John Curtis Goad, Author at Bluegrass Today

Calm Before the Storm – Delta Reign

Bluegrass musicians have always been known for drawing from other musical styles, particularly in the past several decades. Alabama-based band Delta Reign is no different, starting with a bluegrass standard – three-finger banjo – and building around it, adding swing, jazz, and blues influences. Rarely do the songs on their new album, Calm Before the Storm, sound like traditional bluegrass, but for open-minded listeners, that shouldn’t be a problem. Delta Reign has combined a unique take on bluegrass music with great instrumentation and a wide variety of well-written songs.

Calm Before the Storm is a twelve-track collection which draws from several country and bluegrass legends. The album kicks off with a western swing version of the Hank Williams tune There’ll Be No Teardrops Tonight. This song has a great rhythm and some fine fiddling from band member George Mason. The band infuses the Flatt and Scruggs classic A Hundred Years from Now with a jazzy, western swing sound and gives the traditional Don’t You Hear Jerusalem Moan a bluesy arrangement that sounds straight out of the Mississippi delta. The song which seems to be most faithful to previous renditions is Good Woman’s Love, sung in a calm, smooth tenor by Mason.

Among the album’s standout tracks is Columbus Stockade Blues, which, although it tells of a person who is not only in jail but has also just lost their true love, is a toe-tapping number which is just fun to listen to and includes a great bass solo. Another interesting tune is Don’t You Know, one of the most bluegrass-sounding tracks on the album. It speaks of a woman who has been in love with someone from afar but hasn’t quite gotten up enough courage to make a move.

Two original tunes with a nice bluegrass flair by lead vocalist Benita Murphy round out the album. Red Dirt Dreams reminisces on the simpler times of a rural childhood, while the story of someone preparing for a hurricane in Last Southbound Train will surely be familiar to coastal residents. Both songs feature some nice picking from banjo player Pat Murphy.

Delta Reign describes themselves as “delta bluegrass,” and that is a great representation of the music on this album. Benita Murphy (guitar), Pat Murphy (banjo), George Mason (fiddle), and Joshua Faul (bass) have created an enjoyable, distinctive mix of genres from the southern United States.

For more information on the band, visit their website at www.deltareign.com.

Calm Before the Storm can be purchased from their website and a variety of digital music stores.

Calling Me Home – Kathy Mattea

Traditional musicians, particularly folk artists, have long been known for their tendency to write and record songs of protest. Most musicians today are not quite as outspoken and often choose to celebrate the things that make America great, rather than speak out against the things which they may see as problems. One current traditional musician who is using her talents to subtly voice her opinion on current issues is Kathy Mattea, who has recently released a new album, Calling Me Home, on Sugar Hill Records.

Mattea is probably best known to most country music fans from her chart-topping success in the late 1980s and early 1990s with such songs as Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses. However, in recent years she has returned to her West Virginia roots, performing music which is a mixture of folk, bluegrass, and old-time and speaks of a social issue which is close to her heart: coal mining. With the release of Coal, a collection of mining-related songs, in 2008, Mattea proved that she loves the mountains she was raised in and the people who live there. Around the same time, she also began presenting “My Coal Journey,” which combines a discussion of environmental activism with the story of her research for the Coal album. She has continued in that vein with her latest release, a collection of twelve songs displaying her need to speak out about environmental issues and her love of the mountains.

The songs Mattea chose to include on Calling Me Home are not specifically protest songs. They are songs about life in the country, but not the pickup trucks and cut-off jeans of most modern country songs. Instead, these songs show both the positives and negatives of modern progress which residents of Appalachia struggle with each day. One song which sums this up this is Hello, My Name is Coal, written by Larry Cordle and Jenee Fleenor (and also included on Cordle’s most recent album, Pud Marcum’s Hangin). It captures how coal is both “a scoundrel and a saint” to the people of the mountains – how it creates jobs for many, but is dangerous work that many do for very little pay.

Jean Ritchie’s composition Black Water speaks of the destruction which can come from surface mining, including strong lyrics contrasting nature before and after the mining. Two mournful tunes by Laurie Lewis (The Maple’s Lament and The Wood Thrush’s Song) also deal with the destruction of the environment when progress arrives. West Virginia Mine Disaster (also written by Ritchie) depicts the pain felt by a woman whose husband may have been killed when a mine flooded.

Other songs focus on the traditional bluegrass theme of the need to go home. Hazel Dickens’s West Virginia, My Home is a touching song about someone who regrets trading in the country for a life in the city, while the album’s opening track, A Far Cry, is filled with guilt over the true love the singer left behind her in Virginia.

