Thomas Cassell’s mandolin skills have long garnered respect in the bluegrass world. He is regularly enlisted to play on stage and in the studio with the biggest names in music and with the rising stars. His third solo album The Never-Ending Years, released October 4 on Mountain Fever Records, provides solid proof of his vocal chops and songwriting skills as well. Cassell wrote or cowrote eight of the ten tracks on the album, and his original instrumental “Old Methusaleh” has the same enduring quality of the legendary Bill Monroe’s “The Old Tennessee River,” also on the album.
For the album, Cassell has assembled some of the best pickers in Nashville. Tim Stafford, who co-wrote three of the tracks, plays guitar on the project. Rob Ickes plays resonator guitar, and Max Etling plays bass more than half of the tracks. Cory Walker and Ron Stewart alternate on banjo, part of a long list of instrumentalists that make up a bluegrass Who’s Who.
Cassell is also joined by a parade of guests singing harmony vocals on the project, including Ronnie McCoury on “Anything but the Truth” and “When I’ve Got Tennessee,” Ashby Franks on five tracks, joining Dale Ann Bradley on “Autumn Leaves Don’t Fall,” and Becky Buller on the haunting closing track, “The Ripples Go on Forever”
From the opening song “Reincarnation in Retrospect,” Cassell’s warm vocal timbre takes control, setting the tone for the album. The track offers a look back at a complicated past and serves up the album title:
I must have come ten thousand years and haven’t got a clue.
If it’s true life is a gamble,
there must be a winner somehow.
We all do things we’re not proud of,
aimless through the never-ending years.
After taking a backward look, Cassell also acknowledges the swift passage of time on “Autumn Leaves Don’t Fall,” noting instead that “they fly.”
Cassell covers “Hands,” written by Guy Clark, Joe Henry, and Verlon Thompson, which fits comfortably amid the original songs on the album. “Hands” features Bronwyn Keith-Hynes and Jason Carter on double fiddles and Missy Raines on bass. The wisdom of the lyrics offers simple advice:
Always try to keep your heart connected to your wrist
‘Cause everybody knows that you can’t shake hands with a fist.
Across the album, Cassell’s mandolin virtuosity remains in the foreground, resulting in a perfect marriage of words and music. With its carefully curated track list, The Never-Ending Years may well prove even greater than the sum of its parts.