Here’s a special opportunity for folks in east Tennessee – if they act fast!
This weekend’s two-night engagement with Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out at The Down Home in Johnson City will feature two special guests in an exciting and uncommon format. In addition to performances featuring 30 years of music from Russell and the guys, Moore will welcome Doyle Lawson and Adam Steffey to share the stage with him on Friday and Saturday evening.
But this won’t be just be the kind of “sit in for a song or two” sort of collaboration we’ve seen many times at festivals and concerts all over the country. After the first set of music from the band, Russell will have one of these bluegrass giants join him for a lengthy on stage discussion, followed by another set of bluegrass.
Imagine the gems that will come from a frank exchange between such veterans of the bluegrass scene. Typically these conversations only occur backstage, at the supper table, or on the phone.
Doyle will join Russell on Friday, July 30, and Adam on Saturday the 31st. Since The Down Home is a small-to-medium sized venue, tickets are limited and advance purchase is highly recommended.
With the announced departure of Colby Laney as guitarist with Volume Five, the band has announced a couple of big changes.
Jacob Burleson will switch from mandolin to guitar, and the band will welcome the big daddy, Adam Steffey, into the group on mandolin.
Glen Harrell, fiddler and lead vocalist for Volume Five, tells us that Jacob was talking with Adam, and passed along a request to join them, and reported that he was delighted to do so.
But wait a minute… didn’t Adam say just a couple of months ago that he was getting out of the music business? Why, yes he did.
“Honestly, I was tired. But I never really retired.
There was a time last fall when Highland Travelers were breaking up that I thought I wanted to get out of music all together. I was just fried trying to handle so many tasks – bandleader, band member, plus my schedule at ETSU. It had become overwhelming to me, and the thought of starting up a new record just seemed like too much.
I didn’t pick up the mandolin for the better part of December.
I wasn’t thinking about playing with a band again, but with some time away to study on the situation, I started thinking about it again. I enjoy playing, I love playing in front of people, and working in the studio – and I love teaching.
So I saw the story that Colby was leaving and thought, ‘I hate to hear that.’ Then Jacob contacted me to see if I might be interested, so I figured, well I gotta do that. I love Glenn’s voice, and the songs they choose.
I just needed to reset, study on it a bit. When Jacob called, I thought, well this will be fun. Just joining a band that is already going, without having to steer the ship, seemed like a great idea.
It will be a lot less stress not being a band leader. These guys are terrific and I’m really looking forward to it.”
Adam says that teaching was what has kept him connected to the mandolin during his brief hiatus. Even though he has left the ETSU faculty, he continues to teach private lessons, both in his studio in Johnson City, TN, and via Skype. He appreciates the ease of scheduling doing it this way, versus the more rigid environment of the academic setting.
You can see Steffey as the newest member of Volume Five on February 9 when they play at The Ritz Theater in Sheffield, AL. Their full tour schedule can be viewed online.
Adam says he feels that buzz of enthusiasm again.
“You always hear guys say, ‘I’m so excited about this or that.’ But I really am! And I feel like Glen and the guys are too.
I’m a band guy – I’m not a leader. I just enjoy playing with a good rhythm section, and these guys have one for sure.
I’ve known Glen since the ’80s when he was with Perfect Tymin’, and Jacob is one of my favorite musicians. I haven’t struck the first note with these guys but I’m excited and rarin’ to go.”
Sounds like a very happy ending to a frustrating period for Mr. Steffey. Can’t wait to see the new Volume Five.
Can any song be turned into a bluegrass number? And furthermore, should it? Those are the questions I found myself asking as I listened to Dwight Yoakam’s new album, with the tongue-in-cheek title, Swimmin’ Pools, Movie Stars…. Yoakam lined up a backing band full of bluegrass music’s top talent and (unlike several other nineties country stars who have recently dipped their toes in bluegrass) set out to reinvent an album’s worth of songs he had recorded previously. As such, the album has a much different feel than, say, the earnestness of Alan Jackson’s The Bluegrass Album or Marty Raybon’s solid country-grass.
On the other hand, Yoakam has always had more of a honky-tonk style than those artists, and he stays true to that here. He doesn’t modify his singing, either toward the high lonesome or the smoother style preferred by many modern traditional acts. While it’s obvious that bluegrass instruments are being used, listeners will be hard-pressed to find anything resembling 1-4-5 drive, and the banjo and fiddle occasionally sound somewhat out of place, such as on Listen, with its swooping, California-in-the-sixties harmonies.
