Tony Rice - California Autumn

I have mixed feelings about this album. It has some great instrumentals on it…Billy In The Lowground, Red haired Boy, Bugle Call Rag, Bullet Man. But this album also highlights what I had always suspected was Tony’s weakness…songwriting. There are musicians who interpret others works brilliantly, those who compose tremendous works but can’t perform them well, and those that can do both. Tony’s strength is his interpretation of other work. California Autumn and Mr. Poverty are awkward sounding songs, though they do showcase Tony’s voice, which is arguably one of the best there ever was. And the strange thing is that his brother, the late Larry Rice, is one of my favorite songwriters. Tony has the interpretation, Larry got the composition. Anyway, this is a solid album save for the two songs I mentioned. It’s well worth picking up because the rest of the album is so solid.