One of my discoveries at this year’s Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival up in Grass Valley was a San Francisco Bay Area band, Solid Gold Stranger. In addition to their sets on both the Main and Pioneer stages, the members sat in individually with various other bands at multiple points in the weekend. All that in-demand talent is showcased on their recently released record, Closer to the Flame.
For the most part, Stranger is a traditional bluegrass band, but they push on those edges. On the title track they drop in a finger-snapping, jazzy vamp in an admission of love for being close to the action, “where [the flame] is blue and they all know my name.” Guitarist and principle composer Joe Readel has a knack for telling a story, whether it’s the ne’er-do-wells in The Ballad of Oliver & Angela, or the desperation haunting the mining towns along Highway 49 in Gold Chain Highway.
Hewing closer to the established bluegrass format are album opener LA Looks, where your eye is caught like “flashed in a mirror”, and Space & Time. You Used To Love Me is a beautiful, and slightly melancholy, waltz about how things used to be when we were young and free. Mandolinist Korey Kassir contributes a couple of instrumental tunes, Whalers Village and Three Paw Rascal, that give everyone a chance to stretch out and show their chops.
Solid Gold Stranger was one of five bands selected as a California Showcase performer for this year’s Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival. Given the pedigree of the California Bluegrass Association, host and promoter of the festival, that’s a strong endorsement. In case you don’t want to take their word for it, take a listen to Closer to the Flame and you’ll hear what the fuss is all about.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.