Rose Maddox - Reckless Love & Bold Adventure
In this week's episode we're featuring a 1977 album from the clear and resonant vocal of Rose Maddox: "Reckless Love & Bold Adventure". A suitably colourful title for Rose, whose roots in performing came as part of The Most Colourful Hillbilly Band In America: The Maddox Brothers & Rose. After plenty of West Coast success with her brothers, in 1958 Rose Maddox went solo and over the next few years on Capitol enjoyed a good number of hit singles including several with Buck Owens. Maddox also recorded one of the first female-led bluegrass albums in 1962 - and it was indeed the bluegrass and folk communities where she found a musical home as her country music star waned into the 1970s. Bluegrass influence permeates much of our feature album: with fiddle from the legendary Byron Berline and his longtime associate John Hickman on banjo, Maddox teamed up with good friend Wayne Gailey on pedal steel and the combination is electric. Highlights include an excellent fiddle-and-steel cover of Johnny Rodriguez's "Pass Me By (If You're Only Passing Through)"; an excellent re-recording of a 4-Star hit for The Maddox Brothers & Rose in "Gathering Flowers For The Master's Bouquet" and the autobiographical "Heart Of A Country Song (Rose's Song)" where Rose gives a shoutout to Gailey on steel guitar. Overlooked but solid material.