Wild Carrot & The Roots Band, Live – Crowd Around The Mic (2010)

Written by Bill Whiting – billwhiting01@yahoo.com

A natural, relaxed atmosphere and flow pervades Live, Crowd Around The Mic, the bracing new album from Cincinnati roots pioneers Wild Carrot & The Roots Band. Wild Carrot has played for many years in the tri state area, and was selected by the U.S. Embassy in Santiago, Chile to represent the United States as Cultural Ambassadors to Chile in 2006. Adding the husband and wife team of Brandt Smith and Brenda Wolfersberger as The Roots Band to their unique cornucopia of bluegrass and folk based harmonies has enhanced Wild Carrot’s performance dynamic as evidenced on Crowd Around The Mic. Think the Manhattan Transfer with string instruments, and you have a bit of the unique flavor that exists within the broad reaching material that Wild Carrot & The Roots Band successfully covers. Beginning with “Pan American Boogie,” the quartet soon switches gears, taking stabs at “When You’re Smiling/ You Are My Sunshine,” “There Is a Time,” and the classic, “I’ve Heard That Song Before.” Spencer Funk and Pam Temple make it swing with a vengeance, and the Temple-Wolfersberger duet on “Adieu False Heart” gives goosebumps aplenty with their beautiful vocal tones. Recorded on July 15 & 19, 2009, and mastered by Dan Murphy at Group Effort Sound Studios in Erlanger, Kentucky, Live, Crowd Around The Mic is destined to make many instant converts to the winning high and lonesome sounds of Wild Carrot & The Roots Band.

http://www.wildcarrot.net/