By Marlee Keeven
Whitewater Ramble’s debut album, All Night Drive, is great for just that. The album never gets sleepy – it remains strong till the end to help you pull that all-nighter through Kansas.
In All Night Drive, the band explores many musical genres such as country, funk and rock – but the bluegrass always seeps its way back into the song.
“Pulled Pork” is a good example of their multiple genre-inclusive style. With a guitar solo, keyboard solo and saxophone solo, this song screams rock ‘n’ roll, jam and funk. However, either the stand-up bass or the squeal of the fiddle in the background brings bluegrass back into the picture and makes this song one of the many truly progressive jamgrass tunes on the album.
A medieval gypsy tune with a Spanish twist, “Gypsy Funk” is a great instrumental duel between the mandolin and the fiddle. Then “Purgatory Shuffle” walks into the album with a slow blues strut, but quickly picks up the pace as one of the few purely bluegrass songs on the album.
The album’s only weakness is that, at times, the vocals don’t match the strength of the instrumentals. “Drawing Straws” is one of the few that contains strong vocals as well as instrumentals, making it a top song on the album.
This debut also has some stunning guest appearances, such as Steve Molitz of Particle and Phil & Friends and Grant Gordy of the David Grisman Quintet, among others.
In general, All Night Drive is a cohesive and extremely innovative album that takes jamgrass to a whole new level.
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