Bob Amos Archives - Bluegrass Today

Gospel Choices with Bob Amos

Here’s a further contribution of an occasional feature, where we ask bluegrass personalities to choose their top five Gospel songs. This week we hear from Bob Amos who has a particular love for the songs on an early 1970s Ralph Stanley album.

Vermont born Bob Amos started singing in choirs / choral groups, in church and / or school, when he was about six or seven years old. His deep-seated love of harmony singing comes from those times. He started playing guitar when he was about 12 years old, and the banjo shortly afterwards.

He played in local bluegrass bands mostly as a banjo player and occasional singer, in Delaware during his high school years, and in college in Ohio, then during his graduate school days in Arizona, where he earned a Masters’ degree in geology. In 1982 he moved to Colorado to work as a geologist.

Amos played music with various friends before, in 1988, forming Front Range with the help of mandolin player Mike Lantz, and later with Ron Lynam and Bob Dick.

Amos was the guitarist, lead vocalist and principal songwriter for Front Range, recording five studio albums for Sugar Hill Records during the 1990s.

1. Cry From The Cross – Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys, Cry From The Cross (Rebel, 1971)

2. A Voice From On High – Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, 1954, Decca single 9 29348

3. Bright Morning Stars – Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys, Cry From The Cross (Rebel, 1971)

4. The Model Church – J.D. Crowe and the Kentucky Mountain Boys, The Model Church (Lemco, 1971)

5. One Beautiful Day – Front Range, One Beautiful Day (Sugar Hill, 1995)

Cry From The Cross

While I am a big fan of the 1957 Stanley Brothers version of this song written by Johnnie Masters, I first heard the Ralph Stanley version as the title cut of the wonderful 1971 album of the same name. As a budding teenage bluegrass musician this whole album blew me away. I wore it out, playing and singing along with every song, over and over. It’s still one of my favorite albums. Picking this song for my list really is representative of all of Ralph’s great Gospel music from that period. But if I have to pick one, this is it. What I especially like is that this song does not dance around the subject matter. The immediate and stark imagery of the crucifixion is powerful and heart-breaking. It’s a great song.

A Voice From On High

Bill Monroe’s 1954 version of the song A Voice From On High, written by Bill Monroe and Bessie Mauldin, and sung by Monroe, Jimmy Martin and Charlie Cline, remains not only one of my favorite Gospel songs and performances, but simply one of my favorite recordings of any kind of music. There is something immensely powerful and haunting in the lyrics and particularly in the vocal harmonies of this recording. It’s simply stunning! I never, ever get tired of hearing it.

Bright Morning Star

I have always loved a cappella bluegrass Gospel singing, so I wanted to include one on my list. I have written and recorded a few myself. I could have picked a song by the Country Gentleman, Bluegrass Cardinals, or Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, because there are so many great performances to pick from. But I chose this one, which is also from Ralph Stanley’s album Cry From The Cross, because it is not only one of my favorites, but also because it was the first a cappella recording by a major bluegrass artist (per Gary Reid). It was certainly the first one I ever heard. It’s mournful, moving and triumphant, all at the same time – a great song, and a great performance.

The Model Church

J. D. Crowe’s 1971 Gospel album The Model Church was another early favorite album of mine. The whole album was powerfully played and sung, the songs were great, and there was a lot of terrific vocal harmony. I loved it. I spent hours and hours listening, playing and singing along with this LP. In particular I remember singing each part, playing a song and saying, “ok, now I’m gonna sing Doyle’s part,” then I’d play it again and sing J.D.’s part, and then Larry Rice’s. It became my Gospel bluegrass training ground. I almost picked I’ll Talk It All Over with Him to be on this list, because it still knocks me out, but there is something wonderful and emotional about the trio performance on the title cut The Model Church. The a cappella part at the very end of the song still gives me chills.

