David Morris, Author at Bluegrass Today

Catchin’ up with Dale Ann Bradley

In some ways, Dale Ann Bradley is just like the rest of us. She daydreams about getting away to the beach, frets about the search for true love and feels the aches and pains of getting older.

But Dale Ann, unlike most of us, has the ability to turn life’s little curve balls into terrific songs. She’s at it again on her newest release, Somewhere South of Crazy (Compass Records).

Dreaming about getting away and feeling the sand beneath her feet? She and Pam Tillis turned that sentiment into the title track of the new project. Pondering the difficulty of finding and maintaining a relationship? Dale Ann transformed that universal angst into Round and Round, for my money the best of the 12 songs on the new CD and one of the best the Kentucky songbird has turned out in her stellar career.

Those songs make me wish Dale Ann was a more prolific writer, a sentiment I shared with her in a recent telephone chat that coincided with the release of the new album.

“I don’t write as often as other writers do,” she acknowledged. “A song has to find me. It kind of has to stay with me for a while.” But when a song does stay with her, the result is worth waiting for. For example, life on the road is common musical motif, the stuff of countless songs. But, to me, none brings home the loneliness of the road with the heart-tugging directness of Round and Round. When Dale Ann sings (“Ooh, ooh, and the wheels go round and round, takin’ me away from where I want to be. Ooh, ooh, and I just can’t stand the sound of cryin’ in the night for the love of my life with you I’ve never found”) you can feel the despair of someone torn between what she wants and what she has to do to pay the bills.

Dale Ann also has a knack for finding great songs that she doesn’t write. She calls a previously recorded song, Gordon Lightfoot’s The Circle Is Small, something that represents “the Dale Ann style.”

Longstanding fans know that she also has an ear for 1970s pop songs that translate into crowd-pleasing bluegrass tunes. This time around, she grasses up Summer Breeze, which paid a lot of bills for Jimmy Seals and Darrell Crofts over the years, first as a hit by the duo and then as a remake across a range of musical styles.

“Those lyrics: ‘See the curtains hangin’ in the window, in the evening on a Friday night.’ That could be straight from Bill,” she said, meaning Mr. Monroe himself. “And the melody is quite Celtic.”

While redone pop songs have become a staple, she said it isn’t a conscious choice. “I don’t pick out a pop song intentionally,” she said. But she quickly added that she has a soft spot for songs that grabbed her in her younger days.

Intentional or not, she sees her penchant for pop songs as a sort of musical preservation. “If somebody doesn’t put those songs out in an original way, then they may be forgotten,” she said. “They’re endangered, too, just like first-generation bluegrass.”

While this project is still brand new – it was officially released August 30 – Dale Ann is already looking down the road to see what’s next. “I would like to find a swing kind of song,” she said. “It’s something I haven’t done and it’s something I’m a fan of.”

She’s not in a hurry to see 2011 end, though. “I’ve had the busiest season of my career,” she said.

So is there a song about growing older in her future? “Well, let me tell you,” she said, “you’re joints just don’t feel like they used to after driving 18 hours.”

But, her protesting joints aside, Dale Ann is still, to play off her album title, Somewhere South of 50, so don’t look for her to stand down any time soon. The three-time IBMA female vocalist of the year (and a nominee for that crown and three other awards this year) still has songs to sing and songs to write.

“I’ve been blessed for little girl in a holler down here in Kentucky,” she says with an aw-shucks attitude that seems genuine. “We’ve put in the time. Now we just need to enjoy every second of it.”

[Editor’s note] Dale Ann will be appearing on tonight’s (8/31) Music City Roots program from Nashville. You can hear the show live starting at 8:00 p.m. (EDT) online.

Sometimes, even the stars are fans

There are some well known bluegrass players who hide out in the air-conditioned comfort of the bus until just before a show, and spend as little time at the record table as they can. Then there’s Bobby Hicks.

With a boatload of awards, including multiple Grammy trophies, and a resume that features backing Bill Monroe as a Bluegrass Boy and playing in the legendary Bluegrass Album Band and with Ricky Skaggs, you might think the 78-year-old fiddler would be content to rest on his laurels. Or to at least show up at the last minute to take the stage with J.D. Crowe and the New South on Sunday at the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival.

Instead, Bobby showed up several hours before his festival-closing set, ready for the stage in black suit, white shirt and dark tie despite the oppressive heat. He stood in line with fans to buy a mint chocolate chip ice cream cone and he chatted backstage with anyone who approached. And, believe me, a LOT of people approached.

