WONDROUS
LOVE
REVIEWS
Contemporary
bluegrass super-group, Blue Highway’s gospel album Wondrous Love
shines brightly with reverent harmonies and hard-earned precision.
Expertly recorded and produced, each voice gets equal space and
every instrument’s strum is clear and warm, intimate and clear.
Peppering their repertoire with a handful of a capella
spirituals, the band not only demonstrates how to harmonize like a
choir, but when the music kicks back in after these vocals-only
tracks, it reminds the listener of Blue Highway’s strong pickin’
ability as well. Pure and
honest, reverent and welcoming, bright and rollicking, clear and
convicted, Blue Highway has continued their winning streak of terrific
albums by picking a theme close to their hearts and making it
available to everyone who will listen. Far beyond being one of the best bluegrass albums of the
year, Wondrous Love could easily stand on critic’s lists as being
one of the best albums of the year.
-Zac
Johnson, All-Music Guide, May 2003
Blue Highway’s
latest release, Wondrous Love is a long-awaited new collection of the
finest in bluegrass/acoustic ballad style music.
This Blue Highway release encompasses their unique style and
provides us with their first gospel release.
(Rounder 1161-0524-2)
Because of the
band’s unique style, their blend of style and gospel they have
probably created a paramount achievement of gospel representation
today. It isn’t often that I get an album to review that not only
stands out from the others, but also has nothing to compare it to.
Blue Highway has given me another sweet treat for my ears and
my soul.
With the entire
band providing vocals on this album, it is rich in flavor and tone.
Harmony is exceptional! Wayne
and Shawn continue to provide the lead vocal elements and this
continues the tradition of Blue Highway’s music but this album
offers something more. You’ve
got to hear it to believe it!
-Bob
Cherry, Cybergrass.com, July 18, 2003
For their first
all-Gospel album, Blue Highway has earned the following praise from
Doc Watson – “The album ‘Wondrous Love’ is one of the best
expressions of the gospel that I’ve heard in a long time.”
With experience gained from time spent with groups such as
Alison Krauss, Ricky Skaggs, Lynn Morris, and Doyle Lawson, Blue
Highway members formed a group that has risen to the upper ranks of
Bluegrass world, gathering awards and pleasing crowds wherever they
play. This CD is filled
with compelling songs, great musicianship, and music straight from the
heart.
-Bluegrass
Americana.com
****
“Much gospel
music attempts to scare, moralize, or ‘hallelujah’ listeners into
religious experience, but Blue Highway’s Wondrous Love lays both the
‘good news’ and the melancholy truth of lost souls on the line
without judgment. That’s
just one reason this little miracle is perhaps the finest collection
of bluegrass gospel so far this decade.
“When Rob Ickes
closes the record with a mournful Dobro meditation on ‘The Old
Rugged Cross,’ he turns the venerable chestnut into a personal
moment of prayer. Fans of great bluegrass gospel music might want to say a
little prayer of thanks for Wondrous Love.
-Alanna
Nash, Country Weekly
September 16, 2003
It was only two
years after the Tennessee-based contemporary bluegrass super-group,
Blue Highway formed that they were taking home IBMA awards for
“Emerging Artists of 1996” and “Album of the Year” (for
“It’s a Long, Long Road). A year later, the band won “Gospel Recorded Performance of
the Year” for the song “God Moves in a Windstorm.”
Why they’ve waited six years longer to release their first
gospel album is a mystery. This
project is long overdue, and it is certainly a heavenly treat with
their brand name harmonies and instrumental virtuosity.
The band features five consummate players and vocalists: Time
Stafford (guitar), Shawn Lane (mandolin, fiddle), Wayne Taylor (bass),
Rob Ickes (resophonic guitar), and Jason Burleson (banjo, guitar).
Ickes is five-time winner of the IBMA Dobro Player of the Year
award.