One Beautiful Day

It seems self-serving to pick one of my own songs, One Beautiful Day, for this list. But I felt I should include it because the song has been so important to me personally and spiritually over many years. It was the title cut of my band Front Range’s album, which won the IBMA Gospel Recorded Event of the Year award in 1995. I had written this song earlier when my daughter Sarah was a baby, wondering about what kind of world she and her brother Nathan would grow up in, hoping for the best. Now all these years later Sarah and I perform together on a regular basis and sing this song together at every performance. It is still my favorite song to sing, and now it is my favorite song to hear my daughter sing as well. It’s so deeply embedded into who I am that I couldn’t leave it out.

This video, recorded at the Delaware Bluegrass Festival in September 2017, features his daughter Sarah singing lead and harmony vocals on One Beautiful Day …..

One Beautiful Day, Front Range’s third album, was named Best Gospel Recording of 1995 by the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA).

Currently Bob leads his own award-winning band, Bob Amos & Catamount Crossing; they have released three CDs since 2012.

Amos volunteers…..

“Sarah and I are working on a duo album, to be released this Spring. There will also be another bluegrass album, with my band, coming not too long after that, possibly in the fall.”

The Story Behind the Song – Backwards and Forwards

Bob Amos is best known for fronting the Colorado-based band Front Range that played together during the period from 1988 through to 2004, during which period they released seven albums.

Amos wrote roughly 75% of the songs recorded by Front Range, most prominent among these are One Beautiful Day (the 1991 IBMA Gospel Recording of the Year award winner), Back to Red River, Hills That I Call Home, Kissing the Blues Goodbye, Shady River and Where the Wild River Rolls (also recorded by Hot Rize).

In 1999, while he was still with Front Range, he released his first solo project, Wherever I Go.

In 2004 Amos embarked on a solo career, releasing two other singer-songwriter albums; Reels of Life (2004) and Wide Open Blues (2010).

Returning to a bluegrass music format, he released Borrowed Time (2012), on which his version of Backwards and Forwards can be found. This was followed by Sunrise Blues (2014).

Since 2010 he has led a Vermont-based bluegrass band called Bob Amos & Catamount Crossing, doing a lot of the original material off these two recent projects, plus some older songs.

In all Amos has written over 100 songs during his 35-year career.

In addition to Hot Rize, his songs have also been recorded by The Chapmans; Audie Blaylock & Redline; Special Consensus; Baucum, Bibey, Graham & Haley; and others .. and now….. Junior Sisk!

Bob Amos describes what creative thinking was involved in writing Backwards and Forwards …

“I tend to write in a wide variety of musical styles, from very traditional to pretty modern. Backwards and Forwards is certainly more on the traditional end of the spectrum for me. I’m a huge fan of traditional bluegrass, and the first-generation bluegrass artists are still a major influence and inspiration to me. I was delighted when Junior Sisk wanted to record Backwards and Forwards, since he is one of the finest and most exciting traditional bluegrass musicians on the scene today.

3/4 tempo (waltz) songs are not quite as common today as they were in the early days of bluegrass, but I think it’s a nice and important rhythmic variation in the music. Over the years I’ve written quite a few songs in waltz time. This one is basically a love song about bad timing. Most people at one time or another have had a relationship where it seems that, in the beginning, the fates are against you and everything that can possibly go wrong, does. Relationships are always a bit of a dance, and so the whole vibe of this song was to express the story as a dance (a waltz), going forward a bit, then back, wondering the whole time if you are going to find that solid groove, or if it’s just going to fall apart and end out of step, before it really has a chance to get going. In this case, the story is not resolved at the end, so it’s up to the listener to wonder whether they made it, or not!

I’m a pretty positive person and a very happily married guy (for over 30 years) but, writing and singing sad songs has always been very satisfying somehow. We’ve all had difficult times in our lives, and songs like this give writers and singers a chance to access and then process those other times and feelings when things were not so great. I’ve written a lot of songs over the years, but sad ones like this, or some of my others (like Where the Wild River Rolls), are my favorite ones to sing, because you can really sink your teeth into them. It just feels good to sing them. Hearing two great singers like Junior Sisk and Heather Berry Mabe sing this song as a duet is really a thrill for me. They really brought the story to life!”

