A poet once noted that tradition “cannot be inherited, and if you want it you must obtain it by great labour.” It implies “not only the pastness of the past, but of its presence.” To be “in the tradition,” then, calls for an awareness — new and inimitable — of previous accomplishments, an understanding that one’s given culture and contemporary days alone can lend.
No other genre loves tradition quite like bluegrass. Still, its diversity has often been underestimated by both intimate participants and dismissive critics, who hear musical times gone but not time present.
The wonder of Longview, then, is the seamlessness with which these six musicians — all major bluegrass contributors in recent decades — enter into the music’s heart and emerge with beauty that’s less like a tribute to the classics than an original work standing among them. The flooding fiddle, the spangling banjo, the dignified rhythm, the harmonic constellations — all are the victory of individual skill harnessed to ensemble unity.
Complete vitals would take a few pages, so, suffice the following: Dudley Connell, guitar (Johnson Mountain Boys and Seldom Scene); Joe Mullins, banjo (Traditional Grass); Glen Duncan, fiddle (Lonesome Standard Time); Marshall Wilborn, bass (Lynn Morris Band); Don Rigsby, mandolin (the New South and Bluegrass Cardinals); and James King, guitar (James King Band).
Reputation and virtuosity aside, singing distinguishes this debut union: The three-part harmonies can inspire vertigo, and the leads, especially Rigsby’s vocal on “Hemlocks And Primroses”, fuse rural roughnesss and technique, cross mournfulness with vigor.
Longview revises tradition subtly yet solidly. For the chestnut “How Will The Flowers Bloom?”, producer Ken Irwin called the composer Connie Gately for an extra verse; a half-hour later, Gately flashed one back. Supplemental lyrics to the traditional “The Train That Carried My Girl From Town” were unearthed via the internet. And while most of the material will be familiar to bluegrass die-hards, the selection feels fresh and the sequencing zips along. The ethos is blue beyond blue, the joy palatable, and the whole sounds, to these ears, among the year’s most satisfying musical experiences. A profound achievement.