The new album from The Martin Gilmore Trio is relaxed in the best way possible. Not talking about song tempos but rather a confident, clear, clean style fo playing and singing that brings to mind artists like Norman Blake or Doc Watson. The songs fit together in a seamless way that don’t require technical fireworks to impress and sink into your brain. Gilmore on guitar and vocals is joined by Ian Haegele on bass and Nick Amodeo on mandolin and octave mandolin and this trio format is just the perfect amount of musicians (as well as the perfect musicians) for this album. The interplay of the instruments is on display in “On The Road to Allihies”as each player finds all the possible sounds and emotions of their respective instruments. One of the best elements of this album is the variety of sounds and yet this is not through gimmicks or including some unexpected cover. The songs are all firmly within the acoustic Americana - Folk- Bluegrass sound but the players all bring musical experiences and ideas from a much wider range of genres. “You’re Not Even Trying” is a stand out track, another of the ones that works so well with this line up of pickers. The melody and groove incorporate the best of pop music influences propelled by the relentless bass. If we set the wayback machine to the mid 80s this would be a hit on MTV with multiple guitars chiming away and a synth riff over top of gated snare drums and you know what? That would sound fine. It is, however, so much finer with the bass driving along the guitar and octave mandolin with GIlmore’s vocals riding the wave.

I was pleased to find one of my all time favorites “The Golden Vanity” included here. For my money when a band can play a favorite old melody like this with such delightful precision and passion that will always impress me. The trio gets inside the songs here and finds the essential element that makes them shine.

This is an album you not grow tired of listening to any more than you’d grow tired of having a good friend stop by and say “Howdy”