You can tell a musician’s status by the way other pickers treat him or her. By that standard, Bobby Hicks is at the top of the heap. I first got a glimpse of this a few years ago, when Bobby taught a one-day master class at Common Ground on the Hill in Westminster, MD. Instructors and students who played other instruments crowded in with the fiddlers to hear Bobby play and teach. And that night, when Bobby joined the instructor concert for a couple of songs, Missy Raines paused long enough to switch on her digital recorder to capture the magic.

I saw the same thing Sunday afternoon. If musicians weren’t gathering around to pick with Bobby in a shady spot behind the stage, they were posing for pictures with him or chatting reverently. “You’ll see that one on Facebook,” Christy Reid said after she snapped a picture of her husband Lou Reid and Bobby just after Lou finished up a set with the Seldom Scene.

But if Bobby noticed he was the center of attention, he didn’t let on. He played his tail off in the backstage jams, then went out to the stage and tore it up with his old buddy, J.D. The only down note of the show came from who wasn’t with them. Tony Rice was on the bill, but this reunion of three key members of the Bluegrass Album Band was not meant to be. Tony was with his family, mourning the death of his stepson in a motorcycle accident last week.

Eastman String Band at Gettysburg

Whenever the Eastman String Band plays at a festival, there are a few things you can depend on – Savannah Finch’s silky vocals, Tim Finch’s wacky humor and some hot picking. Beyond that, though, you never know what, or who, to expect on stage.

Sunday’s show at the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival was no exception. The band lives firmly in the alt-grass/new grass neighborhood, giving festival goers a dash of what they expect, along with a heaping serving of something else — sometimes all in one song.

That’s what happened in back-to-back songs during an hour-long set. First, the band launched into the old standby, Nine Pound Hammer. But after Tim’s vocal kickoff, the band quickly veered away from tradition. First, band regular John Miller and special guest Danny Knicely traded wicked guitar breaks. Then Demetrios Kakavas added a drum solo (!) before Nate Leath’s fine fiddling brought the song back home.

Any thoughts that the testing-the-envelope stuff was over were quickly put to rest when Savannah introduced the next song, Leaves Have Flown, as one in which “the hills of Appalachia meet the Isle of Crete, Greece.” What she originally envisioned as a conventional Old-Time song was transformed when Demetrios heard it and added a syncopated Greek rhythm called sirto. (Now there’s a word you don’t see every day on The Bluegrass Blog!). The song is one of the best on the CD, Tim and Savannah Finch with The Eastman String Band, but it has an even bigger kick performed live.

The drums fit this music perfectly, in part because Demetrios knows when to lay back and when to dig in, complementing the strong picking, not competing with it.

The Eastman Strings Co., for which Tim works as a rep, is a loyal member of the bluegrass community, donating instruments for fund-raising raffles and sponsoring events, such as the Kids Academy at the Gettysburg festival. So what if the band’s drums rattle the that-ain’t-bluegrass purists. Remember that Bill Monroe experimented with non-bluegrass instruments and now Doyle Lawson, who was also on the Gettysburg bill, is playing with a drummer.

It’s still great music. Those who wandered away from their chairs after Sunday’s set by the Seldom Scene, another band that offended many purists for being too folky in their early days, missed a lot of fun.

Thoughts on the 2011 IBMA Award nominations

After last year’s IBMA awards ceremony, I wrote that top honors in this year’s trophy chase would likely come down to the Boxcars and Dailey & Vincent. I was, alas, only partially right.

The Boxcars, the newest bluegrass super group, took home nine nominations Wednesday night, establishing themselves as the band to beat when the statues are given out next month in Nashville. So I got that part right.

But Dailey & Vincent showed up just three times in the nominations after a huge night at last year’s gala. So much for that part of the equation.

Instead, Russell Moore and IIIrd Tyme Out came in right behind the Boxcars, with eight nominations, and another seven went to Alison Krauss and Union Station. In the biggest surprise of the night, the Gibson Brothers followed with seven.

Russell and Alison picked up several of their nominations for collaborations, but every nomination claimed by the Boxcars and the Gibson Brothers were directly tied to their latest albums, the self-titled debut from the ‘Cars and Help My Brother from the Gibsons.

Just a month ago, when the two bands played back to back at the Out Among The Stars festival in Benton, Pa., I mentioned to some savvy music friends that the two bands would likely go head-to-head in several top categories at IBMA. It was, I was told more than once, folly to believe that because the Gibsons would never get the recognition they deserve because they aren’t Nashville insiders. Wonder what those folks think now?

