Tony Rice

Iremember clearly the day I moved into my dorm on the campus of East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee, January 1979. I put on my headphones and listened intently to California Autumn. As the record began, the sound that hammered into my brain that day is one of those musical memories I will never forget. I must have listened 40 times over. Recently I listened again on my new Bose headphones to see if it was as utterly awesome as I remembered. It was.

It always seems to create a certain amount of confusion when a multi-talented artist like Tony Furtado grows in a new direction. Once upon a time, he recorded instrumental banjo music for labels like Rounder, adventurous acoustic music for fans of David Grisman, Tony Rice, and Béla Fleck. A few years later, however, finds Furtado – artistically speaking – all over the map. Now, he also plays guitar (acoustic and electric), sings, writes, and performs in multiple styles. On 2005's Bare Bones, Furtado takes a step back from the eclectic hodgepodge of These Chains for a low-key concert album. True to the title, he backs his own vocals with acoustic and electric guitar and banjo over 11 tracks, producing a quiet and intimate album that reminds one a bit of Leo Kottke's later material.

While the first two volumes in the series spotlighted the history of African-American gospel, this volume peeks over the other side of the fence and sheds the light on six decades' worth of country gospel performances. It's all top-notch, too, with Hank Williams' "I Saw the Light" spearheading an 18-track collection that includes classics from Kitty Wells, Roy Acuff, Bill Monroe, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, the Carter Family, the Louvin Brothers, Webb Pierce, and Martha Carson. That gospel is a long-running tradition in country is exemplified by the inclusion of tracks from modern stars like Ricky Skaggs and Tony Rice, Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and old guard like Buck Owens, George Jones and Tammy Wynette, and Ernest Tubb. A delightful set.