Though the Chapmans — twentysomething brothers John (guitar), Jeremy (mandolin) and Jason (bass), plus their banjo-playing dad — are mostly of the same age as groups such as Nickel Creek and King Wilkie, their mainstream bluegrass orientation means they don’t get the same kind of attention. That’s too bad, because on purely musical grounds, the quartet has as much to offer as their better-known counterparts.
Start with a confident sense of material. Though John and Jeremy, especially, are skilled, expressive pickers, there’s little in the way of barnburners here. Instead, country-flavored ballads and grassy midtempo numbers predominate, a risky move that cuts against the bluegrass grain but yields a handsome payoff by focusing attention on the group’s singing.
John Chapman is a soulful singer with a slightly sweet, slightly husky voice that’s immediately recognizable and thoroughly convincing. Jeremy and Jason complement his leads with a sympathetic closeness that’s unusual even in more experienced singers; Jeremy’s own lead turn on Kim Fox’s “Ode To The Simple Man” shows he’s a fine interpreter on his own.
The emphasis on vocals means an emphasis on songs, and there are some great ones here. Standouts include Mike Dekle and Byron Hill’s ambiguous “The Photograph”, the melancholy “Runaway Kind” (written by two members of the Slovakian group Fragment), Chris Jones’ “Uphill Climb”, and Becky Buller’s wordy yet just right “How I Love You”. Really, there’s not a bad one in the bunch.
The Chapmans get occasional help from friends — fiddlers Stuart Duncan and Aubrey Haynie among them — but while it’s nice, it’s not really needed; these fellows do just fine all by themselves.