Pickin’ Back Up, Luke Shamblin’s latest album, dropped Saturday for the Raleigh-based bluegrass artist and songwriter. This project is a return to his love of home and music after a hiatus for education and work. It features original instrumentals (slow Sandyville Waltz to fast Walgrove), and vocals such as the title cut as well as preceding singles like North on 79 and Hills of Home that take him back to his native West Virginia.
Formerly with Melvin Goins & Windy Mountain, Shamblin calls his creative labor of love “my reintroduction to the music world after taking a little break.” The album really offers a rearview look into Shamblin’s life. Much of it has an old-time mountain feel. One prime example is the instrumental, The Reel McCoy, which features Shamblin on both fiddle and mandolin, and includes David O’Dell on clawhammer banjo. The tune serves as tribute to Shamblin’s grandpa who was an old-time fiddler. “Like several of my grandpa’s tunes, I had to fill-in missing pieces from an old home recording,” he shared.
Other blasts from the past are two recordings of the same song, Pathway to West Virginia. With all vocals recorded live in one room, he states that it “sounds like home to me.” It is indeed retro in its sound, authentically Appalachian in the singing style. One is by singing partners, Ginny Hawker and Kay Justice. The other features Shamblin’s own version, stripped down with only two voices and two guitars. The lead picking is Shamblin on his great-grandpa’s archtop guitar with Corey Hensley on rhythm and harmony vocals. It is amazing how differently the two renditions sound.
Shamblin is a gifted musician. His abilities are highlighted with Jesse McReynolds’ split-string style mando playing on Sandyville Waltz, a tune that he found on one of his late grandpa’s home videos. He was only able to recover the first section so he composed the remainder himself.
Hills of Home was the first single that was released from this project in 2025. Written by Hazel Dickens, a fellow West-Virginian, Shamblin made sure it came out on the year of what would have been Hazel’s 100th birthday.
Shamblin is backed by a powerhouse ensemble of top shelf musicians. Fiddlers are: Jason Barie on four tracks and Tatianna Hargreaves on three, with Shamblin on one. Banjo work is done by: Anthony Howell on the title track, Derek Vaden on two, Judo Allison on one, with the aforementioned clawhammering by O’Dell on one. Corey Hensley lays down the rhythm with upright and electric bass plus guitar on Pathway.
Vocal harmonies feature Rebekah Speer on Pickin’ Back Up, Suzanne Cox on Hills of Home, and Ginny Hawker and Kay Justice on the bonus track of Pathway.
Shamblin is grateful to the late Buddy Griffin, his mentor and friend, “for always keeping me one foot into the music throughout the years.” He saws on Buddy’s Elk River Fiddle on The Reel McCoy. North on 79 was written about Shamblin’s journey to visit Griffin one last time, but he passed away before he arrived. “A lot of tears were shed while writing the lyrics to this song,” he admitted.
Engineered by Russell Johnson and Corey Hensley (two bluegrassers who know what a good record should sound like), produced by Shamblin, and mixed and mastered by Hensley, this album does not disappoint. It is evident that Shamblin is happy to return to music and we, as listeners, are happy that he did.
Highly recommended.
