Edge Of Seventeen: The Bluegrass Chartbusters Continue To Come Of Age

Easy to come up with goofy pop culture references while this series is in its teens, so I take what I can get while the getting's still good. It's probably tougher finding one for, say volume 26 or so. Yes, we continue our collection of cool Bluegrass covers, because that's what we do around here. Now, with this series, you know what we do, so let me just quickly point out the usual notables: newcomers, faves etc. We will also bid farewell to the Sawtooth Bluegrass Band, who open things here with a real neat version of "Ring Of Fire" and graced a number of these early volumes...thanks, guys. 

As for the new blood...well, there's new blood, and there's, uh, old new blood I guess. Then new blood includes Blue Horyzon, which was a group of British (!) youngsters that lit up a couple of musical festivals in 2011 and 2012 with their remakes of popular songs, and then seem to have vanished...joining the mainstream workforce, maybe? Anyways, a couple of cool covers from them survive, including this take on Outkast's "Hey Ya!". The Petersons have normally cornered the 'kinda religious trad bluegrass family band' on this series (though not on this volume), so let's add the Ebbing Family Band, who are, well, a religious trad bluegrass family band. They don't do tons of non-traditional or religious numbers, so having them do a great version of the Dixie Chicks' underrated classic "Travelin' Soldier" (destroyed charts-wise by the then-current 'Saddam's Angels' controversy) was a find I was particularly happy with. 

Robyn Adele Anderson is doing all kinds of retro covers in a number of styles, often promoted with fitting videos. Her version of "Seven Nations Army" is the best bluegrass version of the White Stripes classic that I could find. Branches is a progressive prog band that did the occasional cover song, such as their take on psych classic "Somebody To Love". 

As for the old new blood? Well, Jim Gaudet & The Railroad Boys have been around the block for a while, as they all seem to be in their fifties or older, playing a self-described 'hillbilly rock'n'roll' and mostly doing original work. Again, they're not above the occasional cover, and seem to be some real Southern good ole boys, bringing a redneck hick vibe to "Walk Of Life" that is pretty irresistible. Daniel Grindstaff has showed up already two volumes ago, but brings with him two guest stars in Paul Brewster and the one and only dearly departed Dolly Parton. God bless Dolly, may she stay "Forever Young", at least in our minds. 

Add in a cool cover image and the usual vets of this series bringing a number of cool cover versions  and we've got ourselves another winner here. If you like progressive bluegrass, check out what The Brothers Comatose are doing on the extended closing number "No Quarter". I also love Iron Horse's take on Modest Mouse's "Dramamine" and Bourbon Revival's take on "Wrecking Ball", the only Miley Cyrus cover of the series. Like I said, cool stuff all around. Which I will now let you get to without any further ado.