Where the album works, it works pretty well. Two Doors Down preserves the basic melody of the original, and both the style and the lyrics fit well in the bluegrass format. Yoakam’s vocals are soulful and emotional as he sings about trying to find solace in a bar, and Stuart Duncan’s fiddle adds an extra layer of lonesomeness. Adam Steffey’s mandolin and a healthy dose of swagger from Yoakam kick off What I Don’t Know, which has been given a full bluegrass makeover. It’s another track with lyrics that might easily be from a bluegrass song: “Death row in prison don’t look half as bad as a life filled with heartache over you, so if you’re playing those dirty little games, you better pray that I don’t find out the truth.”
Steffey also kicks off Please, Please Baby, which is a fun honky-tonk shuffle that allows the pickers to let loose a bit, especially Scott Vestal on banjo. Gone (That’ll Be Me) is the closest thing to straightforward bluegrass on the album, and also one of the biggest reinventions. In place of the groove-filled Bakersfield country-rock of the original, Yoakam’s crooning is set to banjo guided, traditional-ish instrumentation, as well as some hand claps and shouts. Home for Sale is an interesting mixture of Stanley-esque bluegrass and classic country vocals, with especially fine guitar from Bryan Sutton.
Two tracks that would-be listeners may be most intrigued about are Guitars, Cadillacs (perhaps Yoakam’s most well-known song) and the cover of Purple Rain, tacked on at the end after Yoakam heard of Prince’s passing. Guitars, Cadillacs lacks the punch and strut of the instantly identifiable original; it reminds me of when a decent bluegrass band is hit with an out-of-the-blue request at a festival and wants to have a little fun with it. Purple Rain is certainly unexpected, but it has an enjoyable, stripped-down arrangement with an organic feel. No, it doesn’t quite fit with the rest of the album, but it is neat hearing a song so sonically different from bluegrass performed in this style.
So what’s the verdict? Personally, I don’t think just any song can be transformed into bluegrass. The time signatures, tempos, vocal phrasing, and other elements of many songs – even from the country genre – make it so that they can’t just be crammed into a box with a banjo and called bluegrass. Sure, it’s cool hearing Dwight Yoakam sing with bluegrass style accompaniment and giving recognition to the style of music we all hold dear. And several of the songs here could easily make great bluegrass songs (I can hear someone with a big, rich voice giving a classic country treatment to Two Doors Down, for instance). But this is not an album for listeners looking for straightforward bluegrass, traditional or progressive either one. If you’re looking for something a little different – or if you really like Dwight Yoakam – check it out.
For more information on Swimmin’ Pools, Movie Stars…, visit www.dwightyoakam.com. The album is available from a number of popular music retailers.
Here To Stay, Adam Steffey’s new album from Mountain Home Music, is one his fans have been hoping for this past ten years or so. We had a chance to discuss the new record with him last week while he was traveling to a show.
Steffey consistently refers to himself as a “band guy,” someone who prefers to be a member of a regular performing group, as opposed to a solo artist. And in that capacity he has found himself a part of several of the most critically-acclaimed outfits in contemporary bluegrass music. He’s recorded and toured as a member of Alison Krauss & Union Station for several years, worked in the early days with Mountain Heart, and is now part of The Boxcars.
Prior to his current gig, Steffey recorded a number of iconic songs that have stuck to him even after taking his leave from AKUS and Mountain Heart, so much so that The Boxcars now include several in their stage show. But he has never – them for a project of his own, at least until now.
This new project is made up almost entirely of songs and tunes that have been associated with Adam for years, recut with a crack bluegrass band at Crossroads Studios in western North Carolina earlier this year.
Steffey says the idea has been brewing for a while…
“It’s something that I wanted to do for a long time. Ever since I was in Mountain Heart I was thinking that. Since we started The Boxcars, people would come up and ask if I had these songs on a record, and I’ve been thinking of doing it.
I had never thought about these songs as relatable to me – I’m a band guy, I’ll never be a headliner – and I’m totally cool with that. That’s the way I like it.
I just wanted to go in and do ’em, and then I would have ’em when people asked for them.”
