Reviews and DJ comments:

"What a great collection of original music from a group of great songwriters and musicians!" - Lou Reid

"With only three years under their belts, this road-tested Kentucky bluegrass band may be chasing dreams, but they clearly have the talent to go far. Their second album release is a profound treatise of bluegrass comprehension with many standard themes - outlaws, cheating, a Civil War story, mining, a road song, the homeplace, and leaving blues. With all original material from Ronnie King (mandolin), Dave Carroll (guitar), and Jerry Chaney (dobro), New River Line has a sturdy repertoire that covers all the bluegrass bases. The quintet is joined by award-winning fiddler Ronnie Stewart, who also produced and helped engineer this project. The vocalists give us supple, agreeable deliveries. The instrumentalists present sparkling solos. Their overall production is top-notch, and New River Line gets extra credit for including brief notes about and lyrics for each song in the CD jacket. ( read more.. Joe Ross, staff writer, Bluegrass Now)

A wonderfully well rounded bluegrass recording. To be honest, I had never heard of New River Line until I received their latest compact disc about a week and a half ago. I opened it, looked over the contents, just as I do with every other project that I receive. I was first taken when I noticed that the band had written all of the songs on the record, usually that is not a good thing unless you are the Blue Highways of the industry. When I listened to the record, however, I was nothing less than blown away. These songs are some of the best that you will find anywhere, at any level. Not only that, the musical and vocal talents displayed on the record are just as good as the material rendered. Did these guys just fall out of the sky or what? How can talent of this level go unnoticed? Well, if I am any judge of bluegrass music, unnoticed they will not be for long. With a little media assistance, New River Line will serve notice to the bluegrass music industry that some big names better be ready to make some room somewhere around the top of the heep. (Michael Perkins, WCBJ Radio)

The station was recently sent your, “Chasing my Dreams” album and I’ve really been enjoying it. I’m finding the album to be an incredibly refreshing collection of straight ahead Kentucky bluegrass. In this day and age of seeing the same folks up for the same awards at events such as IBMA, it’s great to put your CD out over the airwaves and surprise people with wonderful original bluegrass that they haven’t heard before. (David Smith, Sweet By and By Bluegrass Radio, KDUR Durango, Colorado)

"I'm enjoying introducing my audience to the CD, it's a really nice job." (Phil Nusbaum, The Bluegrass Review, KBEM-FM Saint Paul, MN)

"Yesterday afternoon, I took time off from what I should have been doing and spent some hours listening to the New River Line album several times, and individual tracks many more times than that. Really, it is a fabulous project without question! The more I listened, the more I realised how brilliantly crafted are the songs on this album. They have a disarmingly direct simplicity masking extremely talented and skilful song-writing, and Dave's lead voice has just a touch of early 'nineties Tony Rice in quality and ornamentation, (beautiful) to capture you and make you want to keep hearing it. A few of the songs, ("Another Love Gone Bad", "Chasing My Dreams Down The Road" and "Home place") have almost a richly flowing Gordon Lightfoot feel about them in how directly and aptly they communicate their message to you. The whole group should be congratulated on a lovely album. Of course I'll be playing from it here in Central Victoria henceforth. A mighty piece of work and, no doubt, much more to come in the future." (Geoff Morris, Fresh 895FM Radio, Australia)

New River Line hails from the bluegrass state of Kentucky and while this is the band’s first album, their combined experiences in the music business and a gift for writing songs gives this band a bright future. Dave Carroll and Ronnie King are the main songwriters and Dave, Ronnie and dobro player Jerry Chaney sing the vocal trios for the group. Completing the band are banjo player Josh Hymer and bass player Mike Parker. Their vocals have a smooth blend and the instrumentation is tight and totally supportive of the songs. The songs touch the standard bluegrass themes of home, family, love, farms and mines but have enough depth of meaning to be played again and again.

