Fair Weather (LP)

'Fair Weather' heralded Alison Brown's return to her bluegrass roots with stunning results. Over the course of the album's 12 tracks, Brown plows through hard-charging breakdowns, minor-keyed newgrass, solo-banjo lullabies, and everything in between. Vince Gill sings the bright title track and Claire Lynch handles vocals on the delightful "Hummingbird." Covers of Elvis Costello's "Everyday I Write the Book" (sung by Bush) and Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'" (sung by O'Brien) lend themselves well to a bluegrass treatment and are complimented by the likes of "Shake and Howdy," an intricate, classically tinged instrumental featuring Darol Anger and Mike Marshall. The unifying musical core of it all is Brown's compositional sense and mesmerizing banjo work, with the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic possibilities of her banjo always front and center.