CMT Blog: Archive

One of my all-time favorite bluegrass songs is “Still Climbing Mountains” by Blue Highway. There is just something about that Dobro intro, and I love how the melody climbs and crests. That’s one of the reasons I’m such a fan of these guys. They have a knack for arranging the music to emphasize what’s going on in the story. It’s never blatant or cheesy, yet it does underscore the emotion in the lyrics.

They must get that comment a lot, because when I met them last month before a show in Nashville, they said a lot of people ask how they arrange their songs. Their secret? Well, they just play what feels right. And when they get the track down, they make sure not to overthink it, or over-fix it, to retain the natural sound. The same notion goes for their new album, Through the Window of a Train, which comes Tuesday (Feb. 12) on Rounder Records.

Four out of the five guys live near Big Stone Gap, Va., so this time they recorded close to home at Maggard Sound, rather than Nashville. Citing the funky living room environment in the studio, they all agreed that it was an easy record to make.

“In music, you can’t replace where you’re from. In bluegrass, you can’t replace being from that area. There’s like a vein of music through there,” says Shawn Lane, who plays mandolin, guitar and fiddle. (He also wrote and sang one of my favorite Blue Highway songs, “Between the Rows,” about growing up on a farm and not realizing how good you had it.)

Blue Highway tours a lot, so it isn’t surprising that traveling is a common theme on the new album. In fact, all the songs on the new CD are written or co-written by members of the band. Hard to believe, but it’s the same lineup now as when they won their first IBMA Awards in 1996 for best emerging artist and album of the year. Hopefully they’ll be climbing mountains, crossing rivers and picking at festivals for years to come.