Mattea has assembled an all-star group of musicians to help her on this recording, including Bryan Sutton, Stuart Duncan, Jon Randall Stewart, Patty Loveless, Randy Kohrs, and Emmylou Harris, just to name a few. Many of the songs are stripped down arrangements, suiting their somber lyrics. Overall, the collection has a folk feel, with a few tunes, such as A Far Cry featuring more of a bluegrass style. Mattea’s vocals are calm but capture the emotions of these songs perfectly, from anger to sadness to despair.

For more information on Mattea, her music, and her speaking engagements, visit her website at www.mattea.com.

Calling Me Home can be purchased from her website, as well as iTunes and Amazon.

Cold as Steel – Geoff Union

For a musician living in Texas, Geoff Union certainly spans the country in his newest release, Cold as Steel. This Austin-based guitarist and vocalist sings about North Carolina, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Colorado and yes, Texas, on his first solo project, out now from Shining Castle Music. Union has created an album full of original material that is sure to catch the ear of fans of modern bluegrass and acoustic music.

The eight tracks on this album are energetic, capturing the listener’s attention from the very first song. While the lyrics are sometimes vague (perhaps intentionally), the songs include vivid images. Union (and his cowriter on two tunes, Jim Harris) tell stories but don’t give away every detail. The fast-paced opener, Devil’s Card, engages listeners with the story of a man with a gun who’s up to no good. Water in the Well offers a take on the idea that the grass is always greener on the other side, in which the singer is setting off from Texas for new opportunities elsewhere. Even though he doesn’t know exactly what might be waiting for him, he still knows that “whichever way you’re headed, there’s water in the well.”

One of the album’s standout songs is the title track. Union wrote Cold as Steel about his grandfather, who worked for Bethlehem Steel and whose quick mind allowed him to use a flood to help him steal machinery and start a new life in North Carolina. Even though Union’s grandfather’s story probably isn’t well-known outside of his family, it’s just unusual enough to be compelling.

Two other songs also cover somewhat historical topics, also with an illegal twist. Spirit of ’94 is a traditional-sounding tune about the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 in western Pennsylvania, when farmers created an uprising against a new whiskey tax. Lewis Redmond has a Celtic flair and tells the story of a legendary moonshiner from western North Carolina. These two songs are both interesting, but may be somewhat confusing to listeners who are not familiar with the stories behind them.

Union has also composed two instrumentals for the album: the jazzy, swingy, David Grisman-influenced Half Past Zero and the much more traditional Fannie at the Front Door. These two songs, along with the rest of the music on the album, are performed well by obviously experienced musicians. Union’s Tony Rice-inspired guitar picking is joined by Billy Bright (mandolin and mandola), Steven Crow (bass), Dom Fisher (bass), Mark Maniscalco (banjo), and Ricky Turpin (fiddle). Union’s wife Christina also contributes harmony vocals throughout the album.

For more information about Geoff Union and his new album, visit his website at www.geoffunion.com.

Cold as Steel can be purchased from CDBaby and Union’s website or downloaded from iTunes and Amazon.

Straight from Bluegrass Hill – Rockford Express

For most bluegrass musicians, jamming is an essential part of life. Pickers get together once or twice a week and simply enjoy being able to play music with friends. However, some jammers take their casual love of bluegrass music a little farther. Just a few years ago, the members of Rockford Express, a new band out of Yadkinville, NC, were just a group of guys who met up to jam each week. With the recent release of their debut album, Straight for Bluegrass Hill, Rockford Express is set to begin making their name as a full-fledged band.

Rockford Express offers up eleven tracks, including three originals by guitarist Joey Hall and an interesting variety of classic tunes. With a nice modern traditional sound, following in the footsteps of such bands as IIIrd Tyme Out and Blue Highway, it’s apparent that Rockford Express knows their bluegrass.

Straight from Bluegrass Hill includes a number of older bluegrass songs which many fans of traditional bluegrass will be familiar with. Their driving, mid-tempo version of Little Maggie doesn’t have the haunting sound of the original Stanley Brothers recording, but is still filled with pain and lonesomeness and features some enjoyable instrumental solos. There’s also a version of Scotty Wiseman’s composition Brown Mountain Lights, a song which gives an explanation for the mysterious floating “ghost lights” which many have seen on Brown Mountain in North Carolina. This tune has an old-time feel and great high harmonies, and also features some fine fiddling from band member Rick Lowe.

