Some four years ago I was introduced to bluegrass musician Jason Dea West (vocals, guitar, harmonica) when he was part of the incredible Magnolia Sessions series for Anti-Corp, and now here he is back with his latest album. Normally he performs and records totally solo, but in the summer of 2024, he was approached by Amie Astelle who wanted to play upright bass with him. He accepted, and after just 45 minutes of learning material she played with him that night. Amie Astelle and her partner, Jessica Curran, ended up staying in Oregon with West for the next two weeks, working as farm hands by day and playing music all night, which led to West asking her to come to Nashville to work on the album. During this time Jason also met a young fiddle player, Mason Alexander, during a backyard, fire-lit picking session after a show he played with the Resident Rogues in Menomonie, Wisconsin. This led to Jason also extending an invitation to Mason, and the new band was born.
On the first day of the sessions, they spent hours in producer Dan Emery’s driveway, working out arrangements and the details of each song as a trio, then the next day, they recorded nine songs in ten hours, predominantly live with minimal overdubbing, which became the new album, ‘8 Miles From Rusk’. As one will have gathered from the information provided above, what we have here is an album from people for whom music is far more than a way of expression or making a living, for them music is life and is as essential as breathing. The result is a release which is timeless, only the quality of the production informing us that this is a modern album and not something which was recorded a hundred years ago. No need for amplification or electric instruments, just people sharing stories as they have done throughout history. As well as the trio there are also some guests in the form of Joe Wunderle (guitar), Sparrow Smith (accordion, vocals, banjo), Charlie Marks (banjo), Annie Ford (viola), Hana Fleur (vocals), Aurelia Anne Cohen (vocals), and Nora Jean O’Dea (vocals), the result being something which I can imagine being recorded late at night around a campfire.
This is Americana, honest Country (not the commercial stuff we generally hear), Bluegrass, but most importantly this is music from the heart, and it is the honesty which is infectious, so far removed from modern pap which infects the airwaves as to be a different entity altogether. It is raw, powerful, and a true joy.
Rating: 9/10