Another thing I love about Bluegrass is connecting the dots between bands. From the beginning of Bluegrass you could draw a line from one band to another as players left to join other outfits or to start their own. Troubled Waters is no exception.Dave Denman and John Pennell formed the band in 2001. Both Dave and John played in Union Station in the late 1980s, with John writing six of the eleven songs on Alison Krauss’ debut album, Too Late to Cry. Dave left Union Station in 1988 and John soon after, but the pair kept in contact. In 2001, Denman decided to assemble a band to, in his words, “create something different in a traditional style.”The result of that vision is Troubled Waters. Denman drew from players both veteran and younger, such as veteran mandolin player Bruce Booher and younger banjo player Klint Brown. While Pennell no longer travels with the band, he contributed his bass playing to the CD. Kent Todd completes the group with his tenor vocal and fiddle.Nine of the twelve songs presented on the disc are covers drawing from the traditional repertoire, bluegrass classics and a couple of modern tunes (one Stephen Stills and one Don Williams). It is always a challenge to record songs with such a deep history and make them fresh, but Troubled Waters achieves a win. “There’s Coming a Time” is a traditional bluegrass-style gospel number featuring quartet vocals, guitar and mandolin.The Pennell penned “Half Mile Down the Road” is lyrically the best on the album. It tells the story of a young man recklessly going through life and hearing the echoes of his father that he need be careful because “Hell is a half mile down the road.”Denman contributes two instrumental tracks, “Friction” and “Fourth Fret Logic” which showcase the band.The musicianship on the album is fantastic, the group is able to take these traditionals and classics and make them their own. They keep very close to the traditions of Bluegrass while at the same time raising the bar for the independent groups across the country.You can purchase the CD at their website at www.troubledwatersband.com
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