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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 20, 1993                   TAG: 9303200061
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: C12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Seth Williamson
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

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FOLK

Randy Walker's "Across the Blue Mountains" has more mass- appeal potential than any locally produced album in a long time. The Roanoke musician has produced a entirely pleasant soft-folk cassette album with 13 easy-to-like tunes, more than half of which are originals.

One instrumental, "Martha," has one of the most delicately lovely new melodies this reviewer has heard in many a year.

The selections are divided about equally between spare, harmonica-based instrumentals and songs featuring Walker's light baritone. His version of "Shenandoah" spotlights local singer Laura Pole as lead vocalist and ends with a long Dillards-style mandolin ride from Greg Trafidlo over a repeated chorus.

Randy Walker missed his era by about 30 years. The tunes on "Blue Mountains" and their arrangements harken back to such early-60s folk-era groups as We Five and Peter, Paul and Mary. Though some cuts have banjo and mandolin, don't buy this expecting a bluegrass album - it is folk-flavored, mainstream pop music.

Walker's simple harmonica arrangements remind you of how pretty a single harmonica can be. But a few - unintentionally, I hope - recall too insistently those movies in which somebody pulls out a harp right before the Indian attack or when a convict takes that last walk down Death Row.

Bluegrass aficionados may resent Walker's chutzpah in setting the "East Virginia Blues" to a new melody. But after a half-dozen listenings, his loping, minor-key tune and its jazz- grass arrangement are so catchy you almost forget the original.

Randy Walker is genuinely talented as a writer of appealing melodies. "Across the Blue Mountains" will make you want to hear more of him.

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