Last of the Outlaws

I discovered Railroad Earth a few years ago. I don't think they are from this planet. Musically you can't be a jam band with those instruments and you can't do musical styles like they do with stuff like a mandolin. On first hearing I had to eat some words but luckily the music made those words go down well, no antacid needed.I never like everything on every Railroad Earth album. Some stuff is just okay but there are always gems that are so good I'd buy the whole CD for that one song.That gem of this one is Monkey. I toss in When The Sun Gets In Your Blood and One More Night on the Road as choice cuts but I really can't find a track that makes me hit the skip button.Railroad Earth is a jam band on mostly acoustic instruments. Sometimes its straight country or Americana but sometimes it is heavy rock mostly unplugged. They have a knack of having that live concert sound on every album they do...the sort of stuff where you hold that Bic lighter high as a sign of approval.Railroad Earth is like no other band you've ever heard. The defy the rules and get out there are just have fun. There's a spur of the moment feel to their music, you know, when every band member clicks, hits its stride and acknowledges it with a smile. But they stop there. There's no shoe polish to make their songs shine with a sanitized feel. This is raw and live, be it organic and natural. It is a feel that just goes down good. This album is no different.Whether your first or your next, this CD will do the trick. And go ahead and play it for your friends but don't be surprised if they are a bit astonished.

The Last of the Outlaws is not Railroad Earth's typical jamgrass song. What a haunting departure. I loved it! I've listened to the album over and over again, not stopping until I ordered Elko, one of RRE's live albums. Last of the Outlaws takes advantage of the studio and slows down RRE's usual rapid pace for the title song as well as Grandfather. Face with a Hole (etc.) has deep bass and fiddle harmonies matching the vocals. I think the vocals in the album are as strong in this album as in any of RRE's live albums.

New to this group. First CD I purchased. A little too much instrumental for me but a very unique sound and clearly very talented musicians.

Railroad Earth is a bluegrass influenced jam band that I really enjoy seeing in concert. Many of the jam bands don't come across so well in the studio, but with this effort Railroad Earth delivers a well rounded album of great and varied tunes. Good songs, good lyrics, and great instrumentation. I have enjoyed it quite a lot.

Before purchasing this new studio album from RRE I had only bought the live recordings available on Livedownloads.com. I'm very impressed to hear these songs sound just as good as the do live. Love it and the more I listen to RRE the bigger fan I become. Thanks JamOn for playing their music.

Saw them live on PBS and liked them, but this album they really sound their age, the older one I purchased at the same time is very good.

some of the best new music around with a son volt and warren haynes influence

Love Hangtown Ball, such cheery music with dire lyrics. The rest is also excellent.

Railroad Earth are nominally a bluegrass band but one that has embraced other genres, other styles, including folk, country, Celtic rock, roots and jazz. From these influences they produce sounds that can defy categorisation but which interact with each other to produce something quite magical.True to expectations the opening track "Chasin' A Rainbow" is a fiddle led bluegrass piece with Celtic swirls, and "Grandfather Mountain" is a gorgeous folk oriented ballad with solid banjo and piano, soaring fiddle and the evocative voice of Todd Sheaffer singing of the "oldest eyes upon the planet, watching ages come and go".At almost nine minutes long this track is not typical folksy bluegrass fare however, and the dense musical layering of this piece is the perfect intro into the grandeur of "All That's Dead May Live Again" a majestic and commanding eleven and a half minute excursion through the influences, emotions, melodies, styles and lyrical splendours of the band arranged over five movements. It's a stunning achievement brimming with inventiveness and a subtle beauty with each movement weaving the separate parts into a seamless whole. The sextet play an impressive array of instruments including the rarely heard bass clarinet, baritone violin and bouzouki and create a powerful and eclectic symphony of sound.From the final movement of this piece the band segues into the two movements of "Face With A Hole", a nine minute opus that opens with harmony vocals and dense, swirling, Celtic melodies while the second movement "In Paradisium" is a reflective, pastoral and gentle instrumental.These two pieces of seven movements are staggering in their ambition but more so in their execution which has transcended so many boundaries to such profound effect.After such grandiose splendour the band swings into "Monkeys" a Jackson Browne inspired number, the bluegrass inflected "Hangtown Ball" and the rootsy "One More Night On The Road" which by any standards of 21st Century Americana speak of excellence. But it is the visionary "All That's Dead....." and "Face With A Hole" that elevates this album to a higher plane, lets it linger longer in the memory and, perhaps, points to a new direction for this multi talented outfit.Comment Comment | Permalink

