DJ TV (Terry Vickroy)
The Applebutter Express is a bluegrass band hailing from Florida. They have played several big festivals and a couple of their songs have been featured in movies. “One For the Home Team” is their second full-length album.
The tracks on this album are very energetic and upbeat. They’ll get your head bobbing and your toes tapping. There are two vocalists in this band. Their voices blend well together and they have some great harmonies. The violin gets a bit repetitive at times, but it does have some cool lead parts. For the most part, it goes well with everything else. The bass player does your typical bluegrass bass lines on most of the tracks, but his groove is solid.
This is not your typical bluegrass group. Every once in awhile they will throw in some funk and change the pace. While I like the idea, sometimes they don’t pull it off. In the track “Lightning in a Jar”, they try to get down with the funk but the vocals just don’t do it for me. The melody in the verse is bland and unoriginal. It’s not until the chorus where things start to get a bit more exciting. These funk elements are better incorporated sporadically throughout the songs rather than being the main focus.
Overall this is a feel-good album. It sounds nice and puts you into a good mood. They have a solid groove and their funk elements work most of the time. Everything blends well with each other as a cohesive unit. This album definitely has something good going on here and I am interested to see what they will put out next.
4/5
The Applebutter Express is now playing on TMN Radio.