Life In The Fast Lane
No Speed Limit
Sweet Virginia
(Arhoolie)
Sure, there are plenty of jokes waiting to be made about a Virginian bluegrass outfit with a 16-year-old singer.
But Amber Collins isn’t in No Speed Limit because she’s, as Charlie Sheen intoned in *Hot Shots, “a nice piece of tail with a basket full of goodies.” No one in the band shares a surname, they’re all fairly young, and appear to have full sets of teeth. For the few surprises on Sweet Virginia, it’s still a supple album full of traditional mores and Steve Barr’s welcome originals. Collins, who takes lead on most of the 15 tracks, packs a solid yodel in her young pipes, lending the covers (“Jesus Is Alive And Well,” “Blue Night”) as much fervor as newly penned cuts (“Born A Rambler,” “Grayson County Blues”). For a genre dominated by the aged, No Speed Limit provide the youthful jolt you’d expect.
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— Steve Forstneger
