Rob Ickes - Big Time With Blue Highway '2004

Tracks list

Tracklist

01. Machine Gun Kelly
02. Elzic's Farewell
03. Matt Hyland
04. Born In A Barn
05. The Fatal Shore
06. Wayfaring Stranger
07. Fiddler's Dream
08. I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes
09. Like Water
10. I Am A Pilgrim
11. Lonesome Moonlight Waltz
12. Lost Indian
13. Ireland, Love Of My Heart

When Rob Ickes' Hard Times first appeared in 1997, it was one of the most
anticipated debuts in modern bluegrass history. That it lived up to its promise
as a soulful work with dazzling players offering a startling new take on the
music was a universally accepted assessment. Big Time is Ickes' fourth outing.
He has followed the path of the artists of old in that he has continued to
develop his craft and deepen its nuances. Along with the stellar Blue Highway
band, Ickes has taken contemporary bluegrass into wondrous new directions,
without ever leaving the true heart of the music to the wayside. In fact, of all
the superchoppers out there, Ickes never discounts the soul quotient in his
playing or recording. A listen to the ballad "Matt Hyland," with its loping
Dobro and fiddle lines that nearly weep in counterpoint, is an example. Also,
the solid fever stomp of "Born in a Barn" never leaves behind its hoedown flavor
despite smoking solos by Shawn Lane, Ickes, and flatpicking bad ass Tim
Stafford. Ickes' open country jam "The Fatal Shore" prefaces a deeply moving
read of "Wayfaring Stranger," complete with Dobro harmonics that offer a
haunting template for the melody of the tune. Indeed, the piece is tagged later
on with a stellar version of Merle Travis' "I Am a Pilgrim." The double
flatpicking duel at the beginning of the nugget "Fiddler's Dream" is a riotous
journey into joy courtesy of Lane's smoking mandolin and Stafford's
counterpicking revolution. By the time Ickes takes his solo, the listener is
already overwhelmed, but he takes it into overdrive anyway. The most beautiful
cut on the set is a deeply bluesed-out reading of Bill Monroe's "Lonesome
Moonlight Waltz," with its backhanded slide runs and dirgelike tempo. This is
the finest moment Ickes has committed to tape thus far.

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