CD REVIEW: Leftover Salmon's 'The Nashville Sessions'

                                         Updated 12:00 PM ET November 3, 1999


 By Jacob Abbott
 Badger Herald
 U. Wisconsin

 (U-WIRE) MADISON, Wis. -- There's a school of groups out there, commonly
 referred to as "jam bands," who rely on incessant touring and loyal fan bases
 rather than radio play and video success to make their names in the music
 world. By now, we all know the list: Phish, Widespread Panic, moe., God Street
 Wine, and Rusted Root, to name a few. But, for the vast range of sounds these
 bands encompass, they all face the common handicap of falling under the
 awesome shadow of Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead, who for 30 years
 maintained one of the most dedicated and far-reaching communities of fans
 American music has ever known. 

 It can't be an easy thing to live up to. But on their magnificent new album, The
 Nashville Sessions, Leftover Salmon channel the spirit of the Dead perhaps
 more effectively than anyone else to date. This includes Phish, the current heirs
 to much of Garica's audience, who covered the Dead song "Terrapin Station" in
 its entirety on the third anniversary of Garcia's death, offering a version that,
 for all its technical precision, just couldn't match the depth and soul of the
 original. 

 Actually, The Nashville Sessions, a collection of songs in which Leftover Salmon
 collaborate with an all-star cast of their peers - including Bela Fleck, John
 Popper, John Bell of Widespread Panic and Lucinda Williams, to name just a
 few - is closer to the sound of the Jerry Garcia Band or the work Garcia did
 alongside John Grisman; heartfelt traditional folk tunes with a healthy twang
 and a heavy slant toward bluegrass. Garcia had a way of bringing the best
 elements of country music to an audience that might not have otherwise
 appreciated it, and this album does the same, with foot-stomping uptempo
 southern jams, punctuated by masterful banjo and pedal steel solos. 

 The album kicks off with "Midnight Blues," an irresistibly brisk track featuring
 Del and Ronnie McCoury, quickly followed by a pair of like-minded bluegrass
 celebrations, "Lovin' in my Baby's Eyes," with Bela Fleck, and "Are You Sure
 Hank Done It This Way?" centered around wonderfully ragged vocals from
 Waylon Jennings. Other songs take a more somber approach; the version of the
 oft-interpreted "Nobody's Fault But Mine" that closes out the album captures
 the song's pain and heart with John Bell's mournful vocals over the band's
 twangy blues riffs. 

 Few and far between are the moments that seem out of place, though "Dance
 on Your Head" comes off sounding a bit incongruous, echoing "I Wanna Be Like
 You" from "The Jungle Book" perhaps a little too closely. By and large, though,
 the disc manages to sidestep the unevenness that often plagues this type of
 collective effort. 

 Obviously, there will never be another Jerry Garcia, and Leftover Salmon have
 done an admirable job of both cultivating their own sound and supplementing it
 with other masters of various forms. Still, the legacy of the Dead is stamped all
 over The Nashville Sessions. Not that Leftover Salmon are imitators without
 an ethos of their own, rather, they bring a rich understanding and appreciation
 of the tradition in which they work, making the album one of the best to come
 out of the genre in years.