Kate MacKenzie – Age of Innocence
Longtime Prairie Home Companion and 15-year veteran of Midwest bluegrass ensemble Stoney Lonesome, Kate MacKenzie delivers with second solo effort everything her reputation suggests: a crisp, blue, and beautifully played album.
It is not, of course, traditional bluegrass stem to stern. Age of Innocence has much the same sheen to it that the O’Kanes did at their best, which isn’t meant for faint praise. No, these are mostly new songs (MacKenzie has a hand in writing three), though the traditional “What’s the Matter With the Mill?” most catches MacKenzie in full voice. And while the phrasing is clearly classic bluegrass, the execution is as clearly contemporary.
And, despite able accompaniment (especially by mandolinist Nick Forster), MacKenzie’s voice is the chief attraction. Hers is a warm and well-cultured instrument that slides easily across blues and into bluegrass — so much so that it’s almost off-putting, for there’s not even the illusion here that MacKenzie is capable of raw and unexpected sounds. (It’s the difference between Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin.) That moves her closer to Red House’s “acoustic” sensibility (it used to be called folk music, but times change), and yet, unlike, say, the performance blues of Guy Davis’ Call Down the Thunder, there really isn’t a false note here.
All of which makes me vaguely uneasy. This is very comfortable and pleasing music, but it sounds too much like Berkeley recreations of Appalachian music from the 1950s. No, it sounds like pleasant middle age and nice furniture and good jobs. And yet, much like Christine Perfect (aka McVie, of Fleetwood Mac) singing the blues, at some point you have to give in to the temptations of that marvelous voice.