Wayfaring Strangers This Train (Rounder) Reviews

Rolling Stone WF Review

A band of nine virtuosos with separate careers in folk, jazz and rock, this acoustic supergroup makes for an odd clique, but on their second album they show remarkable chemistry in creating new, jazzy arrangements for timeless bluegrass and black gospel songs. Overall, the effect here is of a boundary-blurring experiment gone incredibly right. Helping to consistently raise these could-be curios to the level of fine art is a trio of female vocalists: the powerful Tracy Bonham, the earthy Ruth Ungar, and Aoife O'Donovan, who connects the dots by suffusing Flatt and Scruggs' forlorn "Don't This Road Look Rough and Rocky" with cold, lonesome Celtic mist. The argumentative thesis of the Wayfaring Strangers and its leader, fiddle master Matt Glaser -- who happens to be the chairman of the Berklee College of Music's string department -- seems a bit esoteric on paper, but if This Train is the musical equivalent of a dissertation, the band gets high marks for making a sophisticated Americana that's as soulful as it is cerebral. (TODD SPENCER)

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BOSTON GLOBE: The Wayfaring Strangers. Led by Berklee string department chairman Matt Glaser, among the country's most respected fiddlers, this band's first CD was a bold, experimental fusion of bluegrass and jazz. But it sometimes felt more like an experiment than a band. On a second CD, ''This Train,'' the music flows with a dark chocolate elegance, thanks in large part to the soft, riveting vocals of rising local star Aoife O'Donovan. Scott Alarik

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All Music Guide:If you thought that the first Wayfaring Strangers album, Shifting Sands of Time, was a delightful novelty, an act of a musicians' collective gathered together for one shining project that married country, bluegrass, jazz from New Orleans to post-bop, and world music and pulled it off, thankfully you were wrong. As a band, the Wayfaring Strangers — including vocalists Tracy Bonham, Ruth Ungar, and Aoife O'Donovan, pianist Laszlo Gardony, percussionist James Haddad, banjo boss Tony Trischka, violinist Matt Glaser, bassist Jim Whitney, and guitarist John McGann — are a full-time entity, and on their sophomore effort they bring back many of the same guests from their first outing, including Andy Statman and Darol Anger, and recruit Jay Ungar and Molly Mason as well. The program this time out relies more on traditional material such as the stalwart country gospel tune that Bonham turns inside out that is both the title track and opening number. O'Donovan fronts a moving rendition of "When the Golden Leaves Begin to Fall" with a stunning piano solo by Gardony. Statman and Anger turn the old fiddle tune "Cluck Old Hen" into a dark, nefarious klezmer tune, before it erupts with Ungar and Bruce Molsky whipping it into a backcountry barnyard frenzy. Ruth Ungar's vocal on "Lazy John" is positively moving in its depth and breadth as it careens over the fiddles and banjo or the trio of singers on the virtually stunning "Sit Down Servant," where Delta blues, New Orleans jazz, country gospel, bluegrass, and strange Eastern modalism all come together to swirl into an organically transcendent groove. Even without the guest appearances by Ralph Stanley and Jennifer Kimball on Shifting Sands of Time, This Train, like its predecessor, is one of the most gratifying, provocative, and original takes on true roots American music — as it comes from the rest of the world — on record. It is simply moving and beautiful. — Thom Jurek

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NE Music News
Shifting Sands of Time by the Wayfaring Strangers was a stunning concept album - at once lovely, emotional, and thought provoking. On its merits, it should have reached a huge audience, though I'm not aware that it did.

This Train is definitely not Shifting Sands Vol. 2, but it's a fine album in its own right. Vocals - by new recruits to the band - are featured on every track; and to a large extent, this project rises or falls according to the singing. It's notable, then, that each of the vocalists - Tracy Bonham, Aoife O'Donovan, and Ruth Ungar - has laid down at least one terrific solo. It's O'Donovan, though, who is most fortunate in the match between her vocal gifts and the requirements of the material. There are passages where her beautiful, flexible, and subtle singing sounds like a halfway point between traditional country stylist Hazel Dickens and '70s pop star Karen Carpenter. But it may be most important that Bonham, O'Donovan, and Ungar sound delightful together, such as on the excellent and jumping "Don't Put Off 'Til Tomorrow," a Western swing-inspired country group vocal. That one could have easily come off a 1940s 78-RPM record.

"Cluck Old Hen" is a knockout, but a mighty strange one. It starts as a klezmer improvisation and breaks up at track's end in a musical clatter, with an extended, chugging performance of the trad- country standard in between. Wayfaring Strangers guest cellist Rushad Eggleston, speaking of that cut's finish, said, "Dude, it sounds like something went seriously wrong in the barnyard." "Cluck Old Hen" must be heard to be appreciated, and putting on a little extra volume wouldn't hurt.

While the group vocals may be compared to a team of horses, with everyone pulling together, the instrumentals may be more like a tag team. In particular, Laszlo Gardony's piano improvisations often shift the tenor of the music in interesting ways. The very notion of having the nimble-fingered Tony Trischka, whose banjo anchors the Wayfaring Strangers, and jazz pianist Laszlo Gardony in the same band is perfectly inspired. This is the stuff of which lifetime achievement awards ought to be made, and much credit must go to music director Matt Glaser. Trischka's touch is a joy as always. And here and there, throughout the album, may be heard some really snazzy fiddle fills and accents.

