Well, the first thing I have to say is that Strings of Fire’s “Over the Blue Ridge” was a pleasure to listen to and to review. The songs on this cd (8 original and 2 traditional) hail back to the roots of folk and bluegrass music. With Shawn Craver on guitar, banjo, and vocals and Matt Pederson on mandolin and guitar (that’s right, there’s only two of them), these accomplished musicians have chosen to keep their style simple and pure. Shawn (who wrote the bulk of the lyrics) grew up listening to traditional Appalachian mountain music in Garrett County, Maryland and you can definitely hear the influence.

Shawn and Matt play this music like it really means something to them. All tracks were recorded live with no overdubbing lending to the true sound of their music. About the only real audio engineering feat was a fade out at the end of one song.

“Joshua” is a great arrangement of this traditional tune. “Wild Dove” is a slow lonesome mountain song of lost love with Shawn singing a sorrowful interlude after each verse. Matt does some beautiful Mandolin work on this song. “Barbed Wire” is the only instrumental on the CD. Written by Matt Pederson, this tune demonstrates instrumental virtuosity with minimal instrumentation. One thing that really struck me was the beautiful tone of the instruments. “She Might’ve Been and Angel” was co-written by Craver and Pederson and has some of the most intense, heart-felt mandolin work you will hear. The clawhammer banjo work on the bluesy song “I Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” is a fresh departure from the usually heard three-finger Scruggs style.