“Relics and Roses” by Tellico

Tellico
Relics and Roses
Self-released
4 stars (out of 5)

By Larry Stephens

Tellico is described as “firmly planted in … [the] roots music scene, Tellico is well-schooled in bluegrass but with an unbridled, organic Appalachiana sound” If you’re wondering what that means, think old-time, Old Crow Medicine Show, and roots all mixed together.

Lead singer, guitarist, and fiddler Anya Hinkle composed about half the tracks. Listening to her sing I’m reminded of Janis Joplin. Open a browser and in one tab load “Backstep Blues” from their website and in another tab load Joplin singing Me and Bobby McGee.” “Backstep Blues” has a nice beat, ringing an OCMS bell somewhere in my head, anchored by Jed Willis’ clawhammer banjo. You have to work at understanding the lyrics. Never mind that, just enjoy the flow of the song. Hinkle has dallied in multiple genre and spent time with other Tellico members in Dehlia Low, a band variously described as bluegrass, country and/or old-time.

Bass player Stig Stiglets composed the other half of the songs (except “White Line — River of Pride,” a Neil Young song that was released under two titles) and sings lead on several tracks. “Calamity” is a song about disaster inspired by various calamities around the world. It’s a good song, though Stiglets as a singer will be an acquired taste for some. Aaron Ballance on dobro is outstanding.

“Lean Into It” is a swinging song of betrayed love but you may find the title, repeated often, a bit puzzling in its meaning. The rest of the message is clear and the harmonica is a good fit. I like the tune and flow of “Mexico 1995,” but I have trouble understanding Hinkle’s lyrics. There’s some good picking and interplay of instruments in this cut. I have the same trouble with “Forsaken Winds;” love the tune, and I think I like the lyrics when I can figure them out. “Morning Haze” is another likable song with some good instrumental work.

It’s a bit quirky but enjoyable, like inviting Bob Dylan into your CD player for a while. If that sounds like fun, you’re going to like this CD.

 

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“Tunes from the North, Songs from the South” by Fiddle & Banjo

Fiddle & Banjo (Karrnnel Sawitsky and Daniel Koulack)
Tunes from the North, Songs from the South
Self-released
4 stars (out of 5)

By Donald Teplyske

This has been a great summer for roots music.

Whether the folk and alt-folk (whatever the frick that is) sounds of Norma MacDonald and Nick Ferrio, troubling, dark, and challenging sounds from the likes of Rodney DeCroo, Brock Zeman, and Gordie Tentrees, or breezy, fresh bluegrass from Dale Ann Bradley, the Slocan Ramblers, and Shotgun Holler, there has been no shortage of new roots music for the adventurous listener.

Sometimes great things have been missed on first (and fifth) listen, such as the swirling, swampy, harp-based blues of Grant Dermody, the sweet and elemental music of the Honey Dewdrops, and the Appalachian honky-tonk of the Honeycutters.

Eventually, like most elements of quality, what you need to hear eventually makes itself known.

More than anything else though, this summer has been marked by the number of exceptional old-time sounding albums coming my way. There has been a traditional, mountain-based banjo release from Kaia Kater, a mid-western song cycle celebrating and anthologizing the plains from Jami Lynn, and a ‘grassopolitain set from the Lonesome Trio: old-time has been well represented these past several weeks.

Just to be clear, I had never heard of Kaia Kater or Jami Lynn a month ago, but now I can’t imagine them not being part of my musical soundtrack. Another amazing album released this summer comes from the equally (to me) unfamiliar Canadian duo, Karrnnel Sawitsky and Daniel Koulack. And yet again I am left wondering, How did I go this long without hearing for these folks?

Recording as Fiddle & Banjo, this duo is remarkable. Karrnnel Sawitsky plays the fiddle, and having been raised on the vibrant music found within the celebratory environs of Saskatchewan (barn dances, weddings, community hall performances, and the like), plays in a range of styles depending on the needs of the tune or song. Daniel Koulack is a clawhammer banjo performer from Winnipeg who coaxes evocative phrases from his 5-string.

With an album title of Tunes from the North, Songs from the South providing the framework, the expectations from the resulting album are fairly clear. Fiddle & Banjo doesn’t disappoint with tunes that capture the Métis, Quebecois, and mid-eastern Canadian fiddling traditions of our country while embracing southern influences throughout including on a few original compositions.

