John Curtis Goad, Author at Bluegrass Today

Bein’ Country – Acoustic Blue

From their song selection and sound to the vinyl record design of their latest CD, Bein’ Country, New England-based band Acoustic Blue is firmly rooted in the traditions of the early decades of bluegrass and country music. On this album, their fifth, the band takes a number of classic country tunes from the 1950s and ’60s, adds driving banjo and bass, and lays on a traditional bluegrass spin.

While a few of the songs on Bein’ Country are covers of older bluegrass songs, such as the instrumental Struttin’ to Ferrum and the Larry Sparks track City Folks Call Us Poor, the majority were originally country recordings. Acoustic Blue has slightly reworked each song, creating an interesting album full of solid tunes and musicianship.

Several of the album’s thirteen songs keep with the theme reflected in the album’s title of “bein’ country.” Forty Miles From Poplar Bluff, previously recorded by Porter Wagoner, speaks of growing up far away from town with a simpler way of life. A similar story is shared in City Folks Call Us Poor. The title track, and the album’s only original (written by lead vocalist Corey Zink), reflects on lessons learned from the singer’s father over the years.

Other songs offer stories of love and heartbreak. From There She Goes (made popular by Ernest Tubb), in which the singer regrets letting his true love slip away, to an uptempo version of Hank Snow’s train song, I’m Movin’ On (which features a great solo by bassist Ray Evans, Jr.), to a spot-on version of George Jones’ I Always Get Lucky With You, featuring fiddle from Mike Hartgrove, Acoustic Blue has both affection and lonesomeness covered.

Bein’ Country is tied together by Zink’s smooth, country-flavored baritone vocal, which sounds just as much at home with a driving bluegrass tune as it does a tear-filled country weeper. The band’s musicianship is equally comfortable with both varieties of songs. Zink (mandolin), Shaun Batho (guitar), Larry Neu (banjo), and Evans (bass) combine to create a tight, cohesive sound. They are also joined on various tracks by Sammy Shelor, Gena Britt, and Mike Hartgrove. Shelor also produced the album at Mountain Fever Studio in Willis, Virginia.

For more information on Acoustic Blue, please visit their website at www.acousticblueonline.com. Their albums can be purchased from their website as well as CDBaby and iTunes.

More on upcoming County Clare CD

Recently, we reported that Alabama-based band Shannon and Heather Slaughter and County Clare would soon be heading into the studio to begin working on a new album. This past Friday evening (July 6), while performing at Bluegrass on Broad in Kingsport, TN (an outdoor, downtown weekly summer concert series featuring both national and local acts), the band treated their audience to two excellent sets, previewing several tracks from the upcoming album.

In addition to the new songs, the band performed several hits and fan favorites from Shannon and Heather’s solo albums such as The Working Man, I’ll Ramble On, and Those Memories, as well as some great bluegrass standards and country covers, like One Tear and Ramblin’ Fever. They were also joined by guitarist and longtime Clinch Mountain Boy James Alan Shelton for a lively rendition of Soldier’s Joy.

After the show, I was able to speak with Shannon about the new project. The group will be working with Wesley Easter and later recording vocals with Randy Kohrs. The album will consist of mostly originals, including one tune featuring Heather on lead vocals which he stated, “would bring a tear to a glass eye.” Another track to look for is a soulful version of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash’s If I Were A Carpenter, with Heather and Shannon sharing vocal duties.

This should be an exciting week for County Clare fans with the band recording in Galax, VA. Tracking began yesterday, July 7.

Fans can expect the album in Spring 2013, if not sooner.

Nightflyer’s self-titled debut

It is very seldom that a group of accomplished musicians like the ones that make up the new southwestern Ohio band Nightflyer form a new group. However, with the issue of their brand new self-titled release on Kang Records, there’s definitely going to be a new group to look for traveling the bluegrass festival circuit. The combination of Tony Kakaris (bass), Rick Hayes (mandolin), Ronnie Stewart (banjo), Tim Jackson (dobro), and Richard Propps (guitar) is sure to make an impression on the bluegrass world.

From straight-ahead bluegrass versions of popular country tunes, like Dierks Bentley’s Got a Lot of Leavin’ Left To Do, to banjo-driven numbers like Larry Sparks’ classic number These Old Blues, the boys in Nightflyer seem to offer something for any bluegrass fan to enjoy. Jam standards like 99 Years, offered here in a quite soulful fashion, sit comfortably beside haunting sounding songs like The Legend of the Lost Confederate Gold, a tune which tells the tale of a fabled lost treasure supposedly hidden 150 years ago. Fans of American Idol may recognize the tune Walkin’ the Country, which recent Idol winner Scotty McCreery included on his debut album.

