Tall Fiddler

There is a temptation for top-level bluegrass musicians to make pretentious, over-complicated fusion albums. This is not one of those. This is good-time bluegrass played by a fiddler at the top of his game. Anyone not grinning like a loon after the first few seconds of the high-speed opener ‘Arkansas’ probably doesn't like bluegrass and never will.

Michael Cleveland has teamed up with some extremely talented pals here. Weatherbeaten lead vocals from guest Tim O'Brien make the barnstorming ‘20 Cent Cotton and 90 Cent Meat’ and the more reflective ‘Old Time River Man’ collaborations made in bluegrass heaven. O'Brien also rustles up some gobsmacking mandolin beside Béla Fleck's ebullient banjo on the jazzy instrumental ‘5-String Swing’. Even the rather cheesy honky-tonk country of ‘Tennessee Plates’, which edges towards double-denim line-dancing territory, is pretty enjoyable: this time it's Sam Bush on vocal and mandolin duties. The Cleveland-Fleck fiddle and banjo duet ‘Tarnation’ doesn't disappoint. An epic voyage, it starts of as head-nodding blues before dramatically upping the tempo. The pair give every millimetre of their instruments such a thorough going over that it's a wonder they haven't been sanded into sawdust by the end of it.