[rating=9.00]
Coming on the heels of a pair of musical detours — Undercover, a set of songs that found them re-imaging some of their favorite cover tunes, and last year’s Ladies & Gentlemen, an album that featured several high profile guest singers of the female variety, Laws of Gravity finds the Infamous Stringdusters doing what they do best. Here again, they go back to basics while maintaing the modern tack that’s made them darlings of both the bluegrass crowd and the festival faithful.
Like the Steep Canyon Rangers, Town Mountain, Alison Krauss and Union Station, and others of that populist ilk, the Infamous Stringdusters excel at tapping tradition while infusing a modern sensibility into their sound. This time around, they go several steps further, exploring broader themes that have arisen in the wake of a divisive election year and one of the most fractious periods in American history. These are songs of perseverance and principle, a tack that’s especially evident in the titles of the songs themselves — “Freedom,” “Soul Searching” and “A Hard Life Makes A Good Life” in particular. However “This Ol’ Building” is especially pointed in its appraisal of modern circumstance:
“There’s no place to hide
If we keep up what’s inside
Ain’t no way it won’t go
Once the wrecking ball gets thrown.”
Still, for all their passion and purpose, the band still manage to do what they’ve always done best — that is, to make music that rings with rustic, rootsy reverence. It’s the sound of banjo, dobro, fiddle and guitars joined together to create a rousing sound. The ambition that’ springs to the fore on its grand suite of sorts, “1901: A Canyon Odyssey,” reflects that skill and verve while conveying a tale borne from a historic expedition. It’s stirring in in its execution, but then again, the same can be said for every one of these outings. An outstanding set of songs with adroit execution to match, Laws of Gravity elevates the Infamous Stringdusters to new and novel heights.
