For those of you who aren’t familiar with 10 String Symphony, they’re a duo consisting of two seasoned Nashville- based fiddle players, Rachel Baiman and Christian Sedelmyer. Rachel is a former Illinois state fiddle champion, and Christian is a touring member of The Jerry Douglas Band. Weight Of The World is 10 String’s second album, and far from their last. You won’t find heavy, loud production on this record, instead you’ll hear the refreshing sounds of fiddle, banjo, and other bluegrass/folk instrumentation. In case you haven’t already guessed, the fiddle plays a huge role on this record. Weight Of The Load features an excellent balance of old time traditional folk and modern boundary pushing elements.The record opens with the sparse, pure bluegrass “Anna Jane”. Rachel has the perfect voice to pull off that old timey feel. She’s totally at home, vocally. The track features fiddles as the focal point, with a banjo accompanying. Another sparse track featuring fiddle and banjo is “Someone To Be Good For”. It’s a sweet little track about finding someone to be good for, someone to best the best you can be for. The tempo picks up a bit on “Mama, You Ain’t On My Mind”, featuring a rollicking banjo and sharp fiddles.
“I’m Not Lonesome” opens with just a repetitive plunking on a banjo and Rachel’s vocals, and then Christian comes in on the second verse. Their harmonies are on point, perfectly complementing each other. Again, the fiddle shines on this track and brings a great deal of character to it. “I’m Not Lonesome” is a perfect modern day folk track. This is definitely a standout on the album, with the lonesome, haunting vocals coupled with the perfection of the fiddles. “Black Eyed Susie” is a rollicking bluegrass number, highlighting an expert banjo.
“On Christmas Eve” finds Christian taking lead vocals for the duration of the track, for the first time on the record. Rachel takes the harmony, and echoes Christian on certain verses. The track conjures up images of celebrating Christmas Eve out on the river, instead of with family somewhere else. “Oscar’s Verdict” spins a tale of a man waking during the night when he heard a sound, thinking it was an intruder and ending up shooting his love down. The listener interprets the verses to come to the conclusion that there was a dishonest witness, causing the man to be convicted of murder. This is one of the sparsest tracks on the album, yet still manages to tell the sad story.
The title track, “Weight Of The World”, is another standout on this record. The fiddle shines particularly bright on this lesson-laden song about regret. The melody is catchy; you won’t be able to stop your foot from tapping along to it. The feel good, light hearted “Even A Dog Has Dreams” is just a plain fun track. The record concludes with the soft and quiet “Shine”. It ends the album on a peaceful, low key note.
Weight Of The World is a wonderful pure bluegrass/folk record. I’d recommend this album to anyone interested in old timey folk/bluegrass music. Check it out!
Originally posted here.