But new recordings of classic tracks brings with it its own unique pitfalls, ones that Adam kept top of mind. He said that he wanted to walk a fine line that wouldn’t disturb fans of the original renditions, while being mindful of new listeners at the same time.
“I was worried that folks’ll have the old versions in their mind, and not like the new one. So we stuck pretty close to the originals and stayed away from new, psychedelic arrangements. I just wanted an updated version. A long time has passed since I cut that stuff with Alison, and new listeners may not ever know them. We encounter a lot of new bluegrass fans at festivals who don’t know much about the history of the music, and I have students at ETSU that don’t know that I played with Alison or Mountain Heart.”
This is especially true on numbers like No Place To Hide, which he calls “Mudslide,” and Cloudy Days, both of which had appeared on big-selling Krauss projects in the 1990s. Or Little Liza Jane which he played often as a mandolin instrumental on AKUS shows. All three are included on Here To Stay.
Adam shared a few words about these cuts, and a couple others.
“Liza Jane is one we used to do in soundcheck and at rehearsals. The only reason we recorded it was because Alison said she wanted an instrumental on So Long, So Wrong. Most people play it sort of slower, kind of a hop-a-long kind of tune, but we did it wide open.
Pitching Wedge is another that a lot of folks had asked me for. Just a good mandolin tune to learn in E. I had cut that years ago on my first solo album, Grateful.
Twister is one I did with Mountain Heart, and its another ETSU students have asked me about. Like Cloudy Days.
I have a four note range, and quarter inch vertical leap. Twister suits my voice very well. A guy down in South Carolina, Glenn Pace, wrote it. We recorded it with Mountain Heart for Skaggs Family. I think Barry Abernathy brought that to me. Another weather catastrophe.
I’m like the bluegrass weather forecaster. I have a bunch of songs about climate issues, tragedies and the like.”
Other songs include Mountain Man, a hit for Adam with Mountain Heart in 2002, and several that are new for him. He includes an Eric Gibson song, The Space I’m In, and an old Wilburn Brothers classic, Town That Never Sleeps. One of my favorites is a Hank Sr. number called Dear John, written by Aubrey Gass and Tex Ritter.
“I heard that tune a long time ago, the first time was when I was with Alison. I had just assumed it was a Hank Williams original, and didn’t know it was a Tex Ritter song. Hank did it more slow and swingy, but I thought it would lend itself well to a smokin’ grass song.
I had to crank it up to C since it was so low. When we tracked it, I was just kind of humming along, and when I went in to sing it, I was thinking ‘wow… this may not work this fast.’
It’s a very funny song, a bit like Like Me Fall from his One More For The Road album, with a call-and-response with the band.
“I wanted to do another tune with Tina to keep that Old Primitive vibe in there. I asked Tina which one she might want to do with me, and she came up with Hell Among The Yearlings.”
The album closes with a lovely waltz, Come Thou Font, with a plethora of multi-tracked mandolins, which he played himself.
“Come Thou Fount is a hymn I had heard my whole life. I had never done anything like that before, just stacking mandolin parts. Northfield let me borrow an octave mandolin for the low part. It looks like an old Mother Maybelle-style guitar but it’s tuned like a mandolin, an octave lower. I just started adding parts based on what sounded good. I didn’t have any special plan but ended up with 6 or 7. It wasn’t formally arranged. I wanted it to be like a group of people sitting around playing mandolins.”
The good folks at Mountain Home shared this track for our readers, a recut of Town That Isn’t There, a Steve Gulley and Tim Stafford song that Adam had also recorded with Mountain Heart. It fits right in his wheelhouse, a bluesy mountain ballad about simple, hard living people.
Ron Stewart plays fiddle, Aaron Ramsey guitar, Barry Bales bass, Jason Davis banjo, with Tina Steffey on one track, a duet with Adam. Tim Surrett and Barry Bales sing harmony.
Here To Stay is set for a September 23 release. Pre-orders are enabled now in iTunes.
We caught up with mandolin ace Adam Steffey over this past weekend, after learning that he had been in the studio tracking for a new solo project.
But he didn’t want to talk about that. He’s all fired up about the upcoming Boxcars release, Familiar With The Ground, due to hit later this month on the Mountain Home Music label.
Adam says that the guys are heading to Nashville this week to do a preview show for Bluegrass Junction.
