The Greencards
Fascination
Sugar Hill
How do a singer/bassist and a multi-stringed instrumental master from Australia combine with a violinist/violist/cellist from the U.K. to form to make the best bluegrass album of the year? Well, The Greencards have always had a love and respect for Americana and bluegrass, which brought them together in 2003. Now these three have released not only the best bluegrass album of the year, but one of the best albums of the year in any genre with their fourth album and Sugar Hill Records debut, Fascination.
The album starts out with singer Carol Young sounding like Alison Krauss fronting NickelCreek with her pure voice pouring over the sparse background like syrup on the title track, while “Outskirts of Blue” is the perfect song for looking out over a prairie and letting your mind go free. I know. I played this song over and over and just looked out over the Sand Hills of Nebraska and let the lyric “The truth has a habit of creeping on up to you” sink in. It was soul-cleansing.
That is followed up with the brilliantly percussive “The Avenue” which takes the mandolin and lets it lead the three-minute march.
Young met multi-instrumentalist Kym Warner and violinist/violist Eamon McLoughlin in the musical hotbed of Austin, and now they are based in the place that their music would suggest that they are from, Nashville.
The Greencards are poised to transcend even the heights of Fascination. They have already toured with Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan, been nominated for a Grammy (Best Country Instrumental Performance for “Mucky the Duck” from the album Viridian) and in 2006 were awarded the Americana Music Award for Emerging Artist of the Year. This trio has already accomplished quite a lot – and they are just getting started.
The Greencards: http://www.thegreencards.com