Here's a brand new genre for you in 2014 - Prog Bluegrass you might care to call it - as demonstrated by the centrepiece of this fine studio offering from Railroad Earth. The 21-minute collage, "All That's Dead May Live Again / Face With A Hole", spread across two segued tracks, is the major talking point here, an impressive display of instrumental virtuosity and dexterity with enough in the way of ebb and flow to keep it interesting.Of course there seems to be less and less actual bluegrass with each passing RRE album, even though they do seem to have taken a step back from the more mainstream sheen given to them by producer Angelo Montrone last time out. The band have chosen to produce themselves this time, and that's where they drop half a star in my assessment. Top producers earn their corn for a reason. They're not an unnecessary luxury. Bands are often too close to their own work to be the best judges, objectively, of how to realise their ideas. Good though these songs are, at times you do get a nagging sense that the band are maybe just a little too satisfied with themselves. I can't quite shake the feeling that in the right hands this could have been a complete masterpiece but instead, it just falls short.But it's still pretty good."Chasin' A Rainbow" "Monkey" and especially "One More Night On The Road" keep the toes tapping nicely whilst "Hangtown Ball" and "Grandfather Mountain" are the latest in a long line of easy-on-the-ear mid-tempo outings that the band seem to churn out so effortlessly.The title track is rather subdued, taking its time to get where it's going; an example of where a sprinkling of production magic-dust might have made all the difference.But overall, it's another impressive release by RRE even if highly unlikely to cause even the tiniest ripple on these shores. It's our loss.

La notoriété de Railroad Earth était jusque là cantonnée aux States où le groupe jouit d'une excellente réputation. Assez quoiqu'il en soit pour être remarquée par Warren Haynes qui a sollicité les services de ce sextet pour l'accompagner sur son superbe "Ashes and Dust" paru récemment. Gageons que cette participation va (peut-être) permettre à ce groupe d'élargir son audience au delà de sa patrie! Cependant au regard du style musical pratiqué par Railroad Earth rien n'est moins sûr!Railroad Earth donc peut être qualifié de Bluesgrass Jam Band à l'instar de formations telles que String Cheese Incident ou Yonder Mountain String Band.Comprenez que ces groupes s'affranchissent sans complexes des règles qui régissent le Bluegrass académique, tant dans la forme que sur le fond. La musique puise ses sources dans la traditionnel , certes mais aussi dans l'américana. Les morceaux sont relativement longs (plus de 10mn pour certains) ce qui ne se fait pas dans le bluegrass trad. Les instruments utilisés ne se cantonnent pas au banjo/violon/guitares, on rencontre au gré des titres : guitare électrique, piano, saxe et clarinette. Quand je vous aurai dit en plus qu'il y a un batteur......là tous les puristes du bluegrass partent en courant! Sacrilège!Bon soyons honnête , le bluegrass n'est qu'en arrière plan sur ce "Last of the Outlaws", mais Warren Haynes ne s'est pas trompé en les choisissant pour l'accompagner, on est là en présence de sacrés musiciens et de gars qui savent composer d'excellents morceaux au nombre de 15 sur ce cd. On y entend donc un peu de bluegrass, beaucoup d'américana, et même un peu de pop....hé oui! Il y a même une longue suite , ambitieuse, composée de plusieurs thèmes qui n'est pas sans rappeler le "Terrapin station" du Grateful Dead, en mode acoustique évidemment!Chaque musicien fait preuve d'une virtuosité remarquable, chaque titre sonne merveilleusement bien.......un très bon groupe pour peu que l'on soit réceptif à cette musique.En conclusion, si vous êtes fan d'américana teinté de bluegrass/folk , c'est pour vous! Sachez quand même qu'on est ici dans un registre sensiblement différent du "Ashes and Dust " de Warren Haynes.

Tolles Album . Ein muss für Country Fans.