“We are going in this coming week to do a Track By Track with Kyle Cantrell at Sirius/XM, which will be aired beginning on Wednesday February 17th. Folks will be able to hear the entire album and we are very much looking forward to having our fans hear all the new tunes.
The title track was written by Keith Garrett and we have a lot of originals along with some new songs we’ve arranged for the project. It will be our fourth band release and will be available shortly after the airing of the Track By Track Show. Everyone can check our website (www.theboxcars.com) and Facebook band page for updates and ordering information.
We’re all looking forward to a great 2016 and playing these new tunes for all the folks!”
Check The Boxcars schedule online to catch them in your part of the world.
The Boxcars, the five-piece bluegrass supergroup that has been a concert and festival headliner since they hit the scene in 2009, have announced some big news for the start of the New Year.
According to mando man Adam Steffey, they have some new music coming out shortly, and have made a change with their booking representation.
“We have been working with Mike Drudge at Class Act Entertainment since the band’s inception 6 years ago. We are going to be switching over to Jim Roe with Roe Entertainment. Jim Roe has such a great reputation in the bluegrass world and we are looking forward to working together. We truly appreciate all Mike Drudge has done for our group and wish him all the best in the future.
It’s an exciting time for us now and we are getting ready for the release of our fourth album which will be coming out on the Mountain Home label. The title of the album is Familiar With The Ground, and we will be releasing a single very soon. More info will be coming as soon as we dial in the exact street date and single release day.”
Can’t wait!
Joining Steffey in the group are fellow founders Ron Stewart on banjo, Keith Garrett on guitar, and Harold Nixon on bass, with newest member Gary Hultman on reso-guitar.
East Tennessee State University’s school of Bluegrass, Old Time, and Country Music Studies has announced the hiring of two new lecturers for the program. Both bring specific credentials and experience to bear on their new positions, and have connections to the school and this program.
Adam Steffey is well known within the bluegrass community for his many years performing and recording with Alison Krauss & Union Station, Mountain Heart, and presently with The Boxcars. His playing has been the object of intense study by serious students of the mandolin and he has spent the last 6 years at ETSU serving as a private mandolin instructor.
As a student in this program in the 1980s Adam performed in the ETSU Senior Bluegrass Band, and played on the album they produced at the school. An offer for him to join Lonesome River Band in 1987 interrupted his college studies, something that he finally completed this year, graduating from ETSU with a bachelor of science degree in interdisciplinary studies.
Now on staff, Steffey looks forward to combining his musical expertise and his many years as a professional touring artist to help refine the curriculum to include real-world music business studies specific to bluegrass.
Adam properly views his own breadth of understanding of the business side as something valuable to his students.
“Through my own experiences, as well as by conducting in-class interviews with other professional musicians and industry leaders, I plan to give students a real-world look at making music their vocation. By giving our students a broad look into the business side of music, they will become better equipped for a future in music.”
Also joining the faculty this Fall semester is Will MacMorran, another recent ETSU grad who completed a masters in liberal studies with a focus in Appalachian Studies following his bachelors in audio engineering from the Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business at Belmont University in Nashville.
Will’s specialty is Celtic music, and he will teach advanced-level guitar, bass, highland and Uilleann bagpipes, Irish button accordion, Irish tenor banjo, Irish flute and whistles, and bouzouki. The program is eager to expand its offerings for students of Celtic music, and will count on MacMarron’s studio knowledge as well.
His mother, Jane MacMorran, is Director of the Appalachian, Scottish, Irish Studies Program, which falls under Bluegrass, Old Time, and Country Music, and he is delighted to become a part of the program.
“It will be exciting to work with such a great group of faculty members and have the opportunity to share my experience and expertise with our program’s talented students. I am excited about the opportunity to build a high-quality Celtic music program at ETSU, work with students in country bands, and teach audio engineering courses in the Bluegrass, Old Time and Country Music Studies Recording Lab.”
Both Steffey and MacMorran will continue to tour on weekends, Adam with The Boxcars, and Will with Celtic rock group, Seven Nations.
Appalachian Studies Department Chair, Dr. Ron Roach, welcomes both of his new faculty members to the program.
