Here’s some wonderful news for fans of the inimitable John Hartford, one of the giants of bluegrass and old time music, who left us with a wealth of songs and tunes when he died in 2011. Thankfully his daughter, Katie Harford Hogue, collaborated with fiddler Matt Combs to produce a book of John’s unrecorded music, John Hartford’s Mammoth Collection of Fiddle Tunes, and an all-star record, The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project Volume 1.
Today we have news of a follow up, Julia Belle: The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project Volume 2, which includes 13 more Hartford fiddle tunes, as well as five covers of his vocal contributions. The difference with Volume 2 is that all the featured artists are drawn from within the female community of old time and bluegrass players.
Co-produced by Hogue with Sharon Gilchrist and Megan Lynch Chowning, Julia Belle offers newly-recorded music from Rachel Baiman, Phoebe Hunt, Ginger Boatwright, Brittany Haas, Deanie Richardson, Allison de Groot, Della Mae, The Price Sisters, Uncle Earl, and Vickie Vaughn, among many others.
One of those others is country star Kathy Mattea, who has always shown respect and admiration for traditional music styles. She is highlighted in the album’s first single and music video, John’s classic Steam Powered Aereo Plane, supported by Sierra Hull on guitar, Alison Brown on banjo, Brittany Haas on fiddle, Megan Lovell on reso-guitar, and Missy Raines on bass.
Long time Hartford lovers known this song as the more-or-less title track to John’s 1971 album, Aereo-Plain, which cemented his reputation as a player and songwriter of particular merit in bluegrass, acoustic, and old time music.
Mattea says that she was among the many young people excited by this new strain of bluegrass John had created.
““I was one of those college kids, you know, when the bluegrass kind of crossed that line into ‘newgrass,’ on this record (Aereo-Plain), really, and so I was one of those kids that was just eaten up by it. And I learned most of these songs across a song circle, but it was a moment in my life when I began to realize that music and these songs, and the way they connected people, I felt them much deeper than…the physics and chemistry I was studding in college, and it’s really, this record is kind of…what finally got me to Nashville; it started that process for me, so it’s an honor to be here singing this song today.”
The ladies recorded this music video of the single, shot and edited by Kaitlyn Raitz and Dani Dimmel.
Check it out…
A complete track listing for Julia Belle: The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project Volume 2 follows:
- Irish Familiarity
- The Julia Belle Swain
- Grant Marsh & Joseph La Barge/Little Pig/Entertainment Tonight (medley)
- Spirit of the South
- Availability
- I’m Still Here
- Kenny and Mac
- Merry Christmas
- Learning To Smile All Over Again
- Royal Box Waltz
- Takes Her Clothes Off
- Gasoline Alley No. 1
- No End of Love
- Living Up Stairs
- Not Soft Enough
- Don’t Throw Her Down
- Steam Powered Aereo Plane
- Champagne Blues
Katie Harford Hogue shared a few words about the song/tune selections.
“I realize there’s a lot of instrumental music in this recording, but here’s the thing; Dad knew this, every fiddler knows it, people who listen to fiddle and instrumental music probably know it… You can say profound things without using words. And I think that’s what’s happening here, so I would encourage folks to sit with it and see what it says to them.”
Julia Belle is set for a February 28 release, and pre-orders are enabled now online.
This will be one for the archives.