Junior Sisk explains why he chose to record Backwards and Forwards and what prompted him to arrange it as a duet ……

“Bob sent a demo tape to me and when I heard this particular song I knew it would work well for me. Then I kept hearing it with a girl singer and thought right away of Heather Berry Mabe. Loved what she has done on it. Always liked Bob’s singing for a long time! Didn’t know he was such a good writer too! Hope to record more of his songs in the future.”

The Junior Sisk recording of Backwards and Forwards is on his album Brand New Shade of Blue (Mountain Fever Records).

Backwards and Forwards
© Robert C. Amos, Stark Brook Music, BMI

Verse 1

Round and around in a circle we go
Where will we wind up, nobody knows
One thinkin’ lover and one thinkin’ friend
It’s backwards and forwards and backwards again

Chorus

We’ll never know what the future will hold if the story’s never told
Everything ending before it begins
Backwards and forwards and backwards again
It’s backwards and forwards and backwards again

Verse 2

You come to see me but I’m down in town
I try to reach you but you’re not around
One’s goin’ crazy while one’s doin’ fine
Day will be comin’ when we’re outta time

Chorus

Verse 3

We seem to find love just when it’s gone
No one can hold on like this for too long
Writing a love song that nobody sings
Playin’ a game where nobody wins

Chorus

Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival 2014

Frank Baker was on hand when the 2014 Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival was held earlier this month. Here’s his first of several galleries.

Bob Amos working on Bluegrass Album

We got a note recently from Bob Amos, whose current band, Bob Amos & Catamount Crossing, has been featured at concerts and festivals in the northeast this past 2013 season.

“I am working on a new bluegrass album. Once again it will be mostly material that I’ve written, plus a cover or two.

My daughter Sarah Amos will be doing the high harmony vocal work, and will probably have a lead vocal on at least one song. I will also be using members of my current band, Bob Amos & Catamount Crossing, on the project: bassist Bob Dick (one of my old Front Range buddies), and fiddler Freeman Corey. Both Bob and Freeman were on my last CD, Borrowed Time. Other current members; Steve Wright -vocals and guitar, Gary Darling -vocals and mandolin, will also take part.

I’ll be doing all the banjo and most of the guitar work again. I plan to have the CD out by June 1.

It will be on my own label, Bristlecone. Probably 12 or 13 tracks. Right now I’m working on charting out the arrangements. I have begun doing some of the basic tracks. Most of the recording will be done in January-March.”

A CD Release concert is planned for Saturday, June 7, 2014, at Catamount Arts in St. Johnsbury, Vermont.

From 1988 through to 2004 Amos was the lead singer, guitarist and guiding force behind the internationally known bluegrass band Front Range, which recorded seven CDs, including five for acoustic Indie label Sugar Hill Records.

His last album, Borrowed Time, was critically well received.

Attached is a photo of Bob Amos & Catamount Crossing – current members: Sarah Amos-vocals, Bob Amos-banjo/vocals, Steve Wright guitar/vocals, Bob Dick-bass/vocals, Gary Darling-mandolin/vocals, Freeman Corey-fiddle.

Songwriter Profile – Bob Amos

Bob Amos is best known as the leader of the Front Range, a quartet formed in 1984 and based in the Denver and Fort Collins area, named after the eastern slopes of the Colorado Rockies.

He was born the fourth of five children and was influenced early on by his eldest brother, who brought bluegrass records into the household.

Amos started singing in choirs/choral groups, in church and/or school, when he was about six or seven years old. His deep-seated love of harmony singing comes from those times. He started playing guitar when he was about 12, and banjo shortly afterwards.

He played in local bluegrass bands mostly as