I've recently had several recent CD's that Lloyd's playing on come my way, and though there's several folks on the forum here doing a great job of keeping us all up to date on his doings (thanks Mr. Stettner!) I thought I'd throw in my two cents.
Nancy Griffith's new album, "Heart's in Mind" has several cuts with Lloyd and one in particular blows me away, it's a beautiful song called: "Rise to the Occasion", the steel solo is amazing, very innovative AND very pretty. On a few cuts he plays dobro (I'm pretty sure it's Lloyd) and that's nice to hear again too.
There's a new bluegrass "supergroup" called "The Grascals", they've been on the road opening for Dolly Parton (and backing her up with a few added members). The CD is just called "The Grascals" (it's on Rounder) and Lloyd only plays on one song; "Me and John and Paul" but he's spectacular and it's a beautiful song. Terry Crisp played on one song too and sounds great though he's not really featured, and Dolly's on one track. I'd recommend the whole album to anyone that likes contemporary sounding bluegrass harmony singing like classic Osborne Brothers; I love it, they're really good.
And one I wasn't going to mention because it's not officially out yet, but it's too good... Robbie Fulks has a new album coming out soon called "Georgia Hard" and Lloyd is all OVER it. Robbie may be best known on the forum for producing the recent Johnny Paycheck tribute; I think this is basically the same band, Redd Volkaert's pretty prominent too and sounds great as always. Robbie gets kind of typecast as "alternative country" but this ought to appeal to anyone who likes classic 60's and 70's country; there's echos of everyone from Roger Miller at his funniest to Paycheck or Gene Watson at their most soulful, though there's way too much originality in the songs to call it "retro". Robbie's a really brilliant songwriter (and singer) in my opinion, and has kind of been overlooked by a lot of people; maybe this album will change that... And Lloyd just plays one cool thing after another!
I'm going back to listening! Damn Lloyd, it sure is good to have you back!
[This message was edited by Pete Finney on 07 March 2005 at 08:10 PM.]