The sounds can be pensive and calming (“Waltz of Life,” a Sawitsky tune), soothing (“Lullabye,” from Koulack”), and lively and festive (“The Old French Set,” a trio of traditional pieces including the “Red River Jig”). From the playing of Saskatchewan Métis fiddling legend John Arcand comes “The Woodchuck Set” featuring “Indian At the Woodchuck,” “Old Reel of 8,” and “The Arkansas Traveller.” I’m not sure old-time, traditional sounds get better than the four-minute festival of fiddling and frailing on the latter track.

Pushing Tunes from the North, Songs from the South over the top are five songs featuring the voice of Joey Landreth of the Juno-winning the Bros. Landreth. “Red Rocking Chair” is lonesome and mournful, buoyed by the lively instrumentation, with “How Does a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live” and “Killin’ Floor” suitably dark and bluesy. The highlight for me may be the spritely rendition of “Little Birdie,” although “Groundhog” comes a close second.

Kaia Kater, the Slocan Ramblers, and now Fiddle & Banjo have moved Canadian old-time music making to the fore this summer. Hopefully we’re ready for this explosion of artful, contemporary talents.

“Jayme Stone’s Lomax Project” by Jayme Stone

Jayme Stone
Jayme Stone’s Lomax Project
Borealis Records
5 stars (out of 5)

By Aaron Keith Harris

Canadian banjo player Jayme Stone continues his run of intriguingly diverse projects with this 19-track disc celebrating the centenary of seminal folk song collector Alan Lomax.

Stone has done a fine job picking tunes from Lomax’s stockpile, but an even better job picking talent to present those tunes in several different styles, including:

• Brittany Haas and Bruce Molsky with two entrancing fiddle duets, “Julie and Joe” and “Old Christmas.”
• Stone and Haas with “Hog Went Through the Fence, Yoke and All,” which, in spite of it’s rustic title is an inventive and nuanced fiddle & banjo conversation.
• “Before This Time Another Year,” “Sheep, Sheep Don’tcha Know the Road,” and “Prayer Wheel,” all gospel septets in the Sea Island style, with Tim O’Brien’s inimitable voice the most recognizable element.
• O’Brien on two duets: with Moira Smiley on the quaint romantic folk of “T-I-M-O-T-H-Y” and with Margaret Glaspy on the sad cowboy song “Goodbye Old Paint.”
• Eli West setting Lead Belly’s a profane farm work holler “Whoa, Back, Buck” in a sumptuous guitar and fiddle (Haas) arrangement.

There’s also a prison song, a calypso murder ballad, and a nearly six hundred-year-old English ballad that was captured by a ballad hunter from a Virginia sawmill cook and is here sung by a septet with no accompaniment save body percussion set to a 9/8 folk rhythm originating somewhere in the Balkans. (To fully enjoy this album, I strongly recommend buying the CD, attractively packaged with detailed liner notes of these recordings, and the ones they’re referring to.)

Among all these great musicians and singers, Stone’s best choice is clearly Margaret Glaspy, whose voice recalls Abigail Washburn and Frazey Ford, among others. The tracks on which she sings lead—including “Lazy John,” “I Want to Hear Somebody Pray,” “Maids When You’re Young,” and “Lambs on the Green Hills”—are impeccably arranged and played by Stone and company, but Glaspy turns them into the best acoustic tracks I’ve heard from anyone this year. Her singing is strong and magical while conveying the illusion of brokenness—not unlike some work from Neil Young, or Bjork; she turns well used standards like “What is the Soul of a Man?” and “Shenandoah” (both of which happen to be particular favorites of mine) into the stuff of transcendent meditations on the permanence of great music. We should all look forward to hearing more from this truly great singer.

“Don’t Forget Me Little Darling” by Antique Persuasion

Antique Persuasion
Don’t Forget Me Little Darling
Voxhall Records
5 stars (out of 5)

By Larry Stephens

You simply cant count the country and bluegrass musicians who list the Carter Family as an influence in their music. Just as Bill Monroe became known as the father of bluegrass, despite a number of notable stars who contributed to that birth, the Carter Family have a place in history as the parents of country music. They were not the only people making music like that back then but they have stood the test of time as one of the foremost groups at the birth of this music we love.

