from The Red River Miner, Jan 7, 1999

Text:

Individually, they are fine musicians and entertainers. Together, they represent "ensemble playing" in the truest sense of the term. The Hired Hands - Eddy Lee, Jim Bradley, and Don Richmond - have just released a new CD entitled Stuff That Works, taking its name from a Rodney Crowell - Guy Clark song which is included on the album. The title aptly characterizes the high country trio.

They've got the stuff and it works.

Based in Taos, their music is hard to pigeon-hole, which can be poison in the factory machine mentality that controls the business of popular music. For hardcore fans, however, or anyone who enjoys creative work performed at an exceptionally effective level, marketing labels are unimportant. The music speaks for itself. (What else truly matters?) though their press kit characterizes the group's sound as "an eclectic blend of country oriented music" with folk, hot swing, bluegrass, cajun, two-steps, waltzes, and R & B listed as influences, these words do not do justice to the actual magic digitally captured on Stuff That Works.

Acoustic instruments are capable of great range, passion, clarity, color, tone and texture. Songs like "One Way or Another" (an Eddy Lee composition), "Read the Signs" (written by Richmond) and "Don't Walk Away From Love" (a Richmond-Lee collaboration) are ripe with an intensity reminiscent of the legendary Newgrass Revival during the height of their prowess. No less intense, the hauntingly melodic Elton John-Bernie Taupin song "I Need You to Turn To" offers a challenge of a different kind, vulnerably honest and unashamedly gentle. Lee's firm, distinctive vocal style fits the song as though he had written it: he has definitely lived it.

One cut in particular stands out. It's hard to take a song like "Copperline," so closely associated with James Taylor, and make it "your own." That is exactly the case, however, as the initial recognition of the song as JT property is soon lost in a trail of images beautifully interpreted by the Hands. It's a truly great song and the guys put their own stamp on it for all to hear. The deep respect for Taylor and the song is obvious, the result most worthy of praise.

Buy this CD. Play it often and rejoice in the sound of stuff that works. For a copy of this and other Hired Hands albums, write: Hired Hands, P.O. Box 825 Alamosa, CO 81101. Got writers cramp? Call 888-4EDDY-LEE.