CD review by Miroslav Jiriste, short RRE bio taken from Sugar Hill

Railroad Earth was found in January of 2001 at the informal bluegrass picking party at Andy Goessling´s New Jersey home. There was also his bandmate from Blue Sparks From Hell violinist Tim Carbone, John Skehan with his unique rhythmic style, drum player Carey Harmon and jazz bass player Dave Von Dollen. The last member of the jam-session was singer, guitarist and song writer Todd Sheaffer, co-founder of now defunct tour band on RCA Records, From Good Homes. They enjoyed jamming together so much that they decided to become a full-time band.

It was clear from the very beginning that it won´t be a purely traditional bluegrass band. Some of the members had never played or heard bluegrass music before. It also contributes to the refreshingly unique sound of the band.Traditional bluegrass fans are at first a little bit taken aback when Carey Harmon starts setting up his drums but from the first song of their performance they have audience in their corner. They also attracted promoters of the most prestigious bluegrass festivals in the country. However, they´ve recently celebrated only one-year anniversary of their existence, Railroad Earth performed on such famous festivals as Merlefest, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, High Siera Festival and Old Settlers Festival. Their songs appeared in ´Top Ten´ lists of numerous magazines alongside such gems as Bob Dylan´s Love and Theft and Soundtrack to O´ Brother Where Art Thou?.

After their first debut album The Black Bear Sessions Sugar Hill released in June their second album Bird in a House.

First look at CD cover suggests that it´s not traditional bluegrass band. Instead of routine photo there is a Susan Holford´s painting Listening to the Muse. Todd Sheaffer wrote seven tunes of the thirteen on the CD and two more together with band-mates, John Skehan added other two songs, Dave Von Dollen together with Tim Carbone another one and one song was written by Neal Casal. Not usual for bluegrass albums are quite long track times. This I´d noticed before I listened to the album. The tunes on the CD are usualy about five minutes long. In every song we can hear limitless musical potential of the band. They show their instrumental skills several times in each song, during solo parts or in jam-sessions at the end of the songs. In some faster tunes (Peace on Earth) or John Skehan´s instrumentals it is possible to trace back their bluegrass roots but rhythm and backup is always influenced by rock'n'roll. Some songs (Like a Budha) remind me songs of the Czech - American band Snake Eaters and their singer Bradley Straton. Rock singing is significant almost for every song on the CD. Each song has its own atmosphere or sentiment, if that is the word, related to the main theme (Budha, peace in the world). Walk on By> was written by Todd Sheaffer after his brother´s death and is influenced by Celtic music. These influences are evident mainly thanks to Tim Carbone´s violin and pennywhistle of Andy Goessling. Other songs create hippie sentiments of 60´s (Give That Boy a Hand, Came up Smiling). Railroad Earth is sometimes compared to the legendary New Grass Revival and in some faster tunes (Drag Him Down, Dandelion Wine) there is some similarity.

I would recommend this shining enthusiastic album full of weighty issues to everybody who wants to listen to the morden acoustic music with bluegrass roots and rock influences. Even if you are a traditional bluegrass fan, from the first acoustic driven notes of this album you´ll become a new convert into the fold of their afficionados. You will hear blugrass instruments together with the instruments unusual in bluegrass music, such as the flute, clarinet, pennywhistle, drums or complete brass section

More information you can find on their web pages www.railroadearth.com.

for our web by Miroslav Jiriste.