Behind the VanGough-esque cover art of the Jericho Road Crew's latest CD, "Moonlight Harvest," is a collection of songs that I found to be creative, clever and polished done by a group whose chemistry comes through in their voices and playing together. A cut of outtakes which sounds much like the Smothers Brothers illustrates this well as they record for posterity a number of false starts on their biographical song "Jericho Road Crew Band" (cuts no. 11 and 12).
It's hard to label this band as to their style. They have a reputation for being a country band, even a bluegrass band, but, though there is a bit of a country flavor to this disk, it is far from being so readily categorized. The styling of most of the songs is much more of a contemporary popular style sans fiddles, banjos and pedal steel guitars. If folks think of the Jericho Road Crew as a country/bluegrass band then they should get their hands on this CD; they will be pleasantly surprised.
These guys have been around for a while as the tight sound on each cut testifies. Most of the songs express a Christian faith in one way or another. Others are love songs both romantic and familial. Kathy McLean's lead vocals and harmonies with Ron Lawrence so well exemplified on "In The Wink Of An Eye" (cut no. 8) are quite enjoyable and run the spectrum of light and almost silly to serious and almost dark--and everything in between.
My favorite cut on the CD -- which was hard to decide upon -- is the moody, Ron Lawrence-fronted "Can You Feel My Prayer", featuring the lead electric guitar of Tracy Lord.
As the music director at a Christian radio station, I get a lot of independent artists' CDs sent to me. Usually, I listen to them, take the paper covers out of the cases and save the empty boxes for future use after I send yet another CD to the landfill. But every once in a while I find a gem on my desk and "Moonlight Harvest" is definitely one of them.
Bob Pierce,
Morning Host & Program Manager
The Light Radio Network
CMI Radio, PO Box 8310, Essex, Vermont 05451
802-878-8885 FAX 802-879-6835
Email: bob (at) thelightradio.net