It’s hard to say that with the nominations the Gibson Brothers have arrived, since they’ve been mainstays on the circuit for many years and took home trophies last year for song of the year and gospel recorded performance of the year for Ring the Bell. But right now, the Gibsons and the Boxcars are about the tightest bands on tour. They don’t have the flash of Dailey & Vincent but they can go toe to toe with anyone, and it’s good to see recognitions from the voters.

Both groups are finalists for entertainer of the year, album of the year and gospel recorded event of the year. The Gibson Brothers also picked up nods for vocal group of the year, male vocalist of the year and two selections for song of the year. Both brothers are great singers, but the nomination went to Leigh. Ron Stewart helped add three nominations to the Boxcars haul, writing the instrumental recorded performance of the year, Jumpin’ the Track and making the finals for both fiddle player and banjo player of the year. He also had a big hand in the band’s nomination for instrumental group of the year.

The two final nominations for the Boxcars don’t seem fair – Adam Steffey for mandolin player of the year and the band for emerging artist of the year. Steffey has won the mando award seven times. It should either be retired or named after him! And while the band clearly meets IBMA’s definition of an emerging artist, it somehow seems silly to have this team of bluegrass superstars in the mix for what is essentially, rookie of the year honors.

Overall, there were few surprises among the nominees. The usual suspects are largely present in the usual categories. Could I argue that Singing as We Rise from the Gibson Brothers should have made the Gospel list, or that Mike Mumford’s absence from the banjo nominees and the Boxcars’ Keith Garrett’s failure to make the male vocalist finals were disappointing? Certainly, but that’s a preference, not a criticism, and there isn’t anyone in any of those categories that I would displace.

Finally, I want to make two other points, one happy, one not.

First, congratulations to the newest members of the hall of fame, guitarist George Shuffler and vocalist extraordinaire Del McCoury. Both are deserving, and it’s great that both men are alive to enjoy the honor. Some day, Hazel Dickens’ name will be called in this category, too.

On a sad note, as Tony Rice was being nominated as guitar player of the year, he was spreading the word that his stepson died in a head-on motorcycle accident in North Carolina. Reading Tony’s poignant Facebook posting at the same time that others were touting their musical successes put a damper on the evening.

Jesse Brock’s big plans

Jesse Brock is ready to make the leap from sideman to band leader. While he’s working on a solo project, he’s also polishing plans to start not one but two bands focusing on bluegrass and acoustic music.

This fall, the mandolin master and others in his family will tour in The Brock Family Reunion Band. And next spring, he’ll hit the road with his own band, not yet named. His plan, when schedules allow, is to offer festival promoters a package deal.

“This will be my day job, trying to get two bands off the ground,” Jesse told me recently at FiddleFest in Roanoke. “This is new territory for me. I’ve been a sideman all my life.” Jesse most recently played with Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper, but he also put in stints with Dale Ann Bradley, the Lynn Morris Band and Chris Jones and the Night Drivers. The move to front man came after Jesse, guitarist Tom Adams and bassist Marshall Wilborn parted ways with Michael just after their new album was released this spring.

“When you find out you have no control over your future because of your position (as a sideman), it’s time for a change,” he said. “It’ll be a challenge, but I’m ready for it.”

The family band will be a reincarnation of the C.W. Brock Family Band, which had a strong following in the mid-west from 1984 to 1988. Jesse’s father, C.W., returns on banjo, along with sisters Molly Jo Brockington (guitar) and Dawn Brizendine (upright bass). Three-part harmonies will be featured, as they were in the earlier version of the band. One thing will be different. With the old band, everybody was under one roof, so getting together for practice was easy. Now, C.W. is in Kentucky, Dawn is in Tennessee, Molly is in Arkansas and Jesse lives in Maine.

Jesse’s own band is still in the embryonic stages. No names yet, but allow me a bit of wishful thinking: It sure would be great if Jesse and Marshall could reunite one of music’s strongest rhythm sections.

Both bands will also allow folks to learn what has until now been a well-kept secret. In addition to his strong instrumental chops, the 2009 IBMA mandolin player of the year is a strong singer. I witnessed this first hand at FiddleFest, when Jesse sat in with Conner & Miller and The Travelers. He sang powerful tenor harmonies on several songs and was comfortable taking the lead on several others.