A.P. Carter, his wife Sara, and her cousin and his sister–in–law, Maybelle, captured the imagination of the common folk at a time when life was hard for them. The Carter Family first recorded in Bristol, Tennessee in what we now view as primitive conditions. They were interested in making a few dollars, never dreaming what they would start that day. “Bury Me Beneath The Weeping Willow” is the left bookend of the Carter Family’s recording history and this CD. This song has been recorded countless times in bluegrass, country and western (cowboy) settings. The Carter Family versions of all these numbers have a different feel than this recording, in part because of the instrumentation—usually only a guitar, partly because of advances in recording technology and partly because of technique. The Carters’ singing was straightforward, unadorned, even a bit strident. Some, perhaps many of the fans of bluegrass and classic country today wouldn’t listen long to a Carter Family recording.

The CD cover credits A.P. Carter as the composer of all but one of these songs. Take that with a grain of salt. While his name may appear on official credits, many of the Carter Family songs are adaptations of songs that pre–date them by decades if not centuries. “Bury Me Beneath The Weeping Willow” was the subject of a 1970 conversation with Maybelle Carter as reported on grassclippings. “That was a song we had sang all our lives. [Read the center section on the website.] The original version of the song was written by Bradley Kincaid.” Another conversation relates, “Other sources suggest the song’s older, a late–19^th–century ‘heart song’ that Kincaid adopted; apparently a sheet music version dates to a year when he was 14 years old, making his authorship unlikely.” None of this affects the contribution of the Carter Family nor the beauty of this new CD, but it’s always good to have a hint of the actual history of the songs.

My wife, a fringe fan of bluegrass (as I’ve reported before) was listening to this CD as we drove and she described it as “soothing.” I know she would never say the same about the original version. Have no doubt, though, Antique Persuasion honors the Carter Family music, just giving it a 2015 interpretation. The last song recorded by the Carters, and the only one here not “written” by A. P. Carter (it was composed—or adapted—by Maybelle Carter), was “ You’re Gonna Be Sorry Cause You Let Me Down.” (CF version) Brandon Rickman sings lead and plays guitar and mandolin. He’s a good one to be singing these traditional songs because he has a voice that speaks bluegrass to me. Not that there isn’t room for other types of singers, such as the high, lonesome sound of Monroe or the balladeer’s voice of David Parmley. But I especially enjoy singers like Rickman. It’s in the tone and inflection, his phrasing. Like bluegrass, you know it when you hear it. You can hear Rickman’s voice often because he’s the lead singer for the Lonesome River Band.

He’s joined by Jenee Fleenor. She’s made other appearances in bluegrass but her primary job is backing Blake Shelton (vocals, fiddle, mandolin, guitar). Brennan Leigh, a great singer from Austin, Texas, rounds out the group, offering vocals and guitar. Mark Fain makes a guest appearance on upright bass. Warning! There’s no banjo present but, to be fair, the Carter Family didn’t use one, either.

Rickman also sings lead on “Lover’s Lane” (familiar from Red Smiley & the Bluegrass Cutups) and “Lover’s Return” ( familiar from Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstatdt & Dolly Parton).

“Dark and Stormy Weather” is a departure from the straightforward nature of most of the songs. Sung in minors, it’s dark and moody. Sung by Fleenor, there are no background vocals and only Fleenor’s fiddle and guitar and Fain’s arco bass. It’s moodier than Helen Carter’s version which is also a takeoff of the original. She also sings lead on “When Silver Threads Are Gold,” a lighter–hearted song about love. “Lonesome For You” is done as western swing and is a familiar number to any fan. The original version had this same feel but in a more primitive fashion. Fleenor trades leads with Rickman and you’ll hear great harmony singing, on this and all other songs except “Dark and Stormy Weather” and Fleenor’s other lead number, “I’m Thinking Of My Blue Eyes.” Again it’s just Fleenor and Fain with an arrangement that gets away from the Carter Family (and usual) styling, but is beautifully done, giving a fresh take on this familiar song.

Leigh sings lead on “Broken Hearted Lover” (not to be confused with the Delmore Brothers/IIIrd Tyme Out song of the same name). You’ll note Fleenor’s fiddle providing support on this song, smooth, melodic, and relaxing (to use my wife’s description). She also sings lead on “Don’t Forget Me Little Darling,” “Hello Stranger” (recorded by Emmylou Harris and Hazel Dickens/Alice Gerrard) and the only gospel number, “On the Sea of Galilee.”

