Only Me – Rhonda Vincent – A Review
Rhonda Vincent releases her new 2 CD package “Only Me” on Upper Management Music 1/28/14.
Rhonda has been singing and picking traditional bluegrass music for quite a while now. The Bluegrass CD has a real rich sound recorded at her own Studio , Adventures Studio by recording engineer, Joey Crawford, who also mixed the CD. Present day Rage is Hunter Berry on fiddle, Brent Burke on resophonic guitar, Mickey Harris on upright bass, with Aaron Macdaris on banjo. Rhonda plays mandolin and Josh Williams plays some real good guitar. Willie Nelson his guitar on title track “Only Me” which is a duet with Rhonda. Darryl Singletary sings a song with Rhonda on the bluegrass CD “We Must Have Been Out Of Our Minds”. The instruments sound great on the bluegrass side with Rhonda playing some great mandolin. It’s hard to believe that she has been recording since 1967. She still looks gorgeous and her vocals are beautiful. Dolly Parton gives her a compliment on her great bluegrass singing in the credits. Very good song selection which is one with a live sounding vibe.
Rhonda’s last CD was two years ago, a gospel CD “Sunday Morning Singing”. The country CD is equally good, her earlier CDs on Giant Records during the ninetys were country. Her country voice reminds me a bit of Lee Ann Womack. She starts out with a song that she wrote herself called “Teardrops Over You” which is a great slow song. The country record was recorded at the tracking room in Nashville ,featuring Tim Crouch on fiddle, Kevin Grant on upright bass, Carl Jackson on acoustic guitar, Mark Johnson who is incredible on pedal steel . Catherine Marx on piano, James Mitchell on lead guitar, Michael Rojas plays piano on (Drivin’ Nails) and Lonnie Wilson on drums.
The country CD has a great selection of songs by well known writers like Bill Anderson. It has Rhonda’s great country voice with some just dynamite interplay with the musicians, especially Mike Johnson on pedal steel, James Mitchell on electric guitar and Catherine Marx on piano. Recorded again by Joey Crawford with some assist by Jarad Clement. I remember the days when the great Bill Voorndick recorded most of Vincent’s music. This CD has some great artwork with Rhonda on the cover looking great with some nice design ideas, one being that it has this special jewel case for two CDs that really work. I have really enjoyed Vincent’s CD. If you like the real deal, Rhonda is it.