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One of the most honored and revered of contemporary bluegrass songwriters—whose work has crossed over to gospel and jazz—Rick Lang gets the all-star treatment of songs he’s written and co-written, courtesy of some of the towering bluegrass artists of our time accompanied by an all-star band of roots musicians. Consider Justin Moses, for one, whose soulful mandolin support on “Old Rugged Me” shadows a lost sheep’s struggle (“I’m rough around the edges/And I might always be”) for and triumph of spiritual conversion in a frank confession that Dave Adkins (in great, gritty voice as usual, exuding character and commitment) and a transcendent Alecia Nugent turn into monumental testimony. Eleven songs chart a spiritual trajectory from sinful regret to salvation to redemption and reunion in Heaven. The latter is most powerfully evoked in “Just Beyond,” with tender fiddle and banjo support backing intense four-part harmony of the most plaintive order. With collaborative vocalizing by Donna Ulisse, Becky Buller, the revitalized Oak Ridge Boys, Daryl Mosley, Becky Buller, and others mated to Lang masterpieces, Blue Collar Gospel unfolds as breathtaking, heart-rending expressions of souls finding their way through darkness into the light—rising above it all, to paraphrase a Lang chestnut.
By David McGee
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