"Slide & Joy!"

I am so glad to be able to hearald the release of "Slide & Joy", a new CD devoted to the strikingly original dobro playing of Orville Johnson. "Slide & Joy" is a big statement from a big man with a big gift. As I listen to it, I can't help but be amazed at how wide a swath Orville cuts with his dobro, ranging stylistically from a second-line New Orleans rave-up to Latin jazz, ballads, Memphis R&B and bluegrass.

The power and conviction with which Orville expesses himself keep all this diversity from degenerating into tedious eclecticism. Rather, I am struck by how sypathetically these various styles exist in Orville's hands and ears, heart and head. So it is, then, that the various styles of music Orville plays are synthesized by his sensibility into something much bigger and more all-encompassing: MUSIC.

-John Miller

1. Mardi March
2. Old Riverman
3. Bad Self
4. Walker's Air
5. Mambolaya
6. Fried Onions
7. Zebadiah Stomp
8. First Song
9. Weeping Cedar
10. Squirrel's Revenge
11. Splendor in Feathers
12. At the Cross
13. I Don't Know Where I Stand