Close Enough to Hear

With their previous two albums, 2017's Onwards and 2019's enchanting City on a Hill, the warmth, precision and virtuosity of this youthful Boston-based acoustic string band helped them stake out a spot as something potentially pretty special on a busy bluegrass scene. ‘Mile Twelve made fast gains for the first few years, like shiny young bluegrass bands do. We picked fast, sang high, and toured hard. Then it all crashed against the brick wall of COVID,’ ruefully agrees founding member, guitarist and vocalist Evan Murphy.

Yet, here they are back on blistering form and apparently driven by a furious new energy with Murphy, Catherine ‘BB’ Bowness (banjo) and Nate Sabat (bass, vocals) joined by a couple of valuable new members, fiddler and vocalist Ella Jordan and mandolinist Korey Brodsky. Necessarily recorded closer to home than the Nashville-recorded Onwards and City on a Hill, there's a disarming intimacy here alongside the rigour and vigour of a set that consolidates the innovation and freshness of those first couple of albums, while adding some new textures of jazz and pop, plus a more mature lyrical sensibility.