LP Review: "Sam Gleaves & Tyler Hughes" by Sam Gleaves & Tyler Hughes

Sam Gleaves & Tyler Hughes

In most contemporary Christmas time movies, the nuclear family always has children scattered around these United States.

The parents tend to live in the Midwest or the South. Their children have all moved across the country to live their lives.

Those movies tend to have great introduction scenes, because these (now adult) children aren't arriving at the same time in Bloomington, IL.

Sometimes they even have to rent cars to get to the snow covered ranch houses they grew up inside of.

So, we always learn about these kids. The standard trope is seeing them in their suits telling their office friends about how they have to get back to Montana for Christmas because Mom might not be around much longer. This goes on until they're all in the house.

The last child though...this one doesn't always arrive alone. Sometimes they bring a new friend....

Sam Gleaves (R) & Tyler Hughes (L)

Enter Tyler Hughes.

Much of my readership is familiar with The Young Master, Sam Gleaves. You can see he's now headed into his rebellious stage, what with that hippy hair and all.

This time around Gleaves chose to bring us a more diverse collection of music thanks to the contributions of Hughes.

First, let's just point out the obvious, Gleaves & Hughes each sing and play about five different instruments.

My personal favorites include the gourd banjo and the autoharp.

For a full list of who played what, please see the liner notes of this album.

This album is comprised of traditionals, originals, and covers. The biggest lesson Gleaves seems to have learned between Ain't We Brothers and now is subtlety.

His earlier work sounded like he was trying to save the world. He was about as overt as that friend on facebook whose posts about real life seem fake because they're always chasing some Facebook conspiracy theory.

On its face, as we're in a time when the world does need saving, it would seem that the overt and the subtle are backwards. Instead, I'm positing that this is the album for 2017. Yes, we need saving, but those of us who know that, don't need telling.

Those of us who don't know that need a trail of breadcrumbs. Gleaves & Hughes have baked up some delicious bread and laid out in traditionally beautiful patterns to be found.

It's all here. You just have to look.

Release: 6/16/17
Genre: Appalachian Folk
Label: Community Music
Formats: CD/Digital
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