Listen To The Music (Koch Nashville, 2005)

Returning to the national recording scene after an absence of several years, the revamped and renamed Fox Family band put together an excellent collection of easy listening songs. Featuring three family members (Kim, Barb and Joel) plus bassist Mike Anglin, madolinist/guitarist Jim Reed and fiddler Megan Lynch, the band has a smooth tight sound, great harmony and instrumentalists as good as any you'll hear. Anglin has an especially upfront presence throughout.

Kim Fox had a hand in writing most of the material, and she can write songs with feeling. "Red Rose Bouquet" and "Short Walk To The Moon" are paeans of love - and heartbreak - while an "Eye For An Eye" probes the subject of revenge. "This Little House of Mine" is the touching story of a child leaving the house where they grew up ("I'll leave...all the hiding spots I knew for some other kid to find"). They also reached out to other sources, including the Doobie Brothers ("Listen To The Music") and Keith Whitley's recordings ("Some Old Side Road"). Their music is simply superb.

This isn't Monroe/Stanley bluegrass and is completely without any hard-driving banjo - it's more of a county feel than bluegrass. But for those interested in great music rather than genre labels, this is as good as it gets.