Two of the album’s standout tracks are also older songs, one a popular public domain tune which has been recorded by many artists over the years and the other a slightly lesser-known Gospel song. Rockford Express provides a strong, banjo-heavy rendering of John Henry Blues and channels Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver for a spot-on performance of the original Quicksilver lineup’s On the Sea of Life, including nice four-part harmony.

That isn’t the only Gospel track included on the album. In fact, Rockford Express features five Gospel songs total, including the album’s three original songs (album opener On Your Way, Drivin’ Nails, and The River) which are solid bluegrass with a Gospel message. Drivin’ Nails makes a nice connection between the popular bluegrass theme of hard work with a hammer and nails and the hammer that nailed Jesus to the cross. A stripped-down version of the hymn Precious Lord is sung with feeling and is another nice addition to the record.

With their debut album, Rockford Express proves they know the meaning of “drive.” Each of the musicians (Joey Hall on guitar, Andy Lowe on banjo, Randy Willard on mandolin, Tim Parks on bass, and Rick Lowe on fiddle) seems to give their all and enjoy every minute of it. Fans of traditional bluegrass will surely enjoy this new North Carolina band.

For more information on Rockford Express, check out their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/RockfordExpress.

Last Train From Poor Valley – Richard Bennett

Straight-ahead bluegrassers may recall Richard Bennett’s Tony Rice-like work from his years spent with J.D. Crowe and the New South, where he was featured on the stellar Flashback record. Now, having recorded three solo projects with Rebel Records and performed with the likes of Mike Auldridge and Jimmy Gaudreau over the past few years, Richard Bennett is back at it again, armed with a first-rate list of guest musicians including Rickie Simpkins, Harold Nixon, Danny Barnes, Shayne Bartley, Ron Stewart, Joe Sharp, and J.D. Crowe.

Last Train From Poor Valley, Bennett’s latest effort for Lonesome Day Records, features songs from a widespread group of sources, pulling from the catalogs of artists such as Merle Haggard, Gordon Lightfoot, and John Hartford (just to name a few). The twelve song collection makes for a great representation of this artist’s talents in writing and performing. From straight ahead “1-4-5 drive” tunes like the fan favorites Handsome Molly and Wrong Road Again (which feature the immediately recognizable banjo work of J.D. Crowe) to jazz influenced pieces, this album seems to have something for everyone. In fact, his light and airy arrangement of the classic tune Tennessee Waltz is one of the best I’ve heard in quite some time.

Other standout tracks include the album’s opening number, Haggard’s immediately recognizable Workin’ Man’s Blues, and an obviously Rice-influenced version of Ray Charles’ hit Georgia on My Mind. The record’s title track, Last Train from Poor Valley, is tight and subtly arranged to display wonderful trading back and forth between fiddle and guitar parts. Bennett’s incredible guitar work also shines on his two self-penned instrumentals Roan Mountain Rag and From The Top.

Be careful though, and don’t just eject this disc when the twelfth track fades out – there’s a great surprise on the end. A bonus track performed in what Bennett calls “Head On Style” appears just before the album comes to a close. There’s just one problem, though. To replay the track, you have to rewind it instead of just skipping right to it to hear it again. In other words, make sure and check out Leaving’s Heavy on My Mind.

More information on Richard Bennett’s latest release can be found by contacting Lonesome Day Records at www.lonesomeday.com.

The CD is also available for purchase from iTunes and Amazon.

American Drive

The newly formed band American Drive may currently be best known for being the most recent version of the “New South” portion of J.D. Crowe and the New South, but don’t let the fact that their fearless leader is retiring stop you from checking out their new self-titled album. With strong vocals, excellent picking, and some great new songs mixed with old classics, American Drive proves that this band is here to stay.

The album kicks off with the driving first single, Long Haul Trucking Man. Written by Dwight McCall (who also provides lead vocals on the track), this tune provides a vivid picture of the life of a truck driver. Another band original comes from Rickey Wasson, who contributes the thoughtful War is Hell (co-written with Bill Castle). Wasson’s rich vocals help tell the story of a man who couldn’t leave the pain of war behind on the battlefield. A new tune from outside the band comes from southeastern Kentucky musician and songwriter Ronnie Wayne Gabbard. His touching, country-influenced Gospel song From Where I Stand is a great addition to the album.

