Homestead

AMG Review of Homestead

Jonathan Widran
All Music Guide

While folksinging, delightful guitar picking, and environmental concerns have defined his professional life, this popular singer/songwriter has embraced the modern age in a very unique way -- creating Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour, syndicated radio's only live audience program that is also the first multi-camera weekly series broadcast on the Internet. His seventh album has some of his favorite contemporaries (Sam Bush, Rob Ickes, mandolin master Ronnie McCoury) creating a James Taylor-like luegrass-leaning time of home-styled musical storytelling. Among the 16 tracks are two unique trilogies. "The Crimson Rose Trilogy," based around the song and short story "The Garden," features Johnathon playing mandolin in a duet with McCoury and two bookending mandolin instrumentals. The other centerpiece is "The Homestead Trilogy," which ends with the colorful fiddle interlude "Suppertime." There's always a Celtic wave running through Johnathon's music, no more in your face here than on the playful instrumental "The Michael B Rag."