Sweet Bama

Album Review

The third album from this fine and unusually configured Birmingham, AL-based string band is very much of a piece with its predecessors: a collection of rollicking and mostly obscure old-time tunes and songs, all of them delivered with warmth, humor, and a winning blend of gentle virtuosity and casual ease. Fiddle tune adepts will recognize numbers like "Ora Lee" and "Garfield March," while lovers of vintage country music will be familiar with the Carter Family classic "You've Got to Righten That Wrong." But the stuff you've probably never heard before is the best: the jazzy "Girls Don't Worry My Mind" (featuring the charmingly plain-spoken vocals and chiming autoharp of Bill Martin), the equally charming "Keno, the Rent Man," and the otherwise untitled "Everis Campbell's Tune" (named after the fiddler who taught it to them but who didn't know what it was called). There's not much here that will drive you against your will to the dancefloor, but there's also hardly a tune that won't bring a smile to your face. Highly recommended.