Kept and Protected

Doyle Lawson's band Quicksilver has long been known as a launching pad for young bluegrass musicians — you could almost call the group a farm team if it wasn't so consistently of major-league quality. The lineup on this all-gospel album features singers and multi-instrumentalists Dale Perry and Barry Scott, both of whom would remain with Quicksilver for longer than most and would, with guitarist and singer Jamie Dailey, form the nucleus of what may be Lawson's finest band. Kept & Protected finds the group sticking mainly to straight-ahead bluegrass-gospel, performing such standards as "I Have Found the Way" and "The Glory Land Way," but also expanding into gospel styles that draw explicitly on other traditions. "My Lord Is Writing All the Time" is a funky a cappella quartet piece that harks back to the African-American gospel groups that Lawson heard throughout his childhood, while "You Are My Hiding Place," with its solfege introduction, refers to the shape note hymn singing tradition even as it employs a fruitier, more modern chord progression. This is a rich and varied program that stands easily with the best of Lawson's work.