Personnel includes: Leon Redbone (vocals, guitar); Lori Lynn Smith (vocals); Jerry Douglas, Cindi Cashdollar (lap steel guitar, dobro); Al Vescovo (pedal steel guitar); John Gill (tenor banjo, drums); Bela Fleck (banjo); Mark O'Connor (mandolin, mandola, violin, viola); Bunky Keels, Terry Waldo (piano); Brian Nalepka, Roy Huskey, Jr. (upright bass).
Recorded at Nashville Sound Connection, Nashville, Tennessee and Manhattan Recording Company, New York.
Personnel: Leon Redbone (vocals); Jerry Douglas (lap steel guitar, dobro); B‚la Fleck (banjo); Mark O'Connor (mandola, mandolin, violin, viola); Roy Huskey Jr. (bass instrument).
Since the late 1980s, Leon Redbone has been steadily adding a country influence to his appealing blend of ragtime, swing, and Tin Pan Alley revivalism. NO REGRETS continues this trend, with touches of bluegrass and Western Swing coming to the fore via Redbone's low-key, jazzy arrangements and deep, sometimes theatrical voice. The opener, "She Ain't Rose," sets the stage nicely, and subsequent cover tunes by Ernest Tubb ("You Nearly Lose Your Mind"), Hank Williams ("Long Gone Lonesome Blues"), and Jimmie Rodgers ("Somewhere Down Below the Dixon Line") prove Redbone's roots are as firmly in country soil as they are in New Orleans jazz and big-city show tunes.
A host of fine session musicians, including Jerry Douglas and Bela Fleck, are on board to lend musical support. The accompaniment, in fact--which includes dobro, pedal steel, and mandolin--helps create the rootsy, barroom feel of the album. Even the Johnny Mercer/Hoagy Carmichael song "Lazy Bones" gets a weepy, twangy reading more appropriate to a roomful of cowboys than a nightclub (though Redbone's voice keeps it well suited to both). Ultimately, NO REGRETS comes off as a paean to America's home-grown music-- not only its roots, but its polished, decorative branches as well.
