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LOST DIAMOND ANGEL
(Ambitious Recordings)
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Jimmy Ryan’s first solo album comes almost two decades into a career that’s included stints fronting alterna-country forerunners the Blood Oranges and studio work with Morphine, Warren Zevon, and dozens of others. He’s proved to be a first-rate mandolin sideman, but Lost Diamond Angel confirms that he’s more than capable of handling the frontman role. Backed by an ace line-up that includes Billy Conway, Dana Colley, Catie Curtis, and Duke Levine, Ryan mixes and matches Morphine-style low rock, trad bluegrass numbers, and hook-filled roots rock; it’s all distinguished by his virtuoso mandolin playing, which is always front and center. The nimble bluegrass on "Face Up" and "Drunker’s Lament #7 or 8" should please traditionalists. But the overdriven sounds on "I’ve Got a Feeling" are more reminiscent of Crazy Horse than Ralph Stanley, and the bridge of "Hardtime" is filled with inventive wah-wah pedal heroics. The interplay between Ryan’s mandocello and Colley’s saxophones conjures a gospel feel on the blues tune "Diamonds," one more example of Ryan’s ability to encompass a broad range of styles without ever sounding studied or pedestrian. (Jimmy Ryan appears with Twinemen, Orchestra Morphine, Dave Champagne, and the Ware River Club this Thursday, October 23, at the Middle East for a Mark Sandman Music Education Fund benefit; call 617-864-EAST.)
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