PATHFINDER MAGAZINE May 20000

THE ACME BAND Old Favourites-New Songs

All Over Town/Wait A Minute/Pike County Breakdown/Sparkling Green Eyes/I’ve Been Lifted Up/Muddy Water/Unseen Guest/Hello/Rough And Rocky/Clock On The Wall/Taking Your Picture From The wall/Just when I Needed You Most/Chairman’s Bounce/I’ll Be There/Why, Why, Why /Like I Used To Do. Brian Curtis (guitar/Vocals), Ron Stevens (mandolin/Vocals), Bill Forster (banjo/Vocals), Bob Armstrong (resonator guitar/Vocals) and John Allen (double bass/Vocals make up "The Acme Band".
A Bluegrass Band with a difference, thats what went through my mind when I first heard them at the North Wales Festival, where they received a standing ovation at the end of their set. Not that Bluegrass can be very monotonous, but music that really lifts the heart, and boy can these guys play, pickers of the highest order and that goes for the vocal harmonies, even the muso`s came out of their dressing rooms to take in these guys spot.
As for this CD it won’t be far away from my player for long, its superb, a CD that has been very well produced, and arranged by the lads themselves (I use the word lads reservedly) with a great choice of numbers on it. The hard job on reviewing this CD is picking the outstanding tracks, as there is not much between them, if forced I would have to pick Track # 2 Wait A Minute for both lead and harmony vocals plus the superb picking, and Track # 3 with its picking personified. But as I have said all the numbers on this album can stand on their own, none get less than 4 out of 5, and before I finish I must mention the great fiddle playing from their guest fiddler Bob Winquist.

COUNTRY MUSIC PEOPLE- April 2000

THE ACME BAND Old Favourites-New Songs

All Over Town/Wait A Minute/Pike County Breakdown/Sparkling Green Eyes/I’ve Been Lifted Up/Muddy Water/Unseen Guest/Hello/Rough And Rocky/Clock On The Wall/Taking Your Picture From The wall/Just when I Needed You Most/Chairman’s Bounce/I’ll Be There/Why, Why, Why /Like I Used To Do. Producers The Acme Band ACME 1999 (50m 29s) UK
If British country bands feel they are hard done by in terms of financial rewards for their endeavours, spare a thought for British bluegrass musicians ,very few of whom can make a living from their music. The reasons are legion, but it should be said that amongst their ranks are some excellent pickers, singers and writers, most of whom came into the music for the sheer love of it.
The Acme Band were formed in 1976, have performed at every major bluegrass festival in the country, are highly regarded by British bluegrass fans, yet here 25 years later, they release their first CD.
Measured by any standard Old Favourites-New Songs is a good album. The musicians - Brian Curtis (guitar), Ron Stevens (mandolin), Bill Forster (banjo), Bob Armstrong (resonator guitar) and John Allen (double bass) along with guest Bob Winquist on fiddle - could hold their own on any bluegrass stage.
There are fine examples of three and four part harmony, very clearly demonstrated on the a’capella gospel song, Unseen Guest; in fact their a’capella numbers are a high spot on their live shows. What I particularly enjoy about their vocal work is the Britishness of the deliveries. Although they stick closely to the ground rules laid down by there US cousins there is no attempt to sound American, an exercise which can prove embarrassing with many British acts. Likewise, there is something endearingly old fashioned about some of the vocal styling - although this should not be read as dated, but simply the expression of nostalgia and sentiment that is not found in many of today's slick "newgrass" acts. Good examples are Sparkling Green Eyes, Clock On The Wall and Taking Your Picture From The Wall.
Between them the boys have written 10 of the 16 tunes and the quality of the writing is excellent. Included are two instrumentals Pike County Breakdown and Chairman’s Bounce, both of which give the individual players plenty of scope to strut their stuff. The band also make a fair job of Herb Pedersen’s Wait A Minute, Randy Van Warmer’s Just When I Needed You Most and Pat Alger& Tim O’Brien’s Like I Used To Do, although I have a marginal preference for the originals. So The Acme Band have been picking and singing together for a quarter of a century, largely preaching to the converted. Here’s hoping that, with a quality product to offer, they will be given a fair hearing by a wider audience.
Al Moir

Bluegrass Unlimited July 1997 Issue, Record Review
Reprinted with the kind permission of Bluegrass Unlimited.
The Acme Country Band BLUEGRASS MACHINE Westwood Recordings WRS 114
Ashes Of Love/Air Mail Special/ Each Season Changes You/Snowbird/Arab Bounce/Little Annie/Hit Parade Of Love/This Morning At Nine/Fireball Mail/When I Stop Dreaming/Wild Side Of Life/Matthew/Rabbit In A Log /One Tear/Cold Icy Fingers/JB`sBee.
Brian Curtis lead & tenor vocals, bass; Graham Sowter-lead vocals, guitar;
Ron Stevens- vocals mandolin; Jim Irvine-banjo.

Virtually all non-American bluegrass bands fall in the "Pretty good for a group from Tibet" category: solid picking, strange singing; play it twice and forget it. Acme Country, a new British band, is something else again, in spite of its occasional flashes of a Kingston Trio "gee whiz" tendency. It helps that they speak the same language as the natives, but it helps even more that they have discovered a deep, dark secret of memorable bluegrass- build your act around a crackerjack tenor singer. Brian Curtis is the Queens answer to Jim McReynolds, and he really lays it on in the Jim & Jesse tunes and a number of others, (of which John Denver`s "Matthew" is an improbable and excellent example). His voice is a shade more up town than those of the better American tenors, but he still gets that stand-your-hair-on-end quality.
The lead vocals are generally strong and melodious, too, though they’re on the pop side and a bit forced on a few of the breakneck, down-home tunes. ("Fireball Mail", "Wild Side Of Life" and "Hit Parade Of Love" walk right up to the edge of being overwrought.) In the duets and trios they mesh nicely with the tenor voice, and on the majority of the cuts they stand very well on their own.
The picking is full of vitality, but its ragged in places. Unlike most new or foreign groups, the Acme’s strength lies in their singing. Their instrumental taste is impeccable, however; they don’t blast through everything, and they drop in lots of pleasant touches.
The group seems to know its way around American Country and Bluegrass music. You’ve heard most of these songs, which range from John Denver to Jimmy Martin, but few of them have been played to death. They’re well worth hearing again, especially as well sung as most of them are here.
"Bluegrass Machine" is not a perfect album by any means, but the lead and harmony singing put it a healthy step ahead of the usual first release, foreign or domestic. Offers a few prayers that the mortality rate amongst new groups is not as high as it is here; Acme Country’s potential ought to be nurtured.
Footnote: Observe a minor miracle—sixteen full length songs, no warps, no surface noise and excellent recorded sound.