This is an excellent window into the Carter Family’ great body of work. Great singing by the three members of Antique Persuasion, excellent instrumental work, great arrangements. If you like bluegrass, don’t miss this one.

“When I’m Free” by Hot Rize

Hot Rize
When I’m Free
Ten In Hand Records
4 stars (out of 5)

By Larry Stephens

Hot Rize is a deservedly iconic band, beloved for their take on bluegrass music, their rambling discourses during a show, and for their alternate egos, Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers. I saw them last year and it was 50 percent talk, 50 percent music. But, a CD is all music and they waited almost twenty-five years to do another studio album. It’s done well, in the top ten on the chart and three songs in the top 20 at one time. (The August 7 chart (Bluegrass Today) shows only “Clary Mae” still there, making a rapid fall from #2 to #19 in two weeks. The Roots Music Report, on the other hand, shows the CD at #6, down from #1 last week.)

“Clary Mae” is a good bluegrass number, rolling along supported by Pete “Dr. Banjo” Wernick’s renowned banjo playing. Wernick founded the group in the 1970s with Tim O’Brien, Nick Forster, and the late Charles Sawtelle. They have a lot of life left for a group that stopped touring in 1990, making only a few appearances until reformong as a band after all these years, Sawtelle’s spot being filled by Bryan Sutton. It does seem that they are back on the road again, making something of a comeback which has complicated things for O’Brien. He was a part of the Earls of Leicester and is having to mostly step away from that group to commit more time to Hot Rize. I suppose there are worse dilemmas.

“Doggone” is on the rockabilly side with good harmony singing, a rocking medium tempo song. “Blue is Fallin'” is a song about some hard times and features a nice guitar break by Sutton. “Western Skies” is all about wanting to get back to western skies and features Wernick’s banjo in the driver’s seat. Like the individual members of the group, whose careers have prospered through the years but not always in the bluegrass genre, these songs are on the fringe around the core bluegrass sound of Monroe, but are greatly enjoyed by bluegrass fans.

They show their gospel side with “I Am The Road,” a song with the drive of a bulldozer—neither hot nor fast, it’s  a relentless force telling a message of faith. It isn’t told in the usual words of God and faith, but the message is there.

I am the road, I am the way

Many walk down and many will stray

Straight and narrow, far and wide

You won’t be lonesome while side by side

The track that’s named like a gospel number, “Glory in The Meeting House,” is actually an instrumental, Irish-sounding jig, light-hearted with an old-time feel. “Sky Rider” is another instrumental, featuring syncopated banjo by Wernick. Sutton is always there supporting the band with his excellent guitar playing—especially on several breaks in “You Were On My Mind This Morning.” He made his first big splash in bluegrass as a member of Kentucky Thunder and went on to become famous as a session player and touring with artists like Béla Fleck and Jerry Douglas. Following Charles Sawtelle’s death in 1999, the band re-grouped in 2002 and invited Sutton into the fold.

“A Cowboy’s Life” is not very grassy except for the banjo, but a great story song and a nice change of pace. Another on-the-bluegrass-fringe cit is “I Never Met a One Like You,” on which one of the group’s career-spanning signature traits— Nick Forster’s clean, understated bass guitar—can be appreciated.

Notable releases: Anna & Elizabeth and Lynda Dawson & Pattie Hopkins

Anna & Elizabeth
Anna & Elizabeth
Free Dirt Records

 

 

 

 

 

Lynda Dawson & Pattie Hopkins
Traditional Duets
Self-released

 

 

 

 

 

There is something to be said for the simple things in life; Sunday evenings with the family, a warm summer night on the porch with a glass of lemonade, the feeling of snow falling on your face, and of course my favorite—impromptu jam sessions with great friends.

In music, these simple things also give you pleasure of experiencing the rawness and the bond shared between a duo group, seen as they sit in your living room on a late Saturday night.

Duos have been captivating music lovers for decades but most of the time they are in a conglomerate of instruments that takes away from the intimacy of two people with two instruments. These two records help us concentrate on the simple things; two albums, two duos, four instruments, three chords and the truth.

Anna Roberts-Gevalt and Elizabeth LaPrelle create an old-time, almost eerie sound that takes you to the cultural landscape of the Appalachian Mountains. It is evident through this album they share a deep love of the folk tunes archived in the catalogs of our forgotten culture.  The mishmash of guitar, fiddle, and clawhammer banjo adds to the feel of the inspired versions of these eclectic songs.

