Laurie Lewis is a leading practitioner of what certain scribes once referred to as California bluegrass, a more cosmopolitan version of traditional music that shouldn't be confused with contemporary bluegrass. While
Lewis' brand of bluegrass may lack the high lonesome authenticity of
Flatt & Scruggs, it possesses an eclectic, proficient core lacking in the more polished sounds of contemporary bluegrass.
The Golden West finds fiddler
Lewis and her cohorts, mandolinist
Tom Rozum, guitarist
Scott Huffman, banjoist Craig Smith, and bassist
Todd Phillips, in fine form, full of vim and vigor, pep and pizzazz. The album kicks off with the free-wheeling "Your Eyes," a jazzy-bluegrass ride with a vibrant acoustic arrangement.
Lewis' warm, natural lead imbues the songs with a fun sense of abandoned, while
Rozum and
Huffman's harmony on the choruses tops it off with a high-flying flourish. Following "Your Eyes"
The Golden West takes a more traditional turn, with
Rozum and
Huffman's more countrified voices taking their turn at the microphone. Even
Lewis' fine version of "Rank Strangers" leans closer to Kentucky than California. Other material, like "A Hand to Hold" on which
Lewis shares the choruses with
Linda Ronstadt, stretch these boundaries, however, and
John Hartford's "Goodbye Waltz" brings
The Golden West to a gentle close. ~ Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr.