Drew Emmitt is the mandolin player in Colorado-based jam band Leftover Salmon, but judging from his solo debut, he has a serious New Grass Revival jones. The good news is that he’s also got the chops to handle that kind of music, and the sense to go to the source for support.
Backed by former NGR mainstay John Cowan (bass, vocals) and Cowan’s band — Scott Vestal on banjo, guitarist Jeff Autry and drummer Pasi Leppikangas — Emmitt presents a set that alternates original songs with a collection of covers ranging from a newgrass arrangement of “Tangled Up In Blue” to a respectable version of Bill Monroe’s difficult “Memories Of Mother And Dad”. In addition to the core band, Emmitt gets help from a fine roster of guests, including fellow mandolinists Sam Bush (another NGR alumnus) and Ronnie McCoury.
Perhaps surprisingly, the performances are not only energetic and substantive, they’re concise — a further sign that Emmitt has a solid grasp of bluegrass essentials. His songs, too, are musically well-constructed and memorable, though the lyrics tend to suffer from too close an adherence to the conventions of the jam-band world; indeed, the lone instrumental, “Paving Eisenhower”, is the strongest of the originals.
Even so, Freedom Ride is an impressive solo debut, suggesting there’s still plenty of life in the mixture of bluegrass and rock that lies at the heart of the newgrass approach.
