Chasing My Dreams

Album Review

New River Line kick off Chasing My Dreams with the rousing "Tell Me Something I Ain't Heard Before," a put-down song worthy of early Bob Dylan. The guys — dobroist Jerry Chaney, bassist Mike Parker, guitarist Dave Carroll, banjoist Josh Hymer, and mandolinist Ronnie King — perform traditional bluegrass with vim and vigor. Carroll handles most of the vocal leads and has enough country grit in his voice to deliver these down-home songs with conviction, while the group's harmony ups the emotional ante. While one would never mistake New River Line's version of tradition with Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys', the band certainly clings to bluegrass' Southern roots. This shows up in songs like "My Brother Paul and Me," a melodrama of two brothers during the Civil War, one in blue, the other in gray. It's hard to imagine anyone born and raised in Oregon understanding a song set in a war that ended 140 years ago. For bluegrass bands in the South, however, Civil War songs show up with surprising frequency. Themes like this, falling in love with a married woman, salvation, and the family home place all fight for space on Chasing My Dreams, sketching a portrait of a world at odds with all things modern. Whether one shares this view of the world (or even believes it still exists), New River Line sell it with convincing vitality. ~ Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr., All Music Guide