Ever Call Ready

The self-titled, sole album by Ever Call Ready is sometimes variously attributed in discographies to the musicians on the record, rather than Ever Call Ready itself. Whatever you call the group, however, they did feature some impressive talent, with Chris Hillman and Bernie Leadon being the names most known to rock and pop fans, though bassist Jerry Scheff certainly played on many prominent pop and rock sessions. The Ever Call Ready album, however, certainly isn't a pop or rock recording, instead being wholly devoted to the gospel side of bluegrass. None of the bandmembers wrote original material for the project, either, instead mixing some traditional tunes with covers, some of them of compositions by prominent bluegrass/country musicians like Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs ("God Loves His Children"), Don Reno (co-writer of "I'm Using My Bible for a Roadmap"), and Leon McAuliffe. With numerous multi-part vocal arrangements (all five of the band sing except David Mansfield), it's a well-done, if fairly calm and easygoing set of bluegrass with Christian themes. The adherence of all the songs to those themes, though, might be too limiting for some listeners, and George Donald McGraw's "Don't Let Them Take the Bible out of Our School Rooms" is not going to find fans with those in favor of separation of church and state. ~ Richie Unterberger