Tumbling Bones: Loving a Fool

The scrubbed, fresh-faced qualities that are the calling cards of Tumbling Bones' debut album are quickly overtaken by the group's rich, reflective instrumentation and their fine-boned, three-part harmony singing. With echoes of Ry Cooder's Chicken Skin Music permeating the title track, the trio from Portland, Maine mine a bluegrass seam that stretches from their northeastern home state through the heart of Appalachia, with subtle but unmistakable nods to the grand masters – Bill Monroe and the Louvin Brothers. Heartache and the fool love makes of us, as well as the wide open vistas of spiritual questioning, shape their lyrical preoccupations (with a 50/50 mix of original and traditional songs). The outcome is intriguing: bluegrass that doesn't seek to mimic, but forges a path that's full of rich harmonies, underpinned by an undeniably modern approach to arrangement. tumblingbones.com