Artist:     Vickie Vaughn Band

Album:     Vickie Vaughn Band EP

Label:     Self-Released

Release Date:     09/25/2015

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Short and to the point, this six-song EP includes four tunes by band members, one contemporary song by old-time-music rising-star Cahalen Morrison, and the classic “Workin’ on a Building,” by the Carter family. If I didn’t know, I’d think they were all traditional, and frankly, that’s a good thing.

Bassist Vaughn knows how to assemble a band. “Congaree,” a hot-and-heavy fiddle and banjo bluegrass instrumental, races along like a souped-up Chevy outrunning Smokey– you can almost taste their dust. Her own song, the excellent “Buy All the Roads,” a paean to homesickness and love left behind, features Maggie Estes White’s fiddle, with the perfect balance of heartbreak and rough tone from her strings. My personal favorite, “Northbound 205,” by guitarist Zach White, has charming lyrics (“Now I’m on a bridge between you and where I’ve been… I’m on the northbound 205 to you”) backed by well-integrated guitar, fiddle banjo and bass which don’t overwhelm the song. Less is often more, and this song, like much of this promising EP is just right.

– Suzanne Cadgène