Bored of Born-Again Rock? Try Born-Again Bluegrass.

   
"Faraway Land" by Ron Block (CD, 2002)

Ron Block is one of the virtuoso multi-instrumentalists and singers who make up the multi-Grammy and CMA award-winning collaboration of Alison Krauss & Union Station (AKUS). He's not only written and sung some of AKUS' best songs over the past decade; he's also a veteran of many other musical projects. His astonishing flair and versatility as a musician and his plaintive, precise vocals have made him side-man of choice for many of the Country greats.

But for all his glittering track record in the secular music industry, Ron Block is first and foremost a committed, born-again, spirit-filled Christian, and his mature spiritual guidance may well have done even more to place AKUS ahead of the rest of the "newgrass" pack than his fine song-writing and musicianship.

"Faraway Land" was Ron's first solo project, and it ranks as an outstanding achievement both as a country/bluegrass album and as a Christian celebration. Anyone who listens regularly to bluegrass knows that (even more than mainstream C&W) it has a strong gospel tradition, but the Christian listener will recognise that in this context some "gospel" music contains as much folk religion as it does genuine Christian experience. Nothing could be further from the truth in the case of "Faraway Land".These are intensely intelligent and honest Christian lyrics - not hymns or worship songs, but the meditations of a man who has fought on the spiritual battlefield of life and tasted the scent of victory. Whether or not you see life the way he does, it will be hard not to be moved by his honesty, and almost impossible not to be lifted by the alternating exuberance and fragile beauty of these masterful compositions.

What finally sets this album apart musically is its perfect distillation of so many people's creative gifts. The credits read like a miniature bluegrass hall of fame, including fiery but sensitive vocal or instrumental contributions by the members of AKUS and Nickel Creek (including Alison Krauss, Dan Tyminski, Jerry Douglas and Chris Thile, all of whom are noted solo artists in their own right). The arrangements, the sonic textures and the flair of individual instrumental parts go together to make something unique.

There must be people in the world who will not like this album - people whose teeth clench at the merest hint of a twang. But for any fan of country or Celtic folk music, and for any Christian music-lover who has been disappointed by the bland mediocrity of so much of the BAR (Born-Again Rock) market, Ron Block's album may prove to be a God-send.