Jesse has another gig lined up, too. He’s sitting in for Joe Walsh on several tour dates with the Gibson Brothers.

It’ll be good to see – and hear – Jesse Brock back in action.

A tribute to bluegrass heroes

On Friday night, while Vince Gill was playing a gig in the Washington D.C. suburbs for $110 a ticket, Norman Wright was finishing up a shift at his day job and doing some work on his son’s car before making a long, late-night trip down a lonely stretch of Interstate 81 so he could play a couple of sets and participate in an early morning workshop at FiddleFest in Roanoke, Va.

After his show, Gill was quoted in the Washington Post about why he stepped away from bluegrass when he was a young picker. “If I kept playing,” he said, “I would never own my own home.”

I didn’t see Vince’s show, but I’m sure it was good. I did see Norman’s two performances with The Travelers on Saturday, and I guarantee you he had more fun. During both shows, and in a between-shows rehearsal in a cramped dormitory room at Hollins University, a big smile never left Norman’s face. His love for the music was evident, as was his talent. The former member of the Bluegrass Cardinals and the Country Gentlemen is clearly thrilled to have another chance. You may not know about The Travelers, who are working on a CD that should come out later this year, but you will.

Bluegrass fans are fortunate that the Norman Wrights vastly outnumber the Vince Gills. We owe a debt of gratitude to those who play – and play exceptionally well – more for the love of the music than for the money.

The list of these folks is endless, but I want to mention a few special examples. Claire Lynch, one of the top two or three female vocalists in bluegrass, once turned down a gig with a major talent because she was nursing one of her children at the time, and she took a break from the road for several years because she decided her children were more important than her career. Claire never complains about any of this. She goes out with a great band and, show after show, plays and sings as well as anyone. That’s what a professional does, regardless of the size of the paycheck – or the crowd.

This was driven home to me in early 2010, when I saw Missy Raines and the New Hip play a gig near Columbus, Ohio, for the gate. After the band arrived, a heavy fog rolled in. The band ended up playing for six paying customers, which had to be dispiriting. But it remains one of the best shows I have seen.

The same thing happened a few months ago in Washington, D.C. Mike Conner and John Miller, half of The Travelers, booked a gate gig at a small venue, but before the show date rolled around, the promoter quit. The performance was, unintentionally, a well-kept secret. For about the first hour, my wife and I were the entire paying audience. No matter. They played their hearts out.

It’s a rough business for songwriters, too. Some of the very best write at nights and weekends while working a day job to pay the bills and provide benefits. With many bands printing just 1,000 or 2,000 CDs, and a royalty rate of just over 9 cents per unit, the cost of making a demo and registering a copyright can quickly eat up most of the “profit.”

But don’t feel sorry for those who will never amass a fortune. Be glad they do what they do, support them when and how you can. Buy their music, of course. But even a simple thank you can go a long way.

Saturday at FiddleFest, after a show in 90+-degree heat left the players looking like they showered with their clothes on, one fan stopped by The Travelers table with ice cream. That gesture left everybody smiling.

Dale Ann Bradley’s formula for success

Meet Dale Ann Bradley for the first time and five minutes later you feel like she’s an old friend. Somewhere South of Crazy, her upcoming release on Compass Records, delivers the same result. From the opening notes of Stuart Duncan’s fiddle on the title cut, the solid playing and Dale Ann’s tender singing envelop you like a comfortable old sweater.

Dale Ann has worked out a formula for strong recordings over the years, and she follows it here for another classy effort. There’s an all-star cast of musicians – Duncan, Sierra Hull on mandolin, Steve Gulley on guitar and harmony vocals, Mike Bub on bass, Andy Hall on Dobro, and Alison Brown on banjo (plus Pam Tillis harmonizing with Dale Ann on the title track, which they co-wrote). There is a grassified pop song; this time, it’s Seals and Crofts’ Summer Breeze. There are a handful of songs that Dale Ann wrote or co-wrote. And there is, of course, the voice. Strong and sweet at the same time, taking the listener through a roller-coaster of emotions over 42 minutes of music.

Somewhere South of Crazy, Leaving Kentucky, Will You Visit Me On Sundays, and a live solo performance of Old Southern Porches are among the best cuts on the album. But my favorite is Round and Round, which Dale Ann wrote a few years back. I first heard this song last summer, when Dale Ann and Chris Harris, who then played mandolin in her band, did it at a songwriting workshop at the Out Among the Stars festival in Benton, PA. I didn’t hear it again until last weekend, when Dale Ann sang it at FiddleFest in Roanoke, but it stuck in my head that whole time. It’s a killer song, written straight from the heart about life on the road and the difficulties of maintaining a relationship when you always have to leave. It’s a common refrain for musicians, but Dale Ann makes the topic fresh – and heartbreaking.

