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spotlight! old and new bluegrass, together at last

By Adam Goldstein
goldstea@mscd.edu

Adrienne Young's new album, The Art of Virtue fuses an old-time sound with a revolutionary fervor, taking contextual cues from Benjamin Franklin and the Grateful Dead along the way.

A seventh generation Floridian, Young's music teams with agricultural and organic tones, both in its lyrics and its instrumentation. Her clear banjo lines and crystalline voice recall the best elements of American folk music. The album is evocative and earthy, with harmonies and melodies that could have easily sounded from some anonymous Kentucky mountain cabin a hundred years ago.

The message of Virtue is much more contemporary than its music, which is what distinguishes it from most bluegrass. Although Young takes her title in part from Benjamin Franklin's "Thirteen Virtues," the overarching theme of the album is torn from present conflicts and clashes.

Through the clean guitar lines and dense fiddle runs, Young's voice sings of tolerance, patience and understanding. Specifically citing the outcome of the 2004 election as an inspiration, Young seems to be reclaiming the musical genre for an ultimately progressive message. With liner notes that advocate organic foods and the preservation of family farms in the same line, Young's message is refreshing and disorienting all at once.

In "Don't Get Weary, Children," the lyrics juxtapose rural images familiar to any American folk song with contemporary headaches. The title comes from the chorus, a reassurance that comes after verses which read like their own plaintive list of worries ("Nashville full of big hotels, Chattanooga full of saloons, Knoxville full of Republicans").

In "It's All the Same," Young takes an all-inclusive approach to religion and spirituality that almost seems out of place with its plucked and twanged accompaniment. "I know there's a God above us, and that God made everything," she sings. "And it don't matter how you worship ... it's all the same."

For Young, the art of virtue is not rooted in one text or one sect. Similarly, her music cannot be fully captured with one sound, one musical idiom. In its covers and interpretations, the album spans generations and genres. "Bonaparte's Retreat/My Love Is in America" is a lively cover of an ancient folk melody, and Young handles the Grateful Dead's "Brokedown Palace" with a stirring and somber solemnity.

The unique achievement of The Art of Virtue is the way it flawlessly echoes the sound of rural American folk music even as it fearlessly presents its cosmopolitan message. In mixing the emotion and earnestness of history with a contemporary message, Young proves that bluegrass can still be a revolutionary and affecting artistic tool.