Hot Rize – So Long Of A Journey

The 1980s were a tough time for bluegrass. Between the last wave of mass interest in the mid-’70s and the first stirrings of another one more than ten years later, a kind of lassitude threatened to overtake the genre. Still, there were a few bright spots on the scene, and by almost any standard Hot Rize was one of the strongest. The Colorado-based quartet went out in a blaze of glory, too, winning the International Bluegrass Music Association’s first Entertainer Of The Year award in 1990 and disbanding not long afterward.

Perhaps because its principals went on to less bluegrass-centered careers, it’s easy to forget that despite being tagged as progressive, the group could put the hammer down on some hard-driving grass. There are plenty of reminders on this album, recorded at two 1996 reunion shows. Tim O’Brien, especially, is red hot on both mandolin and fiddle, and proves he can sing like a bluegrass banshee when so inclined. Anyone discounting the band’s ability to play it straight by reason of Nick Forster’s electric bass or Pete Wernick’s occasionally phase-shifted banjo is simply missing the point.

The set list is heavy on signature tunes, of course, and the sentimental warmth of the reunion is given an edge by the subsequent death from leukemia of guitarist Charles Sawtelle, whose stout rhythm powers the whole affair. As an introduction to the band or as a greatest hits collection, this is a set of unsurpassed excellence.