Outlaws, Renegades & Rogues: Songs of the Badman

Nothing lasts like an outlaw ballad. Drawing heavily on the Appalachian song bag, these timeless narratives of murder, mayhem, moonshining, and gambling tell the same two or three types of cautionary tale with nary a trace of irony. Everything here is given a bluegrass approach, which makes for some fine picking, but the songs themselves seem to get treated like afterthoughts, mere excuses to get to the instrumental breakdowns. Still, the American fascination with living outside the law shines through, until one imagines that the quickest way to immortality is to rob a bank and have someone write a song about it, hopefully with plenty of room for a blazing banjo break.