“We were fortunate to have a number of excellent candidates for these positions and are thrilled to add these two superb musicians and teachers to our department’s faculty. Bluegrass, Old Time and Country Music Studies is the leading program in its field and a vital part of Appalachian studies at ETSU, attracting students from 22 states and three foreign countries. Will and Adam are outstanding additions to this program and will contribute a great deal to the department as we continue to move forward.”
And program Director, Daniel Boner, sees nothing but good things ahead at ETSU.
“There is energy and momentum at ETSU. We auditioned 31 incoming students this week, and the vast majority demonstrated exceptional musical ability. It is important that we have a highly qualified and diverse faculty to meet the needs of our talented students who come from a variety of musical backgrounds. We are all very excited that Adam and Will are onboard full time to offer new ideas for growing our program.”
Students at ETSU have the option of a full major within the Bluegrass, Old Time and Country Music Studies program, or a minor while pursuing another degree. The majors obtain a bachelor of sciences degree in Appalachian Studies with a concentration in Bluegrass, Old Time and Country Music.
We heard today from Boxcars mandolinist Adam Steffey with an update following his elbow surgery last week. Fortunately, it seems that the surgery went well to repair an irritated ulnar nerve that was causing pain in the ring and little fingers of his left hand.
“I had the surgery last Thursday morning at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville and have been recuperating here at home in Jonesborough. I’m still quite sore, but that is certainly to be expected. I return to Vanderbilt next Wednesday to have the soft cast/wrapping taken off of my left arm. It goes from my hand all the way up my arm to the shoulder. Since I am left handed in everything I do (except playing the mandolin), it’s tough to do even the simplest of tasks.
I’m hoping to be able to start picking some as soon as I get the cast removed next week. I haven’t been able to play since the first of the year and can’t express how difficult it has been to not have my mandolin in my hands!! Really anxious to get back to it and I want to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers, and concern. Lord willing, I’ll be back at it very soon, and I look forward to seeing everyone this year!”
Just like the instruments they play, sometimes bluegrass musicians themselves need a bit of a tune up. Mandolin master Adam Steffey will be headed in soon to try to fix a pesky irritated nerve that has been bothering him recently.
According to Steffey, he had been experiencing a bit of pain in his left elbow and fingers over the past few months, and his doctor determined that he had an irritated ulnar nerve, which is what helps work the ring and little fingers. Steffey will be undergoing a minor surgery next week to try to correct the problem. He says that the recovery period can be different for everyone, but his doctor thinks he should be able to start playing again a little at a time in just a couple of weeks.
He even joked about writing an instrumental named for the procedure he will undergo: “Subcutaneous Ulnar Nerve Transposition. I think it sounds like the name of a new instrumental on the horizon!” Steffey says that the Boxcars will not be canceling any performances while he is on the mend. “My hope is to be back on the road just as soon as the doctor gives me the green light,” he says.
Here’s hoping everything goes well on February 5th, and to hearing that new mandolin tune soon! We all love us some Adam Steffey!
Nick DiSebastian has just released a transcription book that accompanies Adam Steffey’s New Primitive album. It includes standard notation, tablature, and chords for all 13 tracks on the album.
This album was something of a departure for Steffey, who had made his bones playing blazing bluegrass music. Here the focus was more on old time music, but with a bluegrass sensibility. Most are familiar jam tunes among old timers, with accompaniment from Steffey’s wife Tina on banjo, and Zeb and Samantha Snyder on guitar and fiddle respectively.
The book is the first book of transcriptions from DiSebastian, who plays bass as a member of Town Mountain. He has recently begun offering a custom transcription service where he will transcribe solos for guitar, bass, dobro, or mandolin, with transpositions offered from one instrument to another if desired. Pricing is determined by the length and difficulty of the piece under consideration.
He says that this service was inspired by the work of John McGann, one of his teachers at the Berklee College of Music, who died unexpectedly in the Summer of 2012.
“My vision is to provide the ultimate private lesson for players as a means of expanding your knowledge through the use of your selected transcription. I believe that learning a wide variety of music is the gateway to creating your own unique personal style. Learning directly from the masters aids everyone’s musicianship.
As a transcriber I’m functioning as a time saver (by keeping you playing rather than deciphering) as well as an educator. My price includes the cost of time, labor and craftsmanship.”
More details about custom transcriptions can be found on Nick’s web site. The Steffey book can be ordered there as well.
