The Unfaithful Servants - Fallen Angel (2025) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Endless Highway
02. Never Leave You Again
03. The Grass is Always Bluer
04. Real to Touch
05. Fallen Angel
06. Adeline
07. The River
08. Big Shots
09. Negativity
10. More Than Lovers
11. Buried in the Snow

I mentioned yesterday about being in a nostalgic mood—it’s been the case for a good while now, not that most of my posts have shown it. Our Labor Day jaunt fueled the feeling, at least in part, as family past brushed up against family present, but so too did another event: the 40th anniversary (!) of my Folk Show debut, which occurred on September 29, 1985. It’s not the profound longing that the Portuguese call saudade, mind you, though wistful in part.

I share that to say this: music has played a part in my pensive yearnings, too. I hear what I hear and, for good and ill, am reminded of other albums, other artists, and other times in my life. The sophomore set from the Unfaithful Servants, a Vancouver quartet, is a good example. It’s an electric set of ballads and bluegrass jams—and, lest anyone get the wrong idea, acoustic from start to finish. Playing it these past few weeks has reminded me of similar bands I encountered in late 1985 and early ‘86, not long after I signed onto Penn State’s student-run radio station for the first time. The Country Gentlemen spring to mind.

I’ve written about those days before, of course, including the formula I gradually developed for my shifts: folk-rock for the first hour or so, followed by bluegrass fervor, and then straight-up folk, both old and new, with esoteric selections from rock and country tossed in along the way, too. (I won’t claim to be the only Folk Show deejay to play the Fugs, Suzanne Vega and Elvis Costello in the same half hour, but odds are I was.) In addition to the Gentlemen, who incorporated folk and country into their high lonesome sound, Bela Fleck was often queued up on one of the two turntables. The Kentucky Colonels, whose members included future Byrd Clarence White, were, too. I could list plenty more, but I’m getting far afield.

The point I’m making: The Unfaithful Servants inadvertently take me back to that era in my life. The band consists of mandolinist Jesse Cobb, ex of the Infamous String Dusters (and, for a time, a member of Bela Fleck’s “Banjo Summit” band); guitarist Dylan Stone; fiddler Quin Etheridge-Pedden; and bassist Mark Johnson. The 11 tracks on Fallen Angel are a compelling mix of feverish instrumentals, story songs, and folky laments—the kind of tunes I would have played on the Folk Show, in other words, and listened to in my dorm room. Some tunes, such as “Endless Highway” and the title track, conjure Dan Fogelberg’s bluegrass-flavored High Country Snows, while others tack toward bluegrass proper, with Cobb’s mandolin and Etheridge-Pedden’s fiddle both taking flight. It’s an engaging listen.

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