I do have one complaint, admittedly a small one. Listening to Round and Round and two co-writes on this project, leaves me wishing Dale Ann spent more time writing. When she finds the time, she delivers.

Paul Williams shares a secret

Sooner or later, just about everyone who hears Paul Williams sing wants to know the secret behind that clear-as-a-bell and oh-so-sweet high tenor. So here it is:

Potato chips. Just two or three before he goes on stage and he’s ready to go, he told two dozen folks at a vocal workshop over the weekend at FiddleFest in Roanoke. It’s the salt, which helps the saliva flow, which lubricates the vocal cords.

So now that every bluegrass singer in America is going to add potato chips to his or her diet, let me say a bit more about Paul Williams. It’s hard to believe anyone can sound as good after nearly 60 years of touring as Paul did at Roanoke, where some lucky folks got to hear him on eight occasions over the two-day event. There were two hour-long outdoor shows with temperatures topping 90 degrees, two shorter indoor shows, two vocal workshops and two extended jams in a Hollins University dorm with other artists. (In fact, I think it’s fair to say no other artist worked harder than Paul at FiddleFest, except maybe Mike Conner, who played four sets, taught two bass workshops, played in one of the jams AND organized the festival.)

To me the most amazing thing isn’t that Paul’s voice sounds so good after all those years of traveling with the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers and being one of Jimmy Martin’s Sunny Mountain Boys (and Jimmy’s brother-in-law, as well) before his storied career in bluegrass gospel. It’s that he has done it so well for so long while suffering with chronic bronchitis.

Much of the material Paul and his band played in Roanoke is from his new release, Satisfied, on the Rebel Records label. Backed by Dan Moneyhun and Adam Winstead on vocals, Paul uses the album and his frequent personal appearances to continue what he sees as a musical ministry. He makes no bones about the fact that he is spreading the word of God, no matter the setting. “I don’t live in a pretense world,” he said. “I am what I am, wherever I’m at.”

The new project is vintage Paul Williams – a strong title cut, several songs with just the three voices and varied, nuanced melodies that keep every song sounding fresh despite the single topic.

After seeing how hard he worked at an age where he couldn’t be faulted for slowing down, I appreciate Paul even more than before. If Jimmy Martin was, as they say, the Super King of Bluegrass, then I suggest it’s fair to call Paul Williams the Crown Prince of Bluegrass Gospel.

Photos in this post are courtesy of Jenny Slaughter. You can see more of her images from FiddleFest on Facebook.

Kenny Baker – A Retrospective

Bill Monroe played with some fine fiddlers over the decades – Chubby Wise, Vassar Clements and Bobby Hicks, for starters. But for his 1972 tribute to Pendleton Vandiver, there was only one real choice to play the fiddle tunes that the father of bluegrass learned from his beloved Uncle Pen – Kenny Baker.

Tributes to Kenny after his death last week from complications of a stroke flowed faster than a mountain stream after three days of rain. But the highest compliment was paid years ago by his former boss, who recalled, “There’s never been a better one.”

Being a sideman to Bill Monroe was never easy. The rule, or so it seems from countless players who passed through the Blue Grass Boys, was his way or the highway. That must have been an especially bitter pill to swallow for someone with Kenny’s talents, and he did leave – frequently. It wasn’t always about the domineering boss. Sometimes, Kenny just needed to make money so he returned to the mines or worked his farm. But Kenny couldn’t do without the music. And Bill, in turn, couldn’t be without the talent.

“Kenny Baker was the most identifiable sound in Bill Monroe’s band, other than perhaps Bill Monroe, himself,” says guitarist Jim Hurst, who played twice with Monroe, including once as a 7-year-old who had to stand on a chair to play bass for the master.

His dad was a fiddler, too, but music was not Kenny’s initial career choice. First he worked in the Kentucky coal mines, then served a tour in the Navy. His first lasting gig was with Don Gibson, replacing Marion Sumner in the western swing band.

