... nach all den vielen Bluegrass-Projekten der letzten Jahre, all den Country-, Country Pop- und Folk-Alben überrascht der bekannte Nashville-Crooner/Songwriter auf seinem 19. Werk seit 1991 (!!) mit einer ungewohnt satten, kräftigen, rockigen Americana/Country Rock/Roots-Mischung, die einen von der ersten Sekunde an richtig packt. Wie schon auf der 2004er 'Headed For The Hills' (und vereinzelt auf so manchen anderen CDs) wurden alle 13 neuen Tracks in fester und deutlich herausgestellter Zusammenarbeit mit dem ehemaligen Grateful Dead-Lyriker Robert Hunter geschrieben. 13 absolute Klasse-Songs, die neben Country in vielen Schattierungen jede Menge Southern Soul (Muscle Shoals bis Memphis) in sich tragen und etwa 50/50 aus Balladen und rock'n'rolligen schnelleren Stücken bestehen. Lauderdale und Hunter sind ein wahres Traumpaar, wenn es darum geht, bildstarke, wortreiche Geschichten in 4 Minuten zu verpacken - das ist dann schlicht allerallerhöchste Erzählkunst! Habe ich sicher schon oft getan, aber ich muss hier wieder mal Lauderdale's unglaubliche gesangliche Vielseitigkeit betonen. Wie kaum ein anderer ist er in der Lage, sich auf das jeweilige Songfeeling einzustellen, seiner Stimme verschiedenste Klangfarben zu entlocken. Keine Frage natürlich, dass er wieder nur die besten Musiker zur Verfügung hat: Kenny Vaughan, James Burton und Doug Lancio an den elektrischen Gitarren, Al Perkins oder Robby Turner an der Pedal Steel, dazu John Jarvis, John Deaderick, Garry Tallent, Byron House, Chad Cromwell, Bryan Owings, Ron Tutt, Stuart Duncan, Jim Hoke, als Harmony Singers Ann & Regina McCrary sowie Patty Griffin. Hochgradig überzeugend, ja, ich habe den Eindruck, dieser Typ wird immer noch ein bisschen besser!!

(Glitterhouse)

Jim Lauderdale has never been known to shy away from a worthwhile collaboration, having cut some outstanding sessions with bluegrass icon Ralph Stanley and sat in with a broad range of artists from Lucinda Williams and Dwight Yoakam to Solomon Burke and Elvis Costello. And Patchwork River finds Lauderdale teaming up once again with Robert Hunter, with whom he previously collaborated on 2004's Headed for the Hills. Patchwork River features 13 new songs Lauderdale wrote in tandem with Hunter, best known for his work as a lyricist with the Grateful Dead. As one of the few men in Nashville with the courage of his country music convictions these days, Lauderdale moves significantly closer to rock & roll than usual on this album, though this music is still strong, rootsy stuff, with a potent, bluesy undercurrent audible on "Louisville Roll," "Jawbone," and the title tune, and plenty of full-on guitar howling on "Winonna." (Don't fret, "Between Your Heart and Mine" and "Far in the Far Away" demonstrate Lauderdale still writes a great country tune.) These songs are clearly collaborations between two writers, but Lauderdale's melodies bend themselves to the armature of Hunter's elliptical wordplay on Patchwork River, and the rhythms of the tunes sometimes recall Hunter's work with Jerry Garcia, even though Lauderdale's vocals are as distinctive as ever and his own melodic sense is clearly felt. Given the lyrics Hunter has written for this project, it wouldn't have been at all difficult to turn Patchwork River into a pseudo-Dead album in the manner of Workingman's Dead or American Beauty, and to his credit that's not what Jim Lauderdale has done, any more than he did on the previous Headed for the Hills. While it sounds and feels like a different sort of Lauderdale album, Patchwork River is still his own work, and on this second outing with Hunter he's allowed the partnership to inform his music without robbing it of his individual spirit, and similarly he hasn't diluted Hunter's poetic sensibility in the process.

(by Mark Deming, All Music Guide)