AMG Review of 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Rusted Root

James Christopher Monger
All Music Guide

Pittsburgh-based sextet Rusted Root may be the first group from the early-'90s jam band scene to receive the priced-to-move 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection treatment, but it doesn't mean that their heady blend of worldbeat, roots rock, and folk warrants it. While the undeniably catchy "Send Me On My Way" may have won them some mainstream success and secured the band opening slots for the Dave Matthews Band, the Grateful Dead, and Jimmy Page & Robert Plant, they never truly caught fire. For the most part, The Millennium Collection just skims the surface -- there's only one song from 1996's excellent, Jerry Harrison-produced Remember -- and the producers felt compelled to include the group's flaccid remake of Santana's "Evil Ways," but there are enough "hits" ("Ecstasy," "Cruel Sun," and "Welcome to My Party") to satisfy the casual listener. The similar -- yet far more interesting -- Poi Dog Pondering deserve as much.