Dailey and Vincent
Brothers From Different Mothers
Review By Steven Stone
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  Dailey and Vincent's ascension into the bluegrass firmament resembles a big ol' July 4^th firecracker. They collected seven awards at this year's IBMA (International Bluegrass Musician's Association) convention for their first album, Daily and Vincent. Since then the bluegrass world has eagerly awaited their second release, Brothers From Different Mothers. It doesn't disappoint.

Both Janie Dailey and Darrin Vincent come from bluegrass families and began playing at an early age. Their first pro gigs reflect their advanced musicianship – Dailey began with Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver while Vincent started with his sister Rhonda Vincent's award-winning band. They first met in 2001 at the IBMA awards where they discovered an almost uncanny alchemy. Vincent admits, "Although we're not brothers, we discovered that our voices blend pretty naturally. We've worked on vocal phrasing and pronunciation to make the blend even stronger." Prior commitments kept them with their respective bands for a while, but five years later they started their current musical partnership.

I first saw Darrin Vincent live with Ricky Skaggs' Kentucky Thunder band. Dailey and Vincent's musical style draws strongly from Skaggs' bluegrass technique. Fast songs are blisteringly fast. The opening song on Brothers from Different Mothers, "Head Hung Down," rips along so briskly that it seems as if there's barely time for all the notes, yet the vocals have a relaxed quality. This ability to perform at supersonic speeds without sounding rushed only comes after years of playing bluegrass. Their harmonies also have an effortless quality. The dual lead vocals on songs such as "You Oughta Be Here" match so perfectly that every inflection and bent note occurs with perfect synchronization.

Like many great bluegrass bands Dailey and Vincent's arrangements include prodigious amounts of hot picking in between the vocal pyrotechnics. Adam Haynes' fiddle fills and Jeff Parker's mandolin breaks have as much flash as their lead singers' vocals. Just for a bit of extra firepower guitar super-star Bryan Sutton adds some solos on several songs. But most of the instrumental parts on Brothers from Different Mothers come from Dailey and Vincent's regular touring band.

Given the number of awards their first release fetched at the 2008 IBMA convention I'd hazard a guess that at this year's event Brothers from Different Mothers may well garner a double-digit number of nominations. This album proves that Dailey and Vincent are far more than one-CD wonders. It cements their position at the apex of the bluegrass cosmos.

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