In the same vein, Lynda Dawson & Pattie Hopkins  album “Traditional Duets” focuses on traditional bluegrass and country numbers. Songs like “Train on the Island,” “Sittin’ Alone in the Moonlight,” and “Bonaparte’s Retreat” fill the 13-track album with jam tunes you would expect to hear at bluegrass festivals across the country. The fiddle and guitar combo adds simplicity to the sound that recreates good memories of good times.

In the world of supersized meals, unlimited Internet access, and 24-hour news coverage, it’s nice to live the motto, “less is more”.  Do yourself a favor and buy an album that takes you back to the good ol’ days when music was music.

“Coffee Creek” by the Slocan Ramblers

The Slocan Ramblers
Coffee Creek
Self-released
4 stars (out of 5)

By Donald Teplyske

The Slocan Ramblers, an energetic four-piece bluegrass outfit, have garnered positive praise for their neo-traditional approach to timeless southern-styled mountain music.

With a couple years of heavy gigging having worn out their soles, the Ramblers return with their sophomore effort, produced by bluegrass and old-time veteran Chris Coole (Foggy Hogtown Boys, Lonesome Ace Stringband.)

Canada is weird…when it comes to bluegrass music. It is surprising to outsiders that we don’t all always know what is going on within the industry across the country: take The Slocan Ramblers as an example. Despite their extensive press coverage in eastern Canada, a well-received debut, extensive gigs across the country and into the U.S., and rising profile, until I noticed their name associated with a regional festival later this summer, I had never encountered the group. Alberta, where I live, is some 3500 kilometres (2200 miles) west of Toronto, out of which the Slocan Ramblers are based. Ontario has an entire bluegrass circuit the likes of which I can’t quite fathom, but which is wholly separate from the modest western Canada bluegrass community with which I am more familiar.

I was therefore considerably intrigued upon receiving Coffee Creek for review, and after only a couple songs went online and purchased their 2013 debut, Shaking Down the Acorns.

That first album was highlighted by songs both largely unfamiliar (Jonathan Byrd and Corin Raymond’s “The Law and Lonesome” and “Hallelujah Shore” from Kevin Breit) and perhaps overly familiar (“Wild Bill Jones” and “Tragic Love”), but all executed with obvious verve and prowess. The instrumental tunes presented were similarly excellent, the original title track being somewhat spectacular.

For their second recording, the band has reached another level, and you have got to love a young band who even knows who Dave Evans is, let alone ‘gets’ him! More on that in a bit.

No doubt, these guys can play. They have an unassuming approach to bluegrass, one that doesn’t explode in your face. Their arrangements are clean and they certainly know how to balance themselves in the recording studio; instruments come to the fore smoothly and with precision. Vocally, the group is less distinctive, but that shouldn’t be taken to suggest the listener is shortchanged. Lead singer Frank Evans isn’t entirely high or particularly lonesome, nor is he a shouter or a belter; he sings comfortably  and without avarice. He is confident enough to just lay the words out there, and always seems to be winking at the listener as if to say, “Now, get ready for this bit of harmony: you’re gonna love it.”

The album, rather cheekily, opens with mandolinist Adrian Gross’s sparkling title cut. It takes some brass to kick-off a modern bluegrass album with an instrumental, even one as fiery as “Coffee Creek,” but the Ramblers pull it off with assurance. With heavy bass notes from Alastair Whitehead providing propulsion, and featuring Gross and Evans in a neat mando-banjo duel, the tune sets the table for nearly 50 minutes of exciting, sometimes introspective, acoustic bluegrass.

They slip into Woody Guthrie’s “Pastures of Plenty” next, not the last time they’ll visit a Dave Evans recording on the album. They wisely crank the ratchet by melding Frank Evans’ neat “Honey Babe” with the well-known folk song, a suitable complement. A couple tracks later, Dave Evans’ “Call Me Long Gone” is revisited: while remaining faithful to the spirit of the 1980 recording, the Ramblers give the song a bit more bounce, making the track brighter if no less blue.

Frank Evans appears to be predominately a clawhammer stylist, so it isn’t a surprise that they take a run through “Groundhog” and “Streamline Cannonball,” the only song on which guitarist Darryl Poulsen sings the lead. The early-19th century seaman’s tale “Rambling Sailor” is also interpreted, providing a satisfying juxtaposition to the mostly Appalachian-fired material.

