CD River Wild

After two albums of boundary-breaking, technology-enhanced solo recordings for Organic Records, Jeremy Garrett—fiddler and vocalist for the GRAMMY-winning Infamous Stringdusters—has made a bluegrass project that captures the current moment’s spirit of renewal.

Filled with a range of original songs and instrumentals, from the straight-ahead ‘grass of the first single, “What’s that You’re Doin’?,” to the edgy acoustic pop of “In the Blink of an Eye” (written with frequent collaborator Jon Weisberger), to the newgrass flavor of the instrumental “Potato Farmer”—and including a detour through a soulful homage to Bill Monroe on the lone cover, “Kentucky Waltz”—River Wild offers a distinctively personal, yet instantly accessible take on today’s bluegrass in all its flavors.

For backing, Garrett invited a stellar cast that included banjoists Ryan Cavanaugh (Bill Evans Soulgrass), Gena Britt (Sister Sadie) and Russ Carson (Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder), bassists Travis Book (Infamous Stringdusters), and Barry Bales (Alison Krauss & Union Station), dobroist Andy Hall of the Stringdusters, as well as bluegrass legend Lou Reid and Mountain Heart’s masterful Josh Shilling on harmony vocals.

At once a love letter to bluegrass, and a bold assertion of his continued place in it, River Wild is the album that his fans and colleagues alike have been waiting for.