There's Talk About A Fence is brimful of story songs old and new, with the conflict between new and old ways represented by Chuck Brodsky's song about "The Come Heres and The Been Heres" coexisting fitfully in a North Carolina town. Jerry Bryant's "Harbo and Samuelsen" tells the inspiring true story of two oystermen who rowed from New York to France at the turn of the last century. Lee has resurrected a priceless piece of Irish poetry by Sigerson Clifford, the riveting "The Tinkerman's Daughter," set by Tim Dennehy; powerful traditional ballads "Daemon Lover" and "Dives and Lazarus;" and a peculiar, moving American folk song, "Lunatic Asylum." Rick composed four of the songs, with additional titles from Lauren LeCroy May and John Lincoln Wright.
Produced by Andy May, who plays guitar, mandolin, and sings; The Rick Lee Trio: Dave Howard, guitar, Bill Walach, mandolin; Jim Heffernan, dobro and pedal steel guitars; and Heidi Basgall, backing vocals.

Rick Lee looks out from the CD cover, tall and imposing, no mustache, gray hair growing wild from the fringes of his head, with a patchy-looking long beard flowing from the fringes of his face as he plays a banjo. One could imagine him as the leader of a fundamentalist, banjo-playing cult if you were not familiar with his work. Fortunately I was already hooked on his music after hearing his last release "Natick". I knew that I would soon be hearing his comfortable, resonant voice singing a mix of traditional and contemporary songs. The album starts with "Bear," a song by his guitarist Andy May, about a bear contemplating crossing an icy river. Lee's piano helps create a feeling of wonder and drama in this simple story, and May's arrangement is a thing of understated beauty. The next song is Chuck Brodsky's wryly humorous "The Come Heres and the Been Heres." The songs that follow range from traditional folk songs written by contemporary writers to fresh arrangements of traditional material. Rick Lee has the gift of being able to straighten out the wrinkles of the archaic phrasing found in much traditional material with the warmth of his voice and his emotional connection to the words he is singing. "Daemon Lover" is a good example of this. His banjo playing is extremely expressive and subtle, taking you to the heart of each song. The effect is to simultaneously make each song personal and archetypal. Perhaps the most powerful of the songs is "Lunatic Asylum," written by two patients in an asylum in the 1970s. It is just Lee and his banjo making you feel the patients' desperate and lonely hope in the face of a harrowing experience. There is not a weak song on this album - there doesn't have to be. Lee is a collector of music as well as a songwriter. He only chooses songs that move him and he has the ability to move the listener as well. Not that it is all serious stuff; he closes the album with "Don‚t Pet The Dog," an ode to oversexed and misdirected little dogs! -Michael Devlin, Music Matters Review, Smithtown, NY