Danny Roberts’ The Winding Road Leads Home, out now on the Mountain Home label, is a strong collection of successful single releases dating back to 2022, combined with excellent previously unreleased material. Roberts is well-known as a founding member of the Grammy-nominated and traditional-leaning band The Grascals. You might predict a solo album from a great mandolin player and respected luthier would be packed with show-off instrumentals, but Roberts has stretched beyond expectations to produce a balanced and wide-ranging recording. There is a wealth of instrumental prowess, to be sure, but The Winding Road includes plenty of the heartfelt songs that are always at the center of bluegrass.
While the result may at times sound more “modern” than Roberts’ work with the Grascals, it’s worth remembering that the non-traditional elements found here are now at least forty years old, and have become a tradition of their own. In addition to solid Monroe-style bluegrass and tributes to mandolin heroes Doyle Lawson and Herschel Sizemore, we hear lovely Grisman-inflected meanderings (IBMA-award-nominated The Drifter), the “mash” associated with the Lonesome River Band (the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers’ My Brown-Eyed Darling), and the sweet wistfulness of “new acoustic music” (the intriguingly named Tologna Bologna). Still, the range of sounds on The Winding Road always seems authentic to Roberts, an honest statement of who he is, and the natural and unforced combination of his lifetime of influences.
In terms of subject matter, Roberts’ winding road does not stray from classic bluegrass themes: a nostalgic celebration of small towns, a gospel exhortation, a song of lost love, a coal mining lament, the ups and downs of the touring musician’s life. Still, each song has moments that step off the well-beaten path: the warning against envy in Jesus Satisfies, the miner’s plea to bury him at sea rather than in the cold ground where he labored, or a song that asks us not just to bemoan the passing of a simple way of life, but to consider the root causes: “They say progress has to make a way, but when’s enough enough?”
Roberts is joined by a top-notch ensemble: long-time friend Jimmy Mattingly (Garth Brooks, Dolly Parton) and current Grascal Adam Haynes enhance every track with expertly played fiddle, and Tony Wray of the John Cowan Band plays great guitar and banjo. Roberts’ wife Andrea provides solid upright bass and sings lead on one song, and she and their daughter Jaelee (of Sister Sadie) contribute sweet harmony vocals.
The record was produced by Danny and Andrea Roberts and recorded at Crossroads Studios, in Arden, NC, where it was beautifully engineered and mixed by Scott Barnett.
Not surprisingly, given the title, this album really shines when you are behind the wheel. Whether bumping down a country road or cruising along the interstate, let The Winding Road Leads Home be a very pleasant companion on your next road trip.
