Coming at a new album from Blue Highway it's easy to expect lots of things, perhaps foremost among them is the band's unflagging professionalism. This album -- like everything Blue Highway has done, frankly -- sparkles with maturity and confidence, and there's good reason for that. The band has been together (as Jon Weisberger notes in the beautiful liner essay) for more than 15 years without any personnel changes. That's unusual in the world of bluegrass, but perhaps it is because this is a group of players that proved themselves long before forming as Blue Highway. They are veterans of studio work, as well as playing with the biggest names out there, including Alison Krauss, Ricky Skaggs, Doyle Lawson and others.
To a man, they are all great players, and the proof of that is abundant. Rob Ickes alone has won the IBMA's Dobro player of the year 11 times. Guitarist Tim Stafford has taught music, written about it, served as chair on the IBMA board, and in 2001 was voted guitar performer of the year. Much like the Nashville Bluegrass Band, Blue Highway is in the realm of supergroup in that the members' skills are so consummate and so evenly matched. Again, they've got nothing to prove, chops-wise, and thankfully they don't feel the need to. The result is an album of songs rather than a collection of licks and solos.
It's easy to lose yourself in the ideas and the stories the songs on "Sounds of Home" tell. As on past Blue Highway songs -- such as "He Walked All the Way Home," "Before the Cold Wind Blows," or more recently "Homeless Man," penned by bassist Wayne Taylor -- the songs here grab your attention, though you perhaps only realize that when you find yourself gazing off into space lost in the ideas and the memories they bring to mind. This is an album that allows the listener to sit down, be quiet and think about some of the important things in life.
One of the things that makes this particular collection unique, even for Blue Highway, is that, with the exception of one traditional song ("Nobody's Fault But Mine") and a couple collaborations, the band members have had a hand in writing the material. And if there is a remarkable maturity to their playing and interpreting skills, the same can certainly be said of their writing. There is some regret in here, an awareness that things can be difficult ("Storm") and some reflection on the bittersweetness of time passing ("Bluebird Days"). "If You've Got Something to Say" recognizes that not all love stories have happy endings, while "Drinking From a Deeper Well" recognizes the wisdom that can come from experience.
Ultimately these are songs about real people, and about ideas that, in keeping with the title, hit very close to home. While other bands may be singing of high drama -- murder ballads, drunken fights -- Blue Highway sing about things that they know well. In listening to them we find that we do too.
