The act touches upon both the leaver and the left in relationships. For the former, with “Tomorrow I’ll Be Gone” they sing about how its character will be out of a woman’s life before she’ll even know it. “You’re a loser in this game of love,” he calls this poor soul during the chorus. With “When I Stop Dreaming,” a lover is doomed to a tragic breakup, and left hanging on the losing end.
Singing about home is another big country lyrical topic, which Dailey & Vincent lovingly address with”Hills of Caroline.” This track takes a break away from the sometimes breakneck speed of this album’s typical instrumental backings, for a gentle, acoustic guitar-supported song. Instead of sounding like a bluegrass recording, this one sounds much closer to acoustic folk, instead.
Another more acoustic-leaning song is “Won’t It Be Wonderful There,” a gospel tune. While the instrumentation is simply comprised of acoustic implements, the singing is done in a nearly Southern gospel quartet mode. Lyrically, this song speaks of how wonderful heaven will be, once we finally get there.
With “Steel Drivin’ Man,” Dailey & Vincent rev up the beat considerably. Over a madly sawed fiddle and fleet-fingered banjo and mandolin, these men sing about a railroad man. Although there are still train tracks being laid down in a few untouched places, for the most part steel drivin’ men are blue collar workers of the past. Nevertheless, in much the same way Merle Haggard’s “Workingman’s Blues” paid tribute to the working man’s dedication to his job, this song lyric salutes one particular man for the work he does sp well.
Although this pair has been together as a duo for less than a decade, Darrin Vincent (mandolin, guitar, bass, vocals) and Jamie Dailey (guitar, bass, vocals), each have long bluegrass histories. Dailey was the lead singer in Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver from 1999 to 2008, while Vincent played in Ricky Skaggs’ esteemed Kentucky Thunder previously. He also played with his talented sister Rhonda Vincent in their family bluegrass group, The Sally Mountain Show.
All this accumulated experience can be heard running through the wide variety of topics covered with Brothers of the Highway. In a sense, they are like brothers -- as anybody in a musical band for a while knows -- groups are a whole lot like families. They also know the highway part of that title/equation because musicians are road dogs for life, whether they like it or not.
This act’s sixth album doesn’t break any new ground, nor does it offer up many sonic surprises. What it does do, though, is reveal just exactly what a modern bluegrass album should sound like. If you take fine songs, back them up with great playing and sing wonderfully over it all, you pretty much have the recipe for success. If these brothers of the highway keep creating fine music like this album, they’re most certainly on the right road.
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