Pam Gadd is one of those country musicians who defies easy classification. Her solo debut The Long Road is aptly titled, for she’s traveled her fair share of miles, both literally and figuratively, moving from local bluegrass picking to commercial and critical success with Wild Rose, a talented all-girl country band that disappeared in the froth of the early 1990s. Following a second bluegrass stint and a year in Patty Loveless’ band, she produced The Long Road on her own, then negotiated its release.
A serious banjo picker, Gadd works her way confidently through the Osborne Brothers’ classic “Listening To The Rain”, while her “Big Buck” is an instrumental that would fit comfortably on any banjo anthology. On the vocal side, she’s a subtle yet expressive country stylist who invariably finds the right turn to bring out a phrase. Surrounding herself on this album with skilled and experienced friends — most prominently Wild Rose alumnae Wanda Vick Burchfield and co-producer Nancy Given Gardner, but including everyone from bluegrassers to mainstream country sidemen — Gadd ranges unerringly through bluegrass, Americana and contemporary country settings.
If the songs (mostly originals) have a common theme, it is change, its motives and consequences. From the ambition of Gillian Welch’s “Patiently Waiting” (“Seems like good things come to those who hit the road when they know what they want”) to the sad passages portrayed in “They Tore Down Our Mountain” and “All The Old Men Are Gone”, Gadd brings to the material a sincerity and directness that unflinchingly convey life’s complexities. When she sings “Oh, I scorned the wino till I held my cup out” in the title song, it’s not just a clever phrase, but a clear-eyed acknowledgment of the distance she’s traveled. These are mature songs in both content and construction, delivered in a way that does them full justice.
Gadd may have one foot in mainstream country and the other in bluegrass, but The Long Road is strong proof that she is nevertheless standing tall.
