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Peter Rowan and Tony Rice
Quartet
(Rounder)
John Metzger's #19 album for 2007
First Appeared in
The Music Box, January 2007, Volume 14, #1
Written by John Metzger
Where rock ’n‘ roll artists have a tendency to stutter, struggle, and stumble
as their youthfulness begins to slip away, those musicians mining roots-oriented
fare seem to find greater strength and resonance as they become tribal elders.
In a sense, Peter Rowan and Tony Rice have succeeded admirably on both sides of
the fence, and it was via their respective connections to mandolinist David
Grisman that their adventurous spirits were allowed to blossom fully. After all,
Rowan left Bill Monroe’s band to form Earth Opera with David Grisman in 1967,
and just a few years later, they joined forces again in the legendary outfit Old
& in the Way. Rice, on the other hand, began pushing boundaries with The
Bluegrass Alliance before helping to pioneer the progressive, genre-bending
music of the David Grisman Quintet. Although the duo crossed paths on numerous
occasions, it wasn’t until 2004 that they finally issued You Were There for
Me, their first collaborative album. In crafting the project, neither Rice
nor Rowan had grand expectations, and instead, they simply slipped into a
recording studio in a low-key fashion over the course of the preceding three
years. On their latest collection Quartet, however, the pair took a very
different approach.
Working solely with their current touring band — which includes mandolinist
Sharon Gilchrist and bass player Bryn Davies — Rowan and Rice improved upon
their formula by parlaying the extraordinary chemistry that they demonstrated on
You Were There for Me into the intricately layered arrangements that fill
Quartet. On an instrumental rendition of Shady Grove, for example,
the song’s melody effortlessly is tossed from one musician to the next, and with
each iteration, it is bent and twisted in a manner that is more akin to jazz
than bluegrass. Elsewhere, the ensemble transforms Patti Smith’s
country-oriented Trespasses into a back-porch waltz, while Todd Pons’
Guardian Angels carefully walks the line between dismal desperation and
spiritual bliss.
In spite of the fact that each selection is delivered with impeccable
precision, however, the pacing of Quartet is somewhat suspect. In truth,
the album peaks early when the cohesion of its opening sequence — which counters
the lost hope of Dust Bowl Children with the bittersweet optimism of
Townes Van Zandt’s To Live Is to Fly only to plunge into the lonesome
darkness of The Walls of Time — outshines the set’s less connected latter
half. Granted, there’s an attempt to bring the collection to a rapturous
conclusion, one which accepts death as a new beginning, but the bold
re-imagining of Midnight Moonlight that serves as Quartet’s
striking centerpiece is a tough act to follow. For as many times as Rowan likely
has performed the tune, he has found yet another fresh and vibrant perspective
from which to deliver it. Yet, the long shadow that it casts is nearly
impossible to escape. Even so, Quartet is a stunning endeavor, and
although its flaws keep it from being a true masterpiece, it certainly ranks
among the finest outings with which Rice and Rowan have been associated. 
Quartet is available from
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2007 The Music Box
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