The slow, traditional country-folk performance of "Don't This Road Look Rough and Rocky" is given a simple, mostly straight accompaniment, while the instrumental breaks are jazzier - and that's particularly true of Gardony's swinging piano. Other standouts include the plaintive "When You Go Walking After Midnight" and Tracy Bonham's gospel-testifying solo on "Lord Search My Heart."

Matt Glaser, in the CD's booklet, connects the Wayfaring Strangers with the goal of "All Styles of Music, All the Time." This band of diverse and gifted musicians hasn't missed that objective by a lot; and it's heartening that they're making an effort to play out more, to the extent that members' busy schedules may allow. This train is bound for glory . . .

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NetRhythms•
11 tunes representing cutting edge   and innovative arrangements to some classic tunes, performed with the beautifully expressive voice of Tracy Bonham, the legendary Aoife O’Donovan and the stellar vocals  of Ruth Ungar. These three vocalist can slay a tune with ease.  Classics like This Train, Columbus Stockade Blues and When The Golden Leaves Begin To Fall, all are performed in a manner that you have definitely never heard before,  with a sultry twist to them. Cluck Old Hen  wins the award for being the most unique of the entire set! Starting out with a wind instrument, and gradually morphing into a more recognizable rendition,  using twin fiddles, banjo, piano, and a vocal arrangement that keeps your ear glued to the soundtrack, just to see what they will do next! I’ll give ‘em credit where credit is due, this is one of the best arrangements I’ve ever heard, but I cannot imagine how in the world they ever thought of it. The project is bluegrass, newgrass, blues, jazz, all rolled up into a very stand alone package, I know, it does not sound feasible but it is. It’s excellent, and the worst part is, I’m having a difficult time accurately describing it! Acoustica Magazine

With a three female vocalist line up of Tracy Bonham, (no Zep relation), Ruth Ungar and Aoife O'Donovan, the eight piece outfit led by fiddler Matt Glaser are ,as their name may suggest, big on American folk music. However, with diverse individual backgrounds in folk, jazz and rock, the resulting album's a bit more expansive than the recent crop of Oh Brother inspired revivalist offerings. Take the title track for example, well known via Woody Guthrie or the gospel recordings of Rosetta Tharpe, which gets a bluegrass arrangenmet that suddenly takes off into a jazz swing Herbie Hancock like piano break, the trad Columbus Stockade Blues which transforms from a straight-ahead bluegrass banjo (courtesy Tony Trischka) into contemporary modal jazz, or Don't This Road Look Rough and Rocky which brings not only jazz but Celtic influences to bear on a tune learned from Flatt and Scruggs. Even fiddle tune chetsnut Old Cluck Hen gets a new lease of life as a klezmer barnyard stomp. Such boundary blurring can sometimes prove awkward and incoherent, but the Strangers create a remarkably effective fusion that can take When You Go Walking After Midnight, grab its folk gospel and Stanley Brothers core and arrange it for upright bass, piano and classical Indian bansuri. It's not all a case of shuffling the cards, Bill Monroe's Don't Put Off Til Tomorrow keeps on the straight and narrow, albeit with four fiddle parts, and the Sit Down Servant features the girls interweaving their voices in traditional American roots manner. Mind you behind them the tune's going through Delta blues, New Orleans jazz, country gospel, and bluegrass hoops. A recognition of the diverse musical and cultural origins hat have gone into the melting pot of traditional American music, this is as fine a folk mongrel as you could wish.
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Washington Post
Anyone can say he is going to combine bluegrass, jazz, blues and gospel on a recording project. But very few actually transcend the gimmicky and the academic to create a fusion that people will listen to for pleasure and not merely out of duty. The pleasures of the Wayfaring Strangers' "This Train," however, are genuine. When a jazz clarinet gives way to a bluegrass fiddle on "Cluck Old Hen," for example, the listener's first reaction is not, "Oh, what an unusual blending of genres," but amazement that a melody that sounds so sad on the woodwind could transform itself into a string-band dance that makes you want to kick up your heels.


The Wayfaring Strangers are the brainchild of Matt Glaser, a fiddler who has recorded with Hazel Dickens, jammed with Stephane Grappelli and taught at the Berklee School of Music. The concept was simple: Take the repertoire and instrumentation of bluegrass and old-time music and then proceed as a jazz combo might. It worked because everyone had both real knowledge and real enthusiasm for all the traditions involved. The band's first album, 2001's "Shifting Sands of Time," emphasized the introspective balladry and mesmerizing harmonies of the source music, but the new one focuses on the tradition's sheer exuberance.

Only four of the original septet are in the current nonet, but the spirit is unchanged. The new lineup features three terrific young female singers -- the classically trained pop star Tracy Bonham, Ruth Ungar of the old-time group the Mammals and newcomer Aoife O'Donovan. They bring a clarity and passion to songs associated with Bill Monroe, Rosetta Tharpe, the Stanley Brothers, the Staple Singers, Jimmy Martin and Mahalia Jackson. But just when you think you know how a particular song goes, Glaser, Tony Trischka, pianist Laszlo Gardony, guest clarinetist Andy Statman or guest cellist Rushad Eggleston take off on a tangential solo that leads the tune into uncharted territory.
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