Amy Ray (from the album If It All Goes South

Amy Ray (from the album If It All Goes South

Amy Ray (from the album If It All Goes South available on Daemon Records) (by Bryant Liggett)
One of the great things about being a musician is when the colleagues you admire become co-workers. As Amy Ray was digging on Alison Brown’s banjo, playing on one of Alison’s songs, while also wondering how Mark Lanegan and Duff McKagan’s guitarist ended up as her in her band, those artists were likely wondering how they came to be playing with Amy Ray. All this great company is kept on If It All Goes South, Amy Ray’s latest, which is a stacked bunch of Roots music with Ray at a hearty helm.
Alison Brown’s banjo provides a solid, rhythmic bounce on the gospel opener of “Joy Train” before driving a solid new-grass solo that has the song carving a solid path. There’s a lonely fiddle to open “Chuck Wills Widow” as Ray delivers the truth in ‘even a sad song is better than no song at all’ in a front porch jam, keep-it-loose fashion, which fits a Roots album. If It All Goes South leaves in the audio clips when the band does a re-do on “They Won’t Have Me”. It’s a great way to convey the looseness of the session.
Sarah Jarosz” kicks in on the bouncy, Country Bluegrass of “A Mighty Thing”, Brandi Carlile jumps on board for the ballad in “Subway”, and “Cowboys and Pirates” is Amy Ray laying down some Cosmic Country. Album closer in “North Star” is a little Roots Blues and a lot of Roots Gospel thanks to church organ and heavy harmonies, a big come-together ending for a big Roots record featuring a big musical cast. (by Bryant Liggett)
 
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