As on their previous release, the band has come up with several tasteful instrumentals, four of which stem from Gross. “April’s Waltz” begins tentatively with purposefully scattered mandolin notes and trills, before blooming into a unusual but sensitive and evocative full-band showpiece. His “Lone Pine” is more conventional, and one wonders if there is a Lenny Breau influence at work here in Poulsen’s guitar approach.

One criticism offered is that I would much rather hear a bluegrass band singing of their own Canadian environment (as on “Elk River”) and experience rather than of the “Mississippi Shore” or of Dust Bowl vignettes of those working in peach and prune orchards of Arizona and California.

The Slocan Ramblers are a versatile bluegrass band. Offering three capable lead singers with Evans taking the vast majority, and all four members creating interesting and engaging songs and tunes while demonstrating wide-ranging instrumental talents, the group appears to be well-poised to continue their ascension within a very crowded ‘left of center’ bluegrass field.

 

“Sorrow Bound” by Kaia Kater

Kaia Kater
Sorrow Bound
Kingswood Records
5 stars (out of 5)

By Donald Teplyske

Toronto, Ontario—hotbed of Appalachian music.

Alongside the recent release of the Slocan Ramblers’ Coffee Creek, one might well have growing evidence that Canada’s most cosmopolitan city has more than a few inhabitants who know their way around the music of the holler.

Originally released a year ago, Sorrow Bound receives wider distribution this summer and deservedly so. Low and mournful are the sounds Kaia Kater, a traditional musician in her early 20s, appears to favour. Playing in the traditional clawhammer style—Art Menius has identified her as “the Ola Belle Reed of the 21st century”—Kater has spent a great deal of time in West Virginia studying the traditions of Appalachian balladry and dance.

Much like Anna & Elizabeth have done, Kater plays with traditional music to gently knit together connections between ancient tones and modern times. Whereas that duo does so largely through their interpretation of traditional songs, Kater takes a more modernist approach, one equally necessary to allow the music to thrive and flourish. “Southern Girl ,” one of several originals contained on this stunning debut, has its foundation in the remnants of another time, but its passionate hopes are well observed in the changes our society is currently undergoing.

The title track is a revelation. Featuring what sounds like bowed bass, this atmospheric song explores dark challenges of previous times and personal yearning through poetic snatches of language, leaving the story open to interpretation; Kater’s frailing banjo flourishes provide percussive punctuation. Another Kater song, “Oh Darlin’,” in lyric, essence, and structure, could easily be a couple of centuries old.

Kater, who knows her way around the old songs like someone raised in the tradition, is nothing if not unconventional. A song borrowed from Anna & Elizabeth, “Sun to Sun,” flows into a French-language old-timey ballad. “Moonshiner,” familiar enough through interpretations from folks as varied as Bob Dylan, Cat Power, Buell Kazee, and the Sweetback Sisters—whose lead Kater follows—and like those sizable talents, Kater makes the song all her own. “Come and Rest” provides a coda of comfort and belief, while “West Virginia Boys” is less volatile than other renditions of the “cornbread, molasses, and sassafras tea” tune.

This album is an ideal balance of then and now, the past and present, of originality and influence.

Kaia Kater, who has performed throughout the eastern United States and Canada, is one of the many youthful performers by whose sure hands the traditions so many of us appreciate and love are being tended.

“Orthophonic Joy: The 1927 Bristol Sessions Revisited” produced by Carl Jackson

Various artists
Orthophonic Joy: The 1927 Bristol Sessions Revisited
Legacy Recordings
4 stars (out of 5)

By Aaron Keith Harris

Country music is obsessed about the past. The same technological changes that enabled it to be captured on record and broadcast on radio also helped hasten the urbanization of America, and country people used their music to help them make sense of the ways they chose to meet those changes—nostalgia as therapy.

Organized by Ralph Peer of the Victor Talking Machine Company, the 1927 Bristol Sessions were the crucible in which a centuries-old Anglo-American folk music tradition that found expression in barn dances, church choirs, fiddle contests at market day, minstrel shows, tent revivals, and families picking on the front porch became a business that would enrich the lives of millions with music and enable gifted musicians to make a living making music rather than in the coal mines, the field, the fox hole, or the whorehouse—it’s amazing what freedom of expression and free markets can accomplish.