American Drive also features a few revamped classic tunes from both the country and bluegrass genres. The band covers the 1977 Don Williams number one Some Broken Hearts Never Mend. While Wasson’s vocals sound quite similar to Williams’s, American Drive gives the song a slightly more modern and upbeat feel. They also include a catchy version of the bluegrass standard Gotta Travel On, and give a contemporary bluegrass treatment to the old Hank Snow tune Nobody’s Child.

One of the album’s standout tracks is Son of a Miner, written by Brink Brinkman and sung by resonator guitarist Matt DeSpain. The lyrics of the song will surely be familiar to anyone who has worked in the mines or known someone who did, especially the line “when you’re born in east Kentucky, that’s just something that you do.” Willow Creek Dam, written by the renowned songwriting pair of Pete Goble and Leroy Drumm, is another track not to miss. Its bitter lyrics share the downside of progress when a man’s childhood home is taken away by the damming of a river.

American Drive’s sound stays true to their roots in the New South, featuring Crowe-inspired banjo picking by Grasstowne’s Justin Jenkins, and the mixture of traditional and contemporary-sounding bluegrass which band members DeSpain (resonator guitar), McCall (mandolin), Wasson (guitar), and Kyle Perkins (bass) have become known for. As is to be expected, the musicianship and vocals on the album are outstanding.

While American Drive made their official debut at the IBMA World of Bluegrass on September 26, they will not officially begin touring until J.D. Crowe’s retirement is official in 2013, with a tentative first show at the Station Inn during the SPBGMA convention in late January.

Their album can be purchased from the band’s website at www.americandriveband.com or downloaded from iTunes.

High on a Mountain – Compost Mountain Boys

Many of today’s bluegrass bands have somewhat unusual names. Previous Bluegrass Today columns by Chris Jones have even discussed this phenomenon, suggesting that bands sometime simply open the refrigerator to find inspiration for their band name. However, other bands use their name to reflect the sound they hope to present.

One such group is the Compost Mountain Boys. While at first glance their name seems somewhat humorous, the band actually represents the word compost, meaning “a mixture,” quite well. On their second album, High on a Mountain, this Humboldt County, California-based band combines traditional and progressive-sounding bluegrass to create an interesting record with a 1960s feel.

On High on a Mountain, the Compost Mountain Boys include tunes from several first generation groups as well as songs with a more modern influence. Along with a smooth, peaceful-sounding version of the Stanley Brothers tune Who Will Sing for Me, is an instrumental version of the Bill Monroe song Put My Little Shoes Away. This mid-tempo piece is an interesting choice for an instrumental, since the original has such vivid lyrics.

The band seems very influenced by progressive bands from the 1960s, particularly fellow California-based group The Dillards. The Compost Mountain Boys even include two popular Dillards songs on this album: Dooley and Old Man at the Mill. Both songs sound faithful to the originals, particularly Old Man at the Mill with its old-time feel. The Compost Mountain Boys have offered their own twist on Dooley, however, changing the song from the story of a moonshiner to that of a man whose fields hold something a little more illegal than cotton and rye.

Also included on the album are a lively version of The Fox, written by Burl Ives and made popular in the bluegrass world by Nickel Creek, and the dark, banjo-driven murder song Blackbirds and Crows, in which a man kills his wife before she can leave him. The instrumental Ook-Pic is one of the album’s standout tracks, starting out as a delicate mandolin piece before eventually speeding up and introducing strong banjo and guitar solos.

While most Bluegrass Today readers may be unfamiliar with the Compost Mountain Boys, this West Coast group, consisting of band members Bruce Johnson (bass), Tim Wilson (banjo), Mike Manetas (mandolin), and Marty Dodd (guitar), along with special guest Tashina Clarridge on fiddle, may be worth listening to for open-minded individuals seeking unique songs and sounds.

For more information on this group, visit their website at www.compostmountain.com.

High on a Hilltop – The Welfare Liners

Athens, Georgia has long been known for its diverse music scene. From pop and rock bands like the B-52s and R.E.M. to alt-country group the Drive-By Truckers, Athens has been the home base for multiple popular artists throughout the past several decades. One of the newest bands to form there is bluegrass group The Welfare Liners, a traditionally influenced band which has just released its first album, High on a Hilltop.

The Welfare Liners, which formed in 2010, first gained a regional following playing old standards by Bill Monroe, Jim and Jesse, Flatt and Scruggs, and other first generation groups. With their new release on Ghostmeat Records, they have taken the skills they honed learning those tunes and created a 14-track album full of original compositions based in the sounds of early bluegrass. With songs speaking of murder, love, and lonesomeness, the band’s high harmonies and energetic singing and picking make High on a Hilltop a fun and entertaining album for fans of bluegrass and old time music.

