New Kid In Town

Precocious pickers and singers have been a mainstay of bluegrass for as long as the genre as we know it has existed. Everyone from Bill Monroe to Ricky Skaggs and Nickel Creek phenom Chris Thile has either hit the stage in his single digits or just played on his front porch with people five times his age accompanying. New Kid in Town, the impressive opening act from Music City's latest star in the making, Ryan Holladay, is a well-crafted, surprisingly elegant, and genuine debut. Skaggs' own record label (Skaggs Family Records) shepherded the album, and the results are on par with almost everything that's been released under the contemporary bluegrass banner in the last few years. Holladay employs a tight, familial band whose members tastefully round out his effortless guitar, banjo, and mandolin wizardry, never overstepping while remaining impressive in their own right. Holladay even sings like a pint-sized Ricky Skaggs — we'll just have to wait and see if that tenor drops a few octaves in the near future — and as an instrumentalist he's Nashville flawless. But until he steps out from behind the forgiving curtain of youth and unleashes some good old-fashioned heartache, hellfire, and blue-collar pain — hearing a 12-year-old croon "Well, the bank keeps callin' me I guess I'm overdrawn/Last night my old car broke down on me" ("When It Rains") is entertaining for sure, but novelty at best — the world will just have to settle for another bursting bud among the branches. For the time being, that is.