Woodshop

They do what they do, and they do it so damn well. Part newgrass, part new age, part jazz, part anything you can think of, Darol Anger and Mike Marshall make a great pair, combining violin and mandolin (plus a few other plucked strings from Marshall) for a wide-ranging sound. They have some great collaborators on board this time around in pianist Phil Aaberg, bassist Todd Sickafoose, and percussionist Aaron Johnston, with a few other contributions. But the focus is on the protagonists, who come up with some joyful work, like the duet on the classically influenced "Bach, Up" or "The Creep," an odd little way to end the album, with the pair of them on many instruments (20 in total) just repeating a melody. They generate a big groove on "Replaceitall," which slides along very smoothly, but with musicians of this caliber you expect nothing but the best. If you know the work of these two artists, there will be no huge surprises here, but that's fine. There's a palpable joy in the playing and the way they bounce off each other.