more anguish than melancholy.
“12th and Pine” is a luminous instrumental. Written by Roberts and Wyatt Ellis, a memorable melodic phrase anchors a succinct and fluid workout between the players. It comes at an excellent place in the album’s running order because after so much lyrically driven fare, “12th and Pine” reminds us The Grascals have more than one way of telling a story. John Bryan takes center stage with the penultimate number “Just Let Me Know”, and his contributions burnish the sentiments with a warm and sincere glow. Jamie Harper chips in passionate fiddle licks that leave a great exclamation point on the performance.
It’s an album full of musical exclamation points. Despite the sad songs, you can’t deny the essentially celebratory nature of The Grascals’ 20. It’s a buoyant exultation of music’s redemptive power and maintains an inspired tone from the first song through the last.
Colin Jordan
