IDLEWHEEL: Idlewheel

Idlewheel

Idlewheel

© 2006 Craig Bickhardt and Jack Sundrud

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Veteran duo with sterling credentials conjures up the feisty, unfettered spirit of early California Country-Rock with a dash of the Everly Brothers thrown in.

notes

Idlewheel


“Idlewheel” – it sounded like good road trip music, so I took the duo’s CD out on a drive through central Ohio the other day. Somewhere past Coshocton but miles before Mt. Vernon, I cued up the first track and settled into the sweet traveler’s groove that only the right merging of sound and landscape can provide.

A two-lane highway can unfold like a book of stories as the miles flash by. Idlewheel’s music has the same sense of discovery to it – carried along by its easy-flowing rhythms are flashes of personal revelation and homespun irony, speeding past you like an oddly familiar (or familiarly odd) small town.

Craig Bickhardt and Jack Sundrud do it all with a wry nonchalance that belies their uncommon craftsmanship – these guys know the high road of country-rock better than most. Their credits are solid and sterling – Bickhardt was a member of renowned Nashville group SKB, while Sundrud enjoyed success with Great Plains and (most recently) Poco. But really, Idlewheel isn’t a spin-off (no pun intended) of these bands. It’s more the product of afternoons spent swapping stories and woodshedding songs, of testing each other’s creative limits in defiance of Nashville’s prevailing conservatism.

The creative sparks that flew between Craig and Jack during their writing sessions glow brightly here. The two of them have a knack for unreeling vignettes and painting miniatures within a pop song structure, displaying a keen eye for the telling lyric detail. Tunes like “Sweet Sadness” and “When I Tell You I Love You” have the acute veracity of life lived, not imagined for radio consumption. Their collective viewpoint is tempered with a sharp edge – “Mona Lisa’s Frown,” for one, is surely one of the great put-down songs of our era. They combine intimacy and grandeur in “I’d Move Heaven and Earth.” And with “Invisible Hope,” they achieve a moral subtlety worthy of Sherwood Anderson or Raymond Carver.

These incisive lyrics are framed by a stripped-down production approach, rendered with snap and bite. The duo’s vocals have a rough-hewn, unvarnished quality, with Jack’s emotive higher-end tenor and Craig’s evocative lower-range vocals balancing nicely. The sound conjures up memories of the feisty, unfettered spirit of early Southern California country-rock, with a dash of the Everly Brothers thrown in.

As noted above, Idlewheel is perfect for a journey into the heartland. But you don’t need to hit the road to let their music take you places. This anthology of celebratory and bittersweet songs is all that’s required.

-- Barry Alfonso

reviews

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  • Idlewheel
    author: Dave

    Great writing! Great performance! Put this in you car's CD player and motor.

  • very pleasing to the ear
    author: charlie parrish

    very pleasing to the ear. thumbs up all around.

  • beautiful album
    author: Mark N.

    This is a beautiful album. I wish they would do another.

  • After SKB we have now BS
    author: Pieter from Holland

    Great album great songs, afterseveral group sessions Craig and jack have found to this duo album. If you like this album check out Jack's solo "By my own hand", you will find Craig on that album too. Hopefully this record will inspire other great players to come out again and try solo, duo or group records themselves. Succes is awaiting them. This is one of the best examples.

  • Great stuff!
    author: Jim Newman

    This is a wonderful collection! If you enjoy great lyrics, great harmonies, and great playing, you'll love this cd.

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