** The Seldom Scene

DREAM SCENE

(Sugar Hill)

Virginia's Seldom Scene have put together a mellow bluegrass album, and therein lies the problem: even at its peppiest, Dream Scene never gets out of second gear in a genre that often creates its greatest excitement in turbo-boosted overdrive. Tight harmonies pale against predictable melodies. Technically proficient soloing is brief and uninventive, with sharp banjo and mandolin too often yielding to mediocre guitar and dobro. Tempos that threaten to pick up never do.

Certain moments shine, like the inspirational, upbeat "Going Up on the Mountain," where Ben Eldridge displays banjo virtuosity, and the para-bluesy "Blue Diamond," which features the Seldom Scene's only dark passages. And the cutesy, twangy arrangement of "Bad Moon Rising" is classic in its downhome, jug-band novelty. Maybe these good old boys would sound better on high-speed dubbing; as is, Dream Scene is more often somnolent than evocative.

-- Dan Tobin

(The Seldom Scene play the Somerville Theater this Saturday, October 26, with Northern Lights and Jonathan Edwards.)