Good Thing Going

1	I'm Leavin' 3:13
2	World's Biggest Fool 3:33
3	I Give All My Love to You / Russell Moore 3:30
4	Good Thing Going 3:07
5	Scorn of a Lover 3:09
6	Hit Parade of Love 2:24
7	I Will See You Again 4:19
8	Just One of a Kind 2:59
9	I Gotta Start Somewhere 3:35
10	Who's Cryin' Baby 3:05
11	The Water Is Wide / Keith Urban 4:02
12	Bluegrass Saturday Night Bonus Track 3:08

Barnes & Noble

By now it should be obvious that Rhonda Vincent is simply incapable of making anything but good albums. Even by her own lofty standards, though, Good Thing Going is something special -- a fully realized bluegrass beauty in which all the elements of songwriting, musicianship, arrangements, and production are state of the art and really couldn't be better. One of the album's great strengths is the pronounced sound of Vincent's own voice -- not her distinctive singing voice, mind you (as on the self-penned album opener, "I'm Leaving") but the voice expressed in her five original songs, which reach deep for truths about the game of love. This being a bluegrass album, the requisite brooding occurs in mid-tempo laments about faithless love ("Scorn of a Lover"), but Vincent seems to know more about the other end of the spectrum, so the heartache is balanced out by gently shuffling, backwoods-style exultations about fidelity and commitment ("Good Thing Going") and a soft, beautiful dobro-and-fiddle-oriented balladic musing on the eternal flame, "I Give All My Love to You," a duet with IIIrd Tyme Out's Russell Moore. With her road band, the Rage, supplemented by the likes of Stewart Duncan on fiddle and Bryan Sutton on guitar, Vincent -- who contributes some hot mandolin solos of her own throughout -- has support of the most exquisite, soulful sort. With all these strengths, she doesn't really need to have Keith Urban sit in, but the country heartthrob does on "The Water Is Wide," adding an evocative, sandpapery vocal to a restrained, spare arrangement -- a nice touch of old-fashioned yearning on the first great album of 2008. David McGee

All Music Guide

Rhonda Vincent is not only one of modern bluegrass music's most conspicuously talented artists, she is also one of the savviest and cleverest. As an artist she's a triple threat: her voice is sharp, clear, and sweet; she's a fine mandolin player; and she's pretty and not afraid to show a little skin (which guarantees her plenty of attention in the normally rather dowdy and male-oriented bluegrass world). But she has also built a musical niche for herself that sets her apart from the pack without alienating (most) purists: rather than resorting to the time-honored practice of blending bluegrass with pop and rock influences, she tempers her traditional material with elements of modern country and Western swing -- the latter a more unusual stylistic interpolation than you might think (perhaps because swinging jazz rhythms are so foreign to bluegrass, which is usually very rhythmically square). Good Thing Going finds Vincent bringing all of those styles together to create a very solid and enjoyable program. There are a few high-octane barnburners ("I'm Leavin'," "Bluegrass Saturday Night," a roaring version of the Jimmy Martin classic "Hit Parade of Love") and they're all very fun, but the standout tracks are the ones that depart a bit from the standard: the swinging "World's Biggest Fool," the country-folky "I Gotta Start Somewhere" (with drums, yikes), the Eagles-ish "Just One of a Kind," and a sumptuously lovely version of the old Irish song "The Water Is Wide." Her regular band is augmented by a guest list that includes Jesse McReynolds, Russell Moore, and Bryan Sutton, among others, and everything hangs together beautifully. Very highly recommended. Rick Anderson

New York Times

She is a major star in bluegrass...Get her riled or break her heart, and Rhonda Vincent sings with a sting. Jon Pareles

Billboard

[A] picking-bowing-plucking-chopping-harmonizing feast.

Washington Post

Vincent effortlessly flaunts her chops, exploring western swing, traditional bluegrass and songs written with her own pen.

USA Today

This seven-time winner of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s top female vocalist award certainly does have a good thing going — several things, in fact, among them the latest in a string of top-notch albums and a band that livens up everything from breakneck breakdowns to string-band swing.