When
Rob Ickes'
Hard Times first appeared in 1997, it was one of the most anticipated debuts in modern bluegrass history. That it lived up to its promise as a soulful work with dazzling players offering a startling new take on the music was a universally accepted assessment.
Big Time is
Ickes' fourth outing. He has followed the path of the artists of old in that he has continued to develop his craft and deepen its nuances. Along with the stellar
Blue Highway band,
Ickes has taken contemporary bluegrass into wondrous new directions, without ever leaving the true heart of the music to the wayside. In fact, of all the superchoppers out there,
Ickes never discounts the soul quotient in his playing or recording. A listen to the ballad "Matt Hyland," with its loping Dobro and fiddle lines that nearly weep in counterpoint, is an example. Also, the solid fever stomp of "Born in a Barn" never leaves behind its hoedown flavor despite smoking solos by
Shawn Lane,
Ickes, and flatpicking bad ass
Tim Stafford.
Ickes' open country jam "The Fatal Shore" prefaces a deeply moving read of "Wayfaring Stranger," complete with Dobro harmonics that offer a haunting template for the melody of the tune. Indeed, the piece is tagged later on with a stellar version of
Merle Travis' "I Am a Pilgrim." The double flatpicking duel at the beginning of the nugget "Fiddler's Dream" is a riotous journey into joy courtesy of
Lane's smoking mandolin and
Stafford's counterpicking revolution. By the time
Ickes takes his solo, the listener is already overwhelmed, but he takes it into overdrive anyway. The most beautiful cut on the set is a deeply bluesed-out reading of
Bill Monroe's "Lonesome Moonlight Waltz," with its backhanded slide runs and dirgelike tempo. This is the finest moment
Ickes has committed to tape thus far. ~ Thom Jurek