Many of the 76 tracks from 19 different acts recorded by Peer were commercially successful, and two superstar careers were launched: those of Jimmie Rodgers—one of the first modern American celebrities and the prototype for songsters like Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, and even, I would argue, Bob Dylan—and the Carter Family, who are perhaps responsible for collecting, preserving, and popularizing more pre-modern American music than anyone else. (See also the story of Lead Belly.)

Orthophonic Joy: The 1927 Bristol Sessions Revisited—a two-disc tribute to those sessions, made under the aegis of the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol—should be the starting point for anyone who wants to learn about country music—especially those with little previous exposure to Southern music or culture outside of Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood, or a television episode of Nashville.

Eddie Stubbs, whose resonant tones are familiar to Grand Ole Opry fans and WSM-AM 650 listeners everywhere—guides the listener through 18 contemporary takes on classic Bristol material, with ambient clips of the rough-and-ready original recordings to provide contrast to the modern, clean recordings and arrangements we’re more used to. The script, written by Cindy Lovell, concisely retells the story of the Bristol Sessions with telling biographical detail and historical context that even knowledgeable country fans will find enriching.

As a consummate Nashville professional on both sides of the studio glass, Carl Jackson is a perfect choice to produce this record. His choices arranging this well-known material, and manning the sound board, all pay off, and he even plays and sings on several cuts—including a bluesy duet on “In the Pines” with Brad Paisley and a wild run through “Pretty Polly” as lead singer and banjo picker.

Jackson expertly pairs artist to song throughout, including country music royalty (Dolly Parton on “When They Ring Those Golden Bells,” Emmylou Harris on “Bury Me Beneath the Willow,” Marty Stuart on “Black Eyed Susie,” and Vince Gill on “The Soldier’s Sweetheart”), A-listers from other genres (Steve Martin & the Steep Canyon Rangers on “Sweet Heaven When I Die,”
Sheryl Crow on “The Wandering Boy,” Keb’ Mo’ on “To the Work”), and bluegrass veterans (Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver on “I’m Redeemed” and Larry Cordle & Lonesome Standard Time on “Train on the Island”).

Ashley Monroe (“The Storms are on the Ocean”), the Shotgun Rubies (“I Am Resolved”), and the Church Sisters (“Where We’ll Never Grow Old”), and Ashley & Shannon (children of Glen) Campbell (“The Wreck of the Old Virginian”) add a touch of youth, as does Corbin Hayslett, who won a contest to be on this record with his thrilling take on “Darling Cora,” the standout track from this project.

And though the Bristol Sessions seem like ancient history, a couple of tracks show just how young country music still is. Eighty-five-year-old Jesse McReynolds—a hall-of-famer in both country and bluegrass music—scrapes out “Johnny Goodwin/The Girl I Left Behind” on the very same fiddle that his grandfather Charles McReynolds used when he recorded the same song with the Bull Mountain Moonshiners. And the Chuck Wagon Gang, a Southern Gospel quartet that’s been working continously since 1935—with a revolving roster of members, of course—lead a choir comprised of all the Orthophonic Joy artists on a valedictory “Shall We Gather at the River,” one of their biggest hits, which they recorded in 1949 based on the Bristol recording by the Tennessee Mountaineers (actually a church choir from Bluff City, Tenn. given that soubriquet by Peer).

Though the current state of popular country music is worse than ever, thanks to commercialism, there is more opportunity for today’s listener than ever before to experience the joy of good music—of every variety, especially country—than ever before, also thanks to commercialism. Think of this record as good whiskey cut with water—not quite the pure stuff, but plenty good enough to give you a thirst for the real thing.

“The Music of the Stanley Brothers” by Gary B. Reid

Gary B. Reid
The Music of the Stanley Brothers
University of Illinois Press (2015)
4½ stars (out of 5)

By Larry Stephens

At Bean Blossom you sit on a gentle upslope from the stage. To your right is the entry road that goes down to the tail of the pond and the back of the stage before going back up to the Hippie Hill section of camping. The regulars all know when Dr. Ralph Stanley arrives or leaves, his long, white tour bus sliding along, all within hidden behind its windows. Soon after he arrives, someone will erect his pop-up shelter where he holds court to sign autographs and say hello to his fans. It wasn’t always like this.