Strong vocals are delivered by all band members as nearly all of them are featured on at least one vocal number. Harkening back to his days singing gospel music, the vocals of guitar player and lead singer, Richard Propps, really shine through the album’s sacred selection entitled Power Position. Featuring close knit harmony, Power Position is performed with Southern gospel flair as it describes bowing in prayer as the place where “God hears it all.”

Stewart, the banjo player, sings lead on multiple selections like Are You Lonesome Whippoorwill, which also happens to feature a blistering guitar solo by co-producer Clay Hess. Hayes delivers the vocal on the awesome story song The Hangman’s Daughter, which depicts the tale of an unfortunate man who pays the ultimate price for love.

By rounding out the 13 song set with Townes Van Zandt’s White Freight Liner Blues, the band really seems to keep toes tapping. The band members are all greatly talented and showcase their skills throughout the album, keeping listeners intrigued through all thirteen of the album’s tracks. Nightflyer’s drive and wonderful mix of haunting ballads, gospel songs, and straight ahead bluegrass is sure to appeal to a wide array of listeners.

For more information about Nightflyer, visit their website at www.nightflyerband.com. Their album can be purchased or digitally downloaded from their website, as well.

Traveler – Jerry Douglas

Bluegrass musicians often stretch the boundaries of the genre, using their chosen instruments to mix their traditional backgrounds with new and different styles of music. Sometimes this results in an interesting concert, a unique collaboration, or simply some fun jams. Other times, it produces an excellent album in which the bluegrass musician and his instrument sound right at home in any of a variety of genres. With his new album, Traveler, released today, Jerry Douglas has accomplished the latter.

Traveler offers the listener a grab bag of musical styles, ranging from bluegrass to blues, with Celtic, folk, and rock influences mixed into various songs. Douglas has assembled an all-star list of guest musicians and vocalists from every genre present, including Sam Bush, Eric Clapton, Keb’Mo, Bela Fleck, Paul Simon, Mumford and Sons, and Alison Krauss and Union Station. Five tracks are instrumentals, with Douglas’s dobro and lap steel featured prominently. Douglas even makes his debut as a lead vocalist on the opening track, a cover of Leadbelly’s On a Monday that sounds like it came straight out of the Mississippi Delta.

Even though the numerous sounds on Traveler may seem like they shouldn’t fit together, Douglas and his group of guest artists have created a cohesive album, with the different styles helping to keep the album fresh. Peaceful sounding folk tunes such as The Boxer, written by Paul and Simon and featuring British folk rock group Mumford and Sons sit alongside the jazzy piano and horns of blues numbers like High Blood Pressure.

The album also includes several pieces with a bluegrass influence, like the mandolin/dobro tune Duke and Cookie, composed and performed by Douglas and Bush. Fans of more traditional bluegrass will enjoy the album’s closing track, King Silkie, which was co-written by Douglas and Dan Tyminksi and is driven by Douglas’s dobro and Charlie Cushman’s banjo.

Though most bluegrass fans will recognize Douglas’s expertise on the dobro (he has been named “Musician of the Year” eleven times from the ACM and three times from the CMA), he also shows his skills on the lap steel, particularly with the original instrumental tune So Here We Are. Composed with Viktor Krauss and Omar Hakim, who play bass and drums on the track respectively, the song features amazing solos which seem to have a bit of an ’80s rock influence.

Traveler seems to be appropriately titled, having been recorded in a variety of cities across both the United States and the world, ranging from Nashville and New Orleans to New York and Banbury, United Kingdom. The album’s liner notes reflect this, being designed like a passport and featuring “stamps” for each of the album’s songs. Douglas will also continue the traveling theme with his summer and fall tour, which takes him not only around the United States but also to such European countries as Belgium, Norway, and Sweden.

While he has been quite active in serving as a guest musician on other artist’s recordings (even having participated in over 20,000 recordings in his lifetime), Traveler is Douglas’s first solo release since 2009’s Jerry Christmas!.

For more information, visit Douglas’ website at www.jerrydouglas.com.

Monticello – Hard Road Trio

A century-old adobe building is definitely not a common setting for recording albums – particularly those which feature traditional music. However, for New Mexico-based group The Hard Road Trio, this was the perfect location for their Americana-flavored style of music. Their new album, Monticello, on Desert Night Music, was recorded in Monticello, New Mexico, a canyon area perhaps best known for its lavender fields and balsamic vinegar industry. On this album, the group combines peaceful, folk-sounding tunes with solid instrumentation to create a unique sound.