Guitarist Dave Carroll has seven songs on the album, and his fine sense of melody and wordcraft give his songs an appeal that has already attracted the attention of other bands. His “Leaving Blues” has the bounce of bluegrass favorite “In The Gravelyard,” and the band embellishes the song with dobro trills, banjo, and mandolin. David has also written songs about the comings and goings of lovers in relationships: “Tell Me Something I Ain’t Heard Before” and “Another Man’s Wife” are cheating hearts songs from opposite viewpoints. His “Scorcher Carroll’s Farm” and “Good to See the Homeplace Once Again” touch that other bluegrass theme: family and home.

Mandolin player Ronnie King contributed 4 songs. His “My Brother Paul and Me” is a Civil War song with two brothers on opposing sides. The poignant line “I’ll die before I fight my brother Paul” underscores the dilemma of the soldiers whose loyalties were divided throughout the war. Ron Stewart’s fiddle and Jerry’s dobro and Ronnie’s strong guitar lead give the song its mournful mood. Dave and Ronnie wrote “The Roof Is Coming Down” together and “grab what you can, get out of the mine, the roof is coming down” reminds us of the dangers in coal mining. Looks like the band may not need to be “chasing my dreams” – this album is a winner! (B. Hough, California Bluegrass Association)

"New River Line - name sounds like just another "new something" band with a great name - however this is not your ordinary new Kentucky Bluegrass band. This band rich with talent overflowing and with a great new project out, Chasing My Dreams,sets them apart and ahead of many new bands! What makes them so great, you ask? Finger lickin' pickin', great vocals, and originality ! Tasty! They write a lot of their own tunes on here and other hot bands are recording them too!

In New River LIne - you have Ron King, a Virginia boy, the only non- native in this Kentucky Boy band - transplanted in the grass of Kentucky during his college years and who is an accomplshed multi instrumentalist - with mando being his main weapon of choice on this project. He writes some of the best new bluegrass songs, My Brother Paul and Me, and the title track of this project, Chasing My Dreams. Jerry Chaney excellent on dobro is a Kentucky native that like most Kentucky kids that play 'grass grew up singing in church - and his voice shows much experience. Very talented in the penning of original songs as well, you can tell, from the instrumental Crazy Horse.

Dave Carroll, a fantastic guitarist, is also songwriter extraordinaire, with songs such as The Game is Over (Lonesome River Band) This Old Martin Box ( a hit for Blue Moon Rising this year) and many others - Dave seems to have a "new river" of new songs flowing through his brain, and he's letting them flow over to his pen in the lines of the lyrics. Mike Parker with a famiy history rich in Kentucky Bluegrass (Vester Parker, Renfro Valley, Jeff Parker, Lonesome River Band) - is a super bassist, and has great talent vocally, and he's got that extra spark to him onstage. Adam Collinsworth, the newest member of NRL is a young man whose talent is allowed to shine and not be overshadowed by so much talent in this one Kentucky Band. Adam is also a multi instrumentalist, but chose the banjo as his mainstay, being influenced by Terry Baucom and Sammy Shelor! What role models! His vocals are also strong on tenor and high tenor as well.

Summed up - you dont wanna miss this band perform. You'll wanna learn their songs - so you can pick 'em... and you dont wanna not pick up this CD next time you're bluegrass shopping. New River Line " got game". What's better than this Kentucky Boy bluegrass band? Nuttin'. " (Gracie Muldoon, Music News Nashville)

Though Bill Monroe was a Western Kentucky product, the central and eastern parts of the state have been the birthplace and proving ground for bluegrass musicians for decades, with venues, countless clubs, music halls and auction barns served by endlessly recombinant bands. New River Line are the latest group to emerge from the area, largely—but not exclusively—on the strength of frontman David Carroll’s track record as a songwriter, starting a decade-and-a-half ago with jam session favorite “The Game Is Over” and extending to recent Blue Moon Rising hit “This Old Martin Box.” Sturdy and serviceable, the band’s been getting airplay with Chasing My Dreams, an album that showcases Carroll’s penchant for story-songs with an almost aggressively rural theme and has impelled them to tour more widely. Tonight’s show marks, if not the first time they’ve been to Nashville, the first time they’ve come here with something to crow about. The Station Inn —JON WEISBERGER

Order NRL's new CD

"Chasing My Dreams"