Honi Deaton & Dream - What Should Have Been

(Chateau Music Group CMG-0121) 2003

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This CD received a rave review in the June 2003 edition of 'Bluegrass Unlimited' which began "Deaton and Dream are a major amazement and ought to be in the running for discovery of the year".

Featuring the reknowned Kristin Scott Benson on banjo, Chris Davis mandolin (son of Danny Lee Davis), and Dewey Brown on fiddle, Honi & Jeff Deaton have a great band together on this album, which I presume is their debut release. (According to the liner notes the band formed in June 2002).

Honi Deaton is an extremely talented singer songwriter, and eight of the twelve tracks are originals written by her, or in conjunction with Jeff Deaton. Before marrying Jeff she'd toured with The Grasshoppers, and Jeff had spent time playing with Lou Reid & Carolina, Junior Sisk & Rambler's Choice.

Honi Deaton and Dream recorded at least another four albums ('Promise To A Soldier' 2005, 'Chasin Dreams' 2007, 'The Other Side' and 'Gospel Collection' 2009), but only this one features Dewey, who signed up to play with Ralph early in 2005.

If you like the more modern bluegrass / country styles, this is well worth checking out.

PS: One of the tracks, Too Late To Walk The Floor was written by Osburn Thorpe, who wrote several tracks on and helped finance Ralph's The Bluegrass Sound Of... LP. Larry Sparks also recorded the song in 2005 on his 40th anniversay CD 40.

• Honi Deaton: bass, piano, vocals
• Jeff Deaton: guitar, bass, vocals
• Dewey Brown: fiddle
• Chris Davis: mandolin
• Kristin Scott Benson: banjo

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