While fans of traditional music and hardcore bluegrassers are likely to perceive this record as lacking the proper components of an album steeped in tradition (namely, an ever-present banjo), Monticello does have the potential to appeal to a wide array of listeners. The thirteen-track collection (which also includes a bonus track entitled Honeymoon From…) lies closer to the easy-listening side of radio, with tinges of folk, bluegrass, and even jazz. The musicianship of band members Steve Smith (mandolin), Chris Sanders (guitar), and Anne Luna (bass) provides a free-feeling set of all-original material. With songs covering topics ranging from a love of nature (My Walden) to the pain of poverty (Crack in the Sky), while also hitting on the common themes of love and heartbreak, the Hard Road Trio shows that they are not just a standard, everyday band.

The lyrics on this album are thoughtful and well-written, with the melodies reflecting the mood of each song. Crack in the Sky tells the story of a family who is forced to move around frequently, living in their car from time to time, while Family Secrets reminds the listener that “secrets are heavy on the heart.” Both of these songs feature Sanders’ melancholy lead vocals. Honeymoon From…, the album’s bonus track, is a fun tune in which a couple celebrating their fiftieth anniversary reminisces on the humorous details of their honeymoon. The song has a great bouncy, western swing feel anchored by Luna’s strong bass playing. Several guest musicians are also featured throughout the album, helping bringing a bit of a bluegrass flair to several songs. These musicians include Nate Lee (fiddle), Michael Witcher (dobro), and Bill Evans (banjo).

The Hard Road Trio is obviously an accomplished group of musicians, with its members having taught at such musical camps and workshops as Camp Bluegrass, Hill Country Acoustic Music Camp, and Zoukfest. The band members are even available for private workshops in such areas as harmony, mandolin, guitar, bass, and songwriting. In the past several years, they have traveled across the US performing their distinctive style of music at many different festivals and venues, including Hardly Strictly Bluegrass and the Black Hills Bluegrass Festival.

For more information on the Hard Road Trio, including tour dates and workshop news, visit their website at www.hardroadtrio.com.

No Part of Nothin’ – Alan Tompkins

“No part of nothin’,” Bill Monroe’s famous phrase describing music unworthy of praise just so happens to be the seemingly unusual choice for the title of the new release this month from Alan Tompkins, the president and founder of the Bluegrass Heritage Foundation.

No Part of Nothin’ has been a long time coming. Raised in western Kentucky, Tompkins grew up amidst sounds of classic country, Gospel, and bluegrass music. At a very early age, he learned to play and sing through the encouragement of his mother, and before long, found himself as the bassist and singer in a church worship band in his hometown.

However, it wasn’t until some years later when he found his true interests lay in bluegrass. After pursuing college degrees and a career in business, Tompkins was eventually led to traditional music. He learned to play upright bass and banjo as well as several other instruments commonly associated with traditional music, ultimately resulting in his first album.

No Part of Nothin’ features great traditional music. From the Bill Monroe/Hank Williams penned tune I’m Blue, I’m Lonesome, to traditional pieces like Angelina Baker and More Pretty Girls Than One, Tompkins’s vocals and fine musicianship clearly shine throughout. He is also joined by a multiple-award winning group of musicians, including Sam Bush, Ron Stewart, Kenny and Amanda Smith, Greg Cahill, and Texas country artist Deryl Dodd.

The twelve-song, 40-minute-long set of music not only highlights Alan’s skills as a bassist and vocalist, but also a rendition of Lonesome Road Blues on which he plays banjo. It also features two original pieces which he co-wrote with Gerald Jones. The first, Blue Kentucky Waltz, which tells the story of a “sweet flower” from the hills of Kentucky, sounds strikingly familiar and seems like it would have fit well into the repertoire of traditional bluegrass musicians like Bill Monroe and Jimmy Martin. The other original, No Part of Nothin’ Blues, is an instrumental which includes an interesting mandolin/bass intro.

One of the standout numbers on this album is a soul-stirring version of the hymn Farther Along which starts out a capella, with Tompkins’ rich, baritone voice bringing to mind the sound of an old-time church service.

While Bill Monroe might have used the phrase “No part of nothin’” to describe music he didn’t approve of, he definitely wouldn’t have applied it to this album. In fact, based on Tompkins’s song choice and musical skills, Monroe would have likely held him in high esteem.