Then fate played its hand. One night in 1957, when the Blue Grass Boys and Gibson’s band shared a bill, Monroe hired Kenny. They were together, off and on, for 25 years. By the time he left the band — for good — in 1984, Kenny Baker had changed bluegrass fiddling – also for good. His long bow strokes and note choices sometimes had an almost jazzy feel that would be right at home in some of today’s edgier bands. Kenny would chuckle at that comparison. After all, he once defined bluegrass as “nothing but a hillbilly version of jazz.”

While much of the attention after Kenny’s death focused on his ties to the most famous name in bluegrass, he leaves a weighty discography of his own. His 13 albums include Portrait of a Bluegrass Fiddler (1969), Baker’s Dozen (1970), Frost on the Pumpkin (1976) and Spider Bit the Baby (2002).

There were also some terrific collaborations, including Dry and Dusty (1973) with Alan Murphy and Bob Black, and his stint with The Masters, a bluegrass supergroup that also featured Josh Graves, Eddie Adcock and Jesse McReynolds.

But for his most enduring work, turn no further than his most enduring gig. Uncle Pen and Wheel Hoss were recorded by the Blue Grass Boys before Kenny joined the band. But it’s well worth the time to find versions featuring Kenny on the fiddle. His are the definitive versions of two the bands best songs, and many others, too.

Kenny Baker didn’t write the songs, but he wrote the book on bluegrass fiddling. Give him a fresh listen, in the context of the era, and hear an artist far ahead of his time. And the next time hear Patrick McAvinue or some other young fiddle whiz, tip your hat to Kenny Baker, who showed the way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RSg0OEkfyI

A friendly Battle of the Bands

The Boxcars and the Gibson Brothers have been crossing paths a lot lately, and not just on the festival circuit. Their current albums, the self-titled debut by the Boxcars and the Gibsons’ Help My Brother, have spent time at the top of the Bluegrass Unlimited national survey, with Eric and Leigh Gibson owning the top spot for the second straight month and the Boxcars holding down second again. The two bands combined also claim five of the top 23 slots on the song chart, with Help My Brother at Number One.

On Saturday, at the Out Among the Stars festival in Benton, Pa., the bands were seemingly inseparable. They played back-to-back sets in the evening, dined together at the Grillbillies tent and, when things slowed at the merchandise tables, Leigh pulled up a chair next to Boxcars mandolin master Adam Steffey and had a laugh-filled chat.

As I watched it all unfold and listened to two strong sets from each band, I couldn’t help thinking that they’d be crossing paths again this fall, at the IBMA awards show in Nashville. Both bands should be on the stage several times, both for group recognition and individual honors. In my book, in fact, Help My Brother and The Boxcars are the top contenders for album of the year. (It helps each band that Alison Krauss and Union Station’s Paper Airplane came out too late to be eligible this year.)

While it’s a little too early to make a final selection, I’ve seen both bands three or four times recently and have reached several conclusions. It’s all subjective, of course; your mileage may vary. Feel free to add your two cents in the comments.

For starters, there are no tighter harmonies in bluegrass today than when Eric and Leigh sing together. And they’re nearly as tight on stage as they are in the studio. Eric should get some support for male vocalist of the year and one year after Ring the Bell won song of the year and gospel song of the year, Singing As We Rise is a strong gospel contender and Help My Brother should be a finalist for song of the year. For my money, though, the writing, singing and musicianship of story songs are what put this album near the top. Leigh’s Safe Passage and Eric’s Dixie are both sublime examples of the subset. Joe Walsh (mandolin) and Mike Barber (bass) are worthy of individual recognition, too, although both face crowded fields of monster talent.

The Boxcars counter with an all-star lineup. In addition to Adam, who has won the mandolin statue so many times it should be named in his honor, the band features one of the best male vocalists on the circuit, Keith Garrett. It will be tough to displace Russell Moore, but if voters are paying attention, Keith should have a shot. He’s also a strong writer. His December 13th will get a lot of attention for song of the year.

But the real weapon in this supergroup stands to Adam’s right on stage. Ron Stewart could win for both banjo and fiddle. His playing is never over the top, adding just the right seasoning to each song. His mastery of the fiddle was evident in back-to-back songs in the band’s first set Saturday. First, he and Adam played heartbreakingly tender licks behind John Bowman’s poignant vocals on In God’s Hands. Then, on Whistling Rufus, Ron let it rip. And his banjo playing? Eric Gibson, who knows a thing or two about playing the five-string, told the crowd, “Ronnie Stewart makes me want to throw my banjo away.”

Both bands are at the top of their game right now. Catch them if you can, and be prepared to be wowed. And watch for them both on stage at IBMA this fall.