North Carolina native and Berklee College of Music alum Liam Purcell’s Yellow Line features a dozen tracks that successfully revamp traditional bluegrass for a new generation. Purcell’s talents aren’t solely interpretative. He penned four of the twelve tracks, and the complementary material ensures a cohesive voice emerges from this collection. His Cane Mill Road bandmates are responsible for memorable songwriting contributions; bassist Jacob Smith writes two tracks, while banjo player Colton Kerchner and guitarist Rob McCormac are each responsible for one song. Yellow Line is a more than worthy successor to the 2020 debut Roots and will solidify their position among the bluegrass vanguard over the coming decades.
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Opening with the title song throws down an early gauntlet. “Yellow Line”, authored by Purcell, is an ambitious and dynamically driven bluegrass song that hews close to the genre’s roots. However, Purcell and Cane Mill Road go light on the traditional vocal harmonies dominating bluegrass in its purest form. They pick their spots. Texan Ella Jordan’s fiddle accompaniment invokes the style’s classic DNA with energy and straightforward melodic excellence. The handful of tempo shifts incorporated into the arrangement layers the performance with surprises galore. It gives the title song impressive diversity.
Jacob Smith’s first track, “No More”, is an alcohol-soaked blazer brooding over hopelessness and heartbreak. The fatalistic sentiments elicit a winning vocal performance from Purcell, and the band generates powerful instrumental fireworks without succumbing to pseudo-virtuosity. Every note and passage serves the song. Colton Kerchner’s “Homesick for Virginia” turns the vocal spotlight onto the banjo player with outstanding results. Longtime bluegrass devotees will hear echoes of Bill Monroe and The Stanley Brothers rife throughout this lonesome reflection on drifting too far from home. It’s arguably one of the most traditional moments on the release and strengthens the whole of Yellow Line.
“Black Sheep’s Wool”, another Purcell composition, has an enigmatic beginning. It transitions into an arch-modern invocation of bluegrass’ possibilities and reveals itself as an unusually elastic composition. It isn’t difficult to imagine an enterprising act adapting this track into a rock or pop format. Jacob Smith’s understated bass contributions are crucial. Rob McCormac’s “Somerville” boasts memorable melodic virtues from the outset. His guitar playing leads the way for this three-minute-long instrumental. McCormac’s arrangement provides a vibrant forum for each instrumentalist to exhibit their gifts. Cane Mill Road is a robust unit with immense interpersonal chemistry.
AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/Yellow-Line-Liam-Purcell/dp/B0CV4BZ1JP
Jacob Smith’s second songwriting foray is a mid-tempo track named “High Country Love”. It treads much of the same ground as his earlier tune, longing, sans the virtual river of alcohol washing its way through the earlier “No More”. Yellow Line concludes with Ken Lee’s “I Believe There’s an End to This Darkness”. It’s a fitting finale. The sensitively rendered performance finds hope and cause for optimism in the face of travail and doesn’t strike a false note. The gentle vocal harmonies are especially effective. Liam Purcell and Cane Mill Road deserve hardy praise for this intelligent, entertaining, and often moving sophomore effort. We can rest assured that Yellow Line will not be their final triumph.
Claire Uebelacker