No Part of Nothin’ can be purchased from CDBaby, iTunes, and Amazon. For more information on Tompkins and the album, visit www.alantompkins.com.

Wheeling Park Bluegrass Band

For several decades, colleges and universities across the United States have offered courses and even degrees in bluegrass and traditional music. Well-known programs such as those at Glenville State College, Morehead State University and South Plains College have had students travel the country and world performing, eventually going on to make a name for themselves in the bluegrass world. More recently, high schools have begun offering bluegrass bands as an alternative to a regular orchestra or marching band. One of those high schools is Wheeling Park High School in Wheeling, WV.

The bluegrass band at Wheeling Park was created in 1993 when teacher Bob Turbanic decided that students were listening to the wrong kinds of music. He had grown up on bluegrass music, and thought that the kids he was teaching should be exposed to that style of music as well.

So… he started a bluegrass band. At first, only a few students seemed interested. However, within a few years, the program had grown large enough to field full bands at each grade level.

Over the years, the band has played frequently within the Wheeling area at such venues as the Pennyroyal Opera House in Fairview, Ohio. They’ve also been repeat performers at the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival, including an appearance this past May. In 2008, the band was given the opportunity to travel to Kawaguchi, Japan and participate in the town’s International Exchange program. There, students stayed with Japanese families and performed at the Lilia Festival in Kawaguchi.

Several graduates have eventually made careers out of bluegrass music, including Della Mae co-founder Amanda Kowalski. Another prior student, Ben Bateson (who is currently the Recording Laboratory Manager and an instructor within ETSU’s Bluegrass, Old Time, and Country Music Studies), credits Turbanic and Kim Mattis (another faculty advisor with the bluegrass club) for encouraging him to pursue his degree in Recording Engineering.

The Wheeling Park Bluegrass Band is not part of the school’s regular music program, and is actually listed as an extracurricular club which students can choose to join. In general, the club depends on donations to fund travel and other expenses, and even to help provide students with instruments.

The club has become a beloved part of the school and community and, hopefully, it will continue to teach students about bluegrass music for years to come.

Circa Blue

In today’s music world there’s a whole lot more to starting a band than merely getting together with four to five guys, hacking out some tunes, booking, and playing shows. Each band must strive to create their own sound, generate original material, and ultimately find a band name which catches the listeners’ attention. West Virginia-based band Circa Blue has accomplished just that with the release of their debut self-titled album.

Having formed in 2010 along the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, Circa Blue takes their name from the Latin origin of the word “circa” or “circus” – meaning “around, or about.” As their album clearly shows, Circa Blue is all about bluegrass, while claiming to be neither “completely traditional or completely newgrass.”

Band members Steve (guitar and vocals) and Dave Harris (bass and vocals), Ron Webb (mandolin and vocals), and Matt Hichman (banjo) are joined on this project by the wonderful resophonic sounds of Mike Auldridge, and solid fiddling of Chris Sexton, to create a quite interesting combination of ten tunes equally distributed between new originals and previously recorded material. With tunes ranging from a Johnny Cash cover of I Still Miss Someone to the dark minor chord timbre of Gillian Welch’s Annabelle, the song selection is likely to please a wide range of listeners with varied musical tastes.

The individual song-writing prowess of band members Steve Harris and Ron Webb are showcased on the album quite well. Steve’s laidback instrumental number Circa Minor is quite pleasing, and clearly showcases some fine picking while Ron’s two contributions Quiet Man and Previews serve as nice reflective pieces.

Circa Blue’s album also includes mandolin from original member Mike McDonald, who passed away unexpectedly in September 2011. He was able to record mandolin parts for two tunes on the album, Annabelle and Last Train from Poor Valley. Even though he is no longer with the band, his contributions will long be remembered.

Currently working with Make Welcome Entertainment, Circa Blue has recently performed at several musical venues within Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland ranging from picnics to large stages like Pickin’ in the Panhandle, the West Virginia State BBQ & Bluegrass Festival.

For more information regarding the music of Circa Blue or to see where they’ll be performing next, please visit their website at:www.circa-blue.com. Their music may also be purchased from iTunes.

Stay Tuned – Brand New Strings

With a recent party at Margaritaville in Nashville, TN, Brand New Strings released their latest project on Rural Rhythm Records. Their sophomore release, appropriately titled Stay Tuned, features more great material from band members Mike Ramsey, Stuart Wyrick, Randall Massengill, Preston Schmidt, and Tony Mowell. With a fresh, yet traditional sounding approach to bluegrass, they write and compose most of their own material included on their recordings. In fact, five of the seven tracks featured on Stay Tuned are attributed to band members.

