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Reason and Rhyme - Bluegrass Songs By Robert Hunter & Jim Lauderdale

Jim Lauderdale

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iTunes Review

Jim Lauderdale’s latest album of collaborations with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter turns away from the rock-based format of Patchwork River for a serious bluegrass workout similar in feel to 2004’s Headed For the Hills and collections like Bluegrass and The Bluegrass Diairies. Hunter works economically, crafting lyrics to the traditional country melody of “Love’s Voice” and carefully measured verses for “Reason and Rhyme.” However, in the end, this is Lauderdale’s record. It’s his weathered voice and precise acoustic play and band leading that makes this a true celebration of traditional bluegrass styles. “Tiger & the Monkey” is plenty playful. “Jack Dempsey’s Crown” lopes along like a Wild West tale more than the tale of boxers. The banjo picking of “Janis Jones” is intense. “Doin’ It On My Own” has plenty of fiddle firepower. “Don’t Tempt the Devil (With Your Love)” flows with a classic country sound. Appropriate considering both Lauderdale’s country pedigree and Hunter’s work on the Grateful Dead’s most countrified albums, Workingman Dead and American Beauty.

Customer Reviews

Top Notch Music

I am a big Jim Luaderdale fan. I think this album is his best work since Hummingbird....I can't stop listening to this one. My favorites are "Not Let You Go", "Jack Dempsey's Crown", and the title track, "Reason and Rhyme".

Country songwriter Jim Lauderdale reteams with Dead lyricist Robert Hunter

There’s a select set of modern musicians who’ve found fortune in Nashville, yet maintained (or in the case of Patty Loveless and Dolly Parton, developed) bluegrass credentials. Jim Lauderdale hasn’t had the level of commercial success as Vince Gill or Ricky Skaggs, but his songs have been turned into hits by George Strait, Mark Chesnutt, and Patty Loveless, and he’s won critical accolades for this own work. He’s a favorite of roots listeners, a valued collaborator to a wide variety of other musician’s projects, and like Gill and Skaggs, he’s maintained a deep connection to bluegrass, including collaborations with Ralph Stanley and Donna the Buffalo, and his own Grammy-winning Bluegrass Diaries.

For the past few years, Lauderdale’s work has intertwined with the history of the Grateful Dead, including his participation in The American Beauty Project, and extensive songwriting with former Dead lyricist Robert Hunter. Lauderdale’s previous collaboration with Hunter, Patchwork River, was an electric affair that blended country, rock, blues and Southern soul. Their latest set reaches back to the string band and harmony sounds of 2004’s Headed for the Hills, but with purer (but certainly not pure) bluegrass arrangements. The result reflects the specific talents of each participant: Hunter’s lyrics reaching places you don’t often visit in bluegrass, and Lauderdale’s Buck Owens-ish drawl adding country twang to everything he sings.

Hunter’s writing fits the curves of Lauderdale’s melodies with ease, drawing the listener to words and rhymes as well as the stories. You may never figure out what “Tiger and the Monkey” is about or how Hunter put himself into the person of a boxer who beat Jack Dempsey, but you’ll have a lot of fun singing along. More traditionally, the self-loathing “Don’t Give a Hang” hides its sorrow in a curmudgeon’s complaints, and the deep longing of “Love’s Voice” is emphasized by the way Launderdale drags the verses and charges into the chorus, contrasting happy memories with present day pain.

Producer Randy Kohrs assembled a terrific band of pickers and ran through the entire album in a single day. The result is professionally tight, but still very fresh, with some fine rolling leads and rhythmic vamps from banjo player Scott Vestal, lyrical mandolin picking from Mike Compton and moody draws of fiddler Tim Crouch’s bow. You can catch Lauderdale on the summer festival circuit, where he’ll no doubt be tearing things up with the hot-picked “Fields of the Lord” alongside other great tracks from this latest album and highlights of his extensive catalog. 4-1/2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

Biography

Born: April 11, 1957 in Statesville, NC

Genre: Country

Years Active: '90s, '00s, '10s

Singer/songwriter Jim Lauderdale helped lay out the blueprint for the Americana movement of the '90s, earning high critical marks for an eclectic series of albums that spanned hard country, slick pop, rootsy rock & roll, blues, folk, R&B, and bluegrass. He never sold that many records on his own, but his compositions were recorded — often with considerable success — by a number of contemporary country stars, including George Strait, Patty Loveless, Vince Gill, Mark Chesnutt, Kathy...
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