New Personnel
Patent Pending welcomes back Leigh Taylor-Kron on Bass. Leigh is one of the pioneering members of the band, and we are pleased to have her back on board.
New CD: Long Road Home
Long Road Home is the new Patent Pending CD.
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Read the Review in Bluegrass Unlimited! :
PATENT PENDING - LONG ROAD HOME [January 2008 issue]
Tuscarora Records
TR0420
So pervasive is the conviviality and spirit on this album that the precision and craftmanship honed over 28 years of having three members together might go unremarked. That's why I'm noting it here. This is a tight band.
Long-time member and mandolinist Eldred Hill sets the CD in motion with the first of his three originals, "If I Could See You Again." Melodically and in its lilt, the verse resembles an uptempo "If We Make It Through December," while the chorus switches to a folkgrass feel. Either one will grab the attention, but the chorus, with its singalong quality, is the harder to resist.
From there, the band pulls tunes from a variety of sources, and not primarily bluegrass ones. Patty Griffin's "Useless Desires," tinted with pop/country colorings, is first up and given a defiant reading. This is followed by a quick waltztime tune,"Wild And Blue," which weds a slight cajun quality to what could have been a Stanley Brothers tune, but isn't. (The split guitar/mandolin break here by Ed Barney and Hill is a nifty bit of work.) Then comes John Hiatt's slow, leaving Tennessee tune, then an almost twostep country tune, "What's Good For You," then a likeable cover of "Still Feeling Blue," and then the one lead not sung by Hill, a Hank Locklin number titled "True Love Is Always True" (bassist Teri Chism is deadon impressive with her lead vocal on this one).
Traditional bluegrass finally makes its appearance in the last two songs (notably Hill's rapid and emphatic "I'm Missing You"), and when it does, the effect is like returning home from an enjoyable journey. You visit many interesting places, but you end up with your roots. Perhaps that's why this fine CD is titled "Long Road Home." (Tuscarora Records, 2086 Sulphur Springs Rd., Inwood, WV 25428,
Howdy Patent Pending! I wanted to drop you a note to thank you for taking the time to accept us as your friend, and listening to our music. We appreciate the gesture and are grateful that you enjoyed our tunes enough to add us to your community of friends. After all, having people connect with our music is why we do this. I hope you'll come by often to say hello and let us know what's happening with you, and when you have a spare moment, please visit our brand new webpage at www. crosstimbersbluegrass. com there you can listen to more of our music and find out more about us. Feel free to sign the guestbook! (And if you have any ideas about how we could improve the webpage, be sure to let us know)
All my best and thank you again, Matt (the bass player) Cross Timbers