Although the album is a bit short, the song selection is spectacular. Choosing to resurrect a tune from Stonewall Jackson’s catalog, I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water, Brand New Strings offers an excellent hard-driving bluegrass rendition of the 1965 hit. From inspirational Gospel tunes like Ramsey’s Behold The Lamb, to the sweet lyrics of Wyrick’s song That’s You, there seems to be something for every taste on the new record. The album’s first single, Other Side of Lonesome, penned by Massengill, is even seeing some chart success, currently sitting in the number four slot on the Bluegrass Today Weekly Airplay Chart.

The band also turns in some impressive instrumentation, with each member obviously proficient at his chosen instrument: Ramsey on mandolin, Wyrick on banjo, Massengill on guitar, Schmidt on fiddle, and Mowell on bass. Brand New Strings is also joined by several guest musicians to round out the album, including Corey Meuchel (percussion), Brandon Bostic (resonator guitar), and Paul Niehaus (pedal steel guitar).

With Stay Tuned out and on the air, there’s no doubt that the boys in Brand New Strings are likely to enjoy the same type of success they did with their first album, No Strings Attached, released in 2010. It not only achieved the #17 slot on Billboard Magazine’s Top 50 Bluegrass Albums in 2010, but continued charting weekly through 2011 in other publications such as the Roots Music Report.

These boys are just plain fun to watch and listen to. Having filled in with them on a couple occasions, I have had the great opportunity to not only listen to their excellent musicianship and straightforward bluegrass style, but have also gained the opportunity of getting to know each of them. Playing to a packed house this last Saturday, May 26^th at the Station Inn in Nashville, TN, the boys (and I) had a blast.

I may be a bit biased, but I look forward to hearing more from the band within the upcoming months.

For more information regarding their music, or to see where they’ll be performing at a concert venue near you, please visit www.brandnewstringsband.com or www.ruralrhythm.com.Their music is also available for download on iTunes and Amazon.com.

Southern Roots and Branches – Marty Raybon

Marty Raybon is perhaps best known as the lead singer of popular 90’s country band Shenandoah, which had number one hits with such songs as Sunday in the South and Two Dozen Roses. However, he has also released several projects which show his bluegrass influences. His latest album, Southern Roots and Branches (Yesterday and Today), released on Rural Rhythm Records, sits firmly within the bluegrass world while still showing his love of country music.

Southern Roots and Branches features a great mixture of songs, both newly and previously-recorded. Raybon includes covers of several classic tunes, ranging from Jimmy Martin’s Home Run Man to the Flatt and Scruggs standard Down the Road. Raybon’s distinctive, country-tinged vocals help to put a modern spin on these songs, while still staying true to their traditional background. Several Gospel songs are also featured on the album, with the stripped-down style (featuring only acoustic guitar and harmony singers) used on Squire Parsons’ now-classic Beulah Land allowing Raybon’s vocal strength to truly shine.

Bluegrass comes to the front with the album’s lead single, the banjo-fueled Dirt Road Heartache, as well as a couple of Bill Monroe songs which Raybon has chosen to include: Rocky Road Blues and White House Blues. Big Pain, a Raybon original co-written with Billy Droze and John Fountain, is a fantastic example of contemporary bluegrass in which the singer has “dug a hole so deep and low [he] can’t find [his] way out.”

Raybon’s country background particularly shows through on the updated versions of a few Shenandoah tunes: the upbeat love song Next to You, Next to Me and Ghost in This House, the lonesome tale of a couple whose relationship is too far gone to salvage (which was also previously covered by Alison Krauss and Union Station). Even though these were originally country songs, their new arrangements are pleasing and they fit well alongside bluegrass standards. Another tune on the album, the Rodney Crowell-penned Long Hard Road, would not have been out of place on a Shenandoah album and is sure to please crossover fans.

While Raybon takes care of lead vocal duties on the album and adds rhythm guitar, he is also supported by a talented selection of bluegrass music’s best musicians. Tim Stafford, Mark Fain, Shad Cobb, Rob Ickes, Justin Moses, Bryan Sutton, Ashby Frank, and Raybon’s brother Tim are among the artists featured on this album.

Southern Roots and Branches seems to be the perfect title for Marty Raybon’s latest release. The twelve track disc not only features tunes from bluegrass pioneers like Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, and Jimmy Martin, but also includes songs which seem to be right on the fringe between old and new.

For more information on Marty Raybon, please visit his website at www.martyraybon.com.