MARK JOHNSON & EMORY LESTER, “Acoustic Vision: Blockade Runner,” Bangtown Records. 14 tracks.

“Acoustic Vision” is the third and final installment in Mark Johnson and Emory Lester’s trilogy, which began with “Acoustic Campaign” in 2002 and continued with “Acoustic Rising” in 2006.

The two “roots music superpickers” are known for their versions of traditional fiddle tunes, British ballads and original compositions.

Johnson, known for his “clawgrass” blend of clawhammer and bluegrass banjo styles, plays banjo. Lester, a master mandolinist who has worked in jazz and new age styles as well as bluegrass, plays mandolin, guitar, bouzouki, fiddle, acoustic bass and sings.

Songs include the traditional — “Brown County Breakdown” and “Bright Sunny South” — six Johnson originals and one Lester original.

“Acoustic Vision” is primarily an album of instrumentals.

But Lester sings on “The Dark and the Rolling Sea,” a song about mutiny on a pirate ship; “Mother of a Miner’s Child,” about a woman who’s his “light in a world where darkness never ends”; “Brown Mountain Light,” about the ghost of a slave still searching for his lost master; “The Old Time Drunkard” and “My Sally,” a tale of a woman lured away by the city and the man who’s going in search of her.

The music, for the most part, is very warm and relaxing, as close to folk as bluegrass.

Can’t find it in stores? Try www.MusicShed.com.

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Tags: bluegrass, emory lester, folk, mark johnson

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