We tend to think of country music as a uniquely American style of entertainment. While we’re certainly home for it, there are excellent practitioners of the art all around the world. Such is the case with Angus Gill and his latest album, The Scrapbook. Australian Gill was literally about as far from Nashville as you can get when he made the record, although thanks to the magic of technology, Nashville is home to most of the rest of the folks who played on the project.
Much of the record walks the line between a classic country sound and a traditional bluegrass one. For example, Whittling Away, a collaboration with Jim Lauderdale, is a ballad in a country music sense, but bluegrass instrumentation adds a certain flair. Same thing with Samson, a twangy tale of learning what it means to have character. Hewing a little closer to the Appalachian vein, the title track is bluegrass with a heart-tugging memory of grandma.
There are a few songs that are more solidly in a different swim lane, though. Always On the Run and Heartquake are both full throttled bluegrass speedsters that leaving you gasping for air. Caught Between A Rock And A Heartache is a pure country swing number about hesitating to get married when “my sugar wants her finger to shine.” One of my favorites is Let’s Have A Drink (To Not Drinking Again), an old school country waltz where Gill and longtime Nashville icon Jerry Salley sing about pals who “pretend that tomorrow the sober begins.” The CD finishes with Forget Me Not, an a cappella masterpiece.
When Gill decided to do this record he pulled out some songs that he’d previously written to be bluegrass tunes, and a few country songs that just sounded better as bluegrass. So ostensibly this is a bluegrass album. But there’s a bona fide country soul here that make this much more. To hear just how good combining those genres can be, take a good listen to The Scrapbook.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.