The prettiest song on this album full of pretty songs is “Backroads”. a gentle hymn to country living. The chorus begins with “They say backroads lead you nowhere,” but the Cox Family’s latest shows that’s not the case.
This family of four from rural northern Louisiana has been making music for several records, many of them in collaboration with Alison Krauss. They’ve followed her success with Just When We’re Thinking It’s Over on a major label, still playing their angelic and time-tested mix of bluegrass and country music.
With a new label, more has changed that just artwork and company logo. The sound is fuller, with backing musicians handling most of the instrumentation and letting the Cox Family members concentrate on their wonderful vocal harmonies. At times, the muscular drumming overpowers the delicate bluegrass sound, and it lacks the naive down-home feel of their Rounder Records debut. But with an eclectic collection of material — from Hank Sr. to Del Shannon to a surprisingly funky version of “That’s The Way Love Is” — and magnificent vocal prowess, it looks like the backroads the Cox Family has been traveling for so long have finally met up with the highway. They’re on the way to the big city.