Adeline

Last March, a quintet of old-timey/bluegrass/Americana string specialists gathered at a cottage on the shores of Beaver Lake in the heart of the Kawartha Highlands, Ontario, Canada. In sub-zero weather, they recorded 15 songs performed in a particular manner inspired by John Hartford's ‘Windows’ system of playing, which has nothing to do with computers.

The sequestered quintet included John Showman (fiddle) and Chris Coole (banjo) of The Lonesome Ace Stringband; Adrian Gross (mandolin) from The Slocan Ramblers; Sam Allison (upright bass and bass harmonica) of Sheesham and Lotus; and Mark Kilianski (guitar) of Golden Shoals. ‘While we didn't follow [the Hartford system] to the letter… we borrowed its spirit of improvisation,’ explains the album's liner notes. ‘The arrangements happened on the spot, and in the moment – there was no planning and no safety net.’

The result is a joyous, rollicking, acoustic jam propelled by the finest fiddling, strumming, picking and plucking this side of, well, Beaver Lake, at the very least. Two tracks worthy of special note: the title-track for its sweetly flowing melody and brilliant solo trading, and ‘Red Prairie Dawn’, for Allison's bass harmonica bottom and the wonderfully elastic ensemble interplay.