Like many bluegrass songs, several of the tunes on this album share tales of unfaithful lovers. Boulevard offers the interesting story of a man whose wife heads off to town with a silver dagger when she finds out he has another woman. In Darker Than the Night, it’s the singer who’s been done wrong when he starts putting together the clues that the girl he loves is simply playing with his affection. Dust Broom Blues features another cheating woman, whose unfaithfulness takes her husband from pushing a broom in a sawmill to pushing one in jail.

The band does take a break from the murder and cheating for a few sweet love songs. I’ll Be Standing By is the cheerful-sounding tale of a man who is home waiting for his woman to return from fighting overseas. The album’s title track is another tender tune, in which the singer is “high on a hilltop,” far away from any worries or cares, whenever he’s with the one he loves.

Even though many of the songs have a dark feel, the majority of the tracks on this album and upbeat and catchy, with tight, brother-style harmonies and a strong bass and banjo background. The band shows off their skills on their respective instruments throughout the album, including traditional-sounding fiddling and several Monroe influenced mandolin breaks. The album’s closing track, The Welfare Express (headin’ down the line) is one of the most interesting sounding, with a bass, banjo and dobro intro which mimics the sound of a train.

The Welfare Liners represent their musical hometown well. Band members Rob Keller (vocals and bass fiddle), Wayne Wilson (vocals, banjo, and guitar), Russ Hallauer (mandolin and guitar), Mark Cunningham (guitar), and Adam Poulin (fiddle and guitar), as well as special guest William Tonks (dobro) have come together to create an album which grabs the listener’s attention from the first track.

For more information on The Welfare Liners, visit their website at thewelfareliners.com.

High on a Hilltop can be purchased from their website, iTunes, and other digital music stores.

Chronology, Volume 2 – Lonesome River Band

Currently in their thirtieth performing year, the Lonesome River Band has maintained their own sound even while having endured many member changes. With the release of their second of three Chronology albums, which feature both new material and re-recorded standards from their repertoire, the current lineup of the Lonesome River Band has provided fans with a look into LRB’s past as well as its future.

Chronology, Volume 2 features eight songs – seven drawn from previous albums and one new track, the lead single Barely Beat the Daylight In, which was written by guitarist Brandon Rickman. For this record, the band found their inspiration in the albums Old Country Town, One Step Forward, Finding The Way, and Talkin’ to Myself, all released in the band’s second decade.

Rickman and mandolinist Randy Jones share vocal duties, with each taking the lead on four tracks. The songs stay faithful to the original recordings for the most part, filled with the Lonesome River Band’s signature mix of contemporary and traditional bluegrass. The album has a nice balance between slower songs like the modern-day murder ballad Perfume, Powder, and Lead (with strong, matter-of-fact lead vocals from Rickman) and more upbeat tunes such as Sweet Sally Brown. Barely Beat the Daylight In, the cheerful tale of a man who hates saying goodbye at the end of the night, is a nice addition to the album, with a sound that could have come from a classic 1990s LRB record.

True to form, the instrumentation on this album is excellent. The energy behind each song is evident. Sammy Shelor’s banjo is a solid presence behind the songs, but he also lets loose on a few tunes, such as the driving Ralph Stanley and Curly Ray Cline composition Dog Gone Shame. Band members Rickman, Jones, Shelor, Mike Hartgrove (fiddle), and Barry Reed (bass) have not only studied the techniques of band members who came before them, but are extremely talented musicians in their own right and have put their own stamp on the older tunes.

The songs recorded on this album are tunes which a large portion of the newest generation of bluegrassers have grown up hearing and imitating. This example is perhaps best shown through LRB’s bus driver, Kevin Love. In a recent interview, he explained how fortunate he felt having the opportunity to work with his childhood heroes. With the Chronology trio of album, the Lonesome River Band proves that they are modern legends.

For more information on the band, please visit their website at lonesomeriverband.com.

Chronology, Volume 2 can be purchased from the website, Amazon, iTunes, and other music outlets, while Volume 3 is now available for pre-sale on LRB’s website.

Special Bluegrass Correspondent report #3

Here’s the final IBMA 2012 report from our Special Bluegrass Correspondent, John Goad. He picks up where he left off, at the conclusion of the Awards Show, and carries us through the rest of his week, all the way back home to East Tennessee.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sr5TkHkA9U

You can see all of our 2012 World of Bluegrass and Fan Fest coverage by following this link.