CD Reviews
Live ~ Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands
Pete Milano, Bluegrassconnection.com
This is Laurie's' first live recording and based on the quality and performance it is long overdue. A top-notch group performs 18 songs of great music. If you have not heard a Laurie Lewis performance then this CD is a MUST. No disappointments here.
MIKE REGENSTREIF, Montreal Gazette
LAURIE LEWIS & THE RIGHT HANDS, Live (Spruce & Maple Music) The terrific fiddler, singer and bandleader comes through with one of the best live bluegrass albums of recent years. ****
Steven Stone, Vintage Guitar
"Live has all the clarity and dynamism of a studio recording but with that extra spark that only happens during a live performance... Listening to this, folks at home will havealmost as much fun as the crowd at
the show."
Bluegrass, folk, country -- Lewis blends them all with a "music without borders" openness that has earned her two top female vocalist awards and a Grammy for her contribution to "True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe."
While Lewis' recordings have won her a legion of faithful fans, her warmth and artistry are best heard on the festival stage or in the concert hall. Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands, "Live," on her own Spruce and Maple label, is a 19-track "concert" that reprises several of her most popular songs, along with several surprises. It showcases her talents as fiddler, songwriter, singer and bandleader.
"Live" leads off with a brisk "road trip" to "Alaska," followed by Jimmy Martin's snarky "Before the Sun Goes Down." "Geraldine and Ruthie Mae," "Tall Pines," and "Who Will Watch the Home Place," the 1994 IBMA Song of the Year, compare favorably to Lewis' studio recordings. "Love Chooses You," a 1989 hit for Kathy Mattea, is one of the highlights of this, and any other, Lewis performance.
Respected for her generosity in sharing the spotlight with her bandmates, Lewis invites mandolinist Tom Rozum to the microphone for a swingy version of Irving Berlin's "Without My Walking Stick." Winston-Salem's Craig Smith takes the five-string banjo lead on "Diamond Joe," while his fellow Tar Heel, guitarist Scott Huffman, sings lead on Billy Joe Shaver's "Live Forever" and the Carter Family's "Worried Man Blues."
Closing with the swinging, Norteño-influenced "Texas Bluebonnets," "Live" documents Lewis's appeal as a multitalented artist whose music is eclectic, elegant, and wholly her own.