By Captain Barry R. Willis

Josh Williams' first solo release is a humdinger. It exhibits his many instrumental skills on guitar, mandolin and banjo and a mature bluegrass voice. Together with some excellent songwriting and an incomparable list of sidemen and excellent production, Josh achieved a fine achievement in this compact disc.

His sidemen include Aubrey Haynie, Don Rigsby, Sammy Shelor, Chris Thile, J.D. Crowe, Jim Hurst, Missy Raines, David Parmley and Ron Stewart. Songwriting credits include himself, Kim Fox, Pete Goble, Tom T. and Dixie Hall, and Carl Jackson. All outstanding in the field of bluegrass. These days we find Josh with Greg Cahill's A Special Consensus band. Greg always picks some super talent for his band members and he found a highly-qualified multi-instrumentalist and smooth vocalist when he hired Josh.

While this project includes some traditional bluegrass, it also goes beyond bluegrass limits into other types of music which Josh likes. For example, while I don't think even Steve Spurgin can call "Moonlight Motor Inn" bluegrass, both Spurgin and Josh include it under the bluegrass umbrella. His "An Eye for an Eye" performance here takes liberties on traditional bluegrass which seemed impossible only a few years ago. And a swing version of "All of Me" further deviates from the bluegrass genre. "Now That You're Gone" is quite pleasant. It's a slow one which exhibits a mature and expressive voice. I like this one a lot.

So what we have here is a creation of a young, creative musician who wants to play good music, and not just the bluegrass type. But I kind of expected instrumentals from a person who's instrumental credentials include a considerable number of awards on the bluegrass instruments. There are no instrumentals on this CD.

Rather straight ahead in its presentation, the project is a good work from a man whose promise in music is considerable. Josh is only about twenty now. This is a good first work for a very good singer and player of bluegrass genre music.

Captain Barry Willis

5th February 2002