When Carter Stanley was alive it was the Stanley Brothers show. Still today, a half century after Carter Stanley’s death, there are many songs sung on stage and around campfires that bear the Stanley Brothers name. Travel during the twenty years the brothers were active was by car or station wagon. The pace was often hectic, the financial rewards meager. Band members came and went frequently, as is still the case with many bluegrass bands. Bluegrass music, generally speaking, isn’t a lucrative endeavor unless you’re a breakout star, and many professional bluegrass musicians have another job to make ends meet. The Stanley Brothers stayed the course, putting their names into the bluegrass history books.

Remember when the brothers were doing that Rich-R-Tone session (#480700) back in 1948? When Art Wooten joined them? You don’t remember that?

Truth is, there are probably no more than a pickup-load of people who can remember all the band members through the years, let alone anything about the recording sessions or what was recorded when. But Gary B. Reid knows. In 1976 he sent a letter to Neil Rosenberg, a name known to many bluegrassers and author of Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys: An Illustrated Discography (1974), that started, “For the past several years I have been trying to compile a combination biography/discography on the Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys.” Reid was nineteen and it would be another thirty-nine years before that book was published. That is dedication. He did other things along the way, including starting Copper Creek Records.

The book covers the two decades the brothers were a professional act. Both served during World War II. Carter was discharged in February 1946 and joined up with Roy Sykes for a while. Ralph’s discharge was in October 1946 and by November they were making appearances along with mandolinist Darrell “Pee Wee” Lambert and fiddler Bobby Sumner. Their last full concert was at Bill Monroe’s Bean Blossom facility. Carter died December 1, 1966, the victim of alcoholism.

This book is rich with information about their professional lives from one recording session to the next, where they were working and who was in the band. The data on the recording sessions is extensive. A typical entry is:

501103	Columbia session; producers: Art Satherly and Don LawCastle Studio, Tulane Hotel, 206 8th Ave., Nashville, TennesseeNovember 3, 1950 Carter Stanley: g|Ralph Stanley: b|Pee Wee Lamber: m Lester Woodie: f|Ernie Newton: sb
4311	The Lonesome River (Carter Stanley)C. Stanley-L, R. Stanley-T, PW Lambert-HB	20816	HL-7291,HS-11177,ROU-SS-10,BCD-15564,CK-53798,B0007883-02

Neither the uncertainty surrounding song titles or the “borrowing” of songs are a focus of the book, but both are mentioned many times in these pages and this provides an interesting insight into the music business. Sometimes it’s using the same (or very similar) melody with more than one set of lyrics.

“The first song is ‘A Life of Sorrow.’ Carter and Ralph Stanley wrote it with an assist from George Shuffler. The melody is strikingly similar to a tune the Stanley Brothers had recorded earlier on Columbia, ‘I’m a Man of Constant Sorrow,’ and is a good example of how the Stanleys recycled old tunes to create ‘new’ material.” [p. 32, Columbia #4 (Session 520411)]

and

“… used it as an opportunity to recycle the melody to one of their earlier recordings, ‘Little Glass of Wine.’ Known by a number of titles, ‘Tragic Love’ is most commonly called ‘Silver Dagger.'”

There are other examples of songs known by a variety of titles, as well as songs with disputed ownership, songs sold by their composer then the buyer taking songwriting credits, and the practice of claiming credit before agreeing to record the song.

While information about their travels is provided as part of their story, it also becomes a story of its own. Their nomadic lifestyle wasn’t (and isn’t) unusual in the bluegrass world, nor for most other musicians. You have to wonder how families survived and that’s one place the book will leave you wanting. Other than a few mentions of Ralph Stanleys ex-wife, Peggy, and the tidbit that Carter Stanley wrote “Baby Girl” in honor of his year-old daughter, Doris, you won’t get a peek into their family life. There is no mention of how Carter’s bouts with the bottle affected their music. Given the amount of information contained in the book, it’s easy to believe Reid might have another book in him to let us better know Ralph and Carter Stanley as people.

This is an excellent reference for anyone interested in the Stanley Brothers years (but understand it stops with Carter Stanley’s death). I found it an interesting read with my only caution that you may find yourself getting bogged down trying to follow and remember all the histories of people and changes in the band. Don’t get lost in the detail, just keep the book handy when you need to look up something.