Richard Bennett – A Long Lonesome Time
Singer-guitarist Richard Bennett’s choice of material for his second release on Rebel Records could serve as a blueprint for the perfect hard-core country-bluegrass album. All the ingredients are here: bluegrass classics by Bill Monroe, Jimmie Skinner and Jim & Jesse; a George Jones tune (“Old, Old House”); fine original songs of love gone wrong by Bennett and his fiddle-playing wife Wanda; a great workingman’s ballad (“Today’s The Day I Get My Gold Watch And Chain”, by Tommy Freeman); fast-pickin’ instrumentals; a traditional gospel number; even an ode to mother.
And Bennett knows all this territory well. The Johnson City, Tennessee, native has been a professional musician since age 11, and his resume includes a six-year tour with J.D. Crowe & the New South as well as a stint in the house band at Dollywood. A steady, clear-voiced singer and an explosive guitarist, Bennett has listened hard to everyone from Lester Flatt and Doc Watson to newgrass guitar virtuoso Tony Rice, with whom he has often been compared.
Bennett is backed by his band Blue Towne plus ringers Jimmy Gaudreau, Scott Vestal, Ronnie McCoury and Bobby Hicks. Much of the instrumental work here is dazzling: Just listen to Bennett, fiddle legend Hicks and mandolin maven Gaudreau trade licks on “Washington County Breakdown”. And Bennett shows plenty of promise as a writer of plaintive songs about departed loved ones (a country music staple). The title tune and the doleful “Mother Above” are worthy of becoming bluegrass standards.
Although there’s little here that could be regarded as groundbreaking, you’re not likely to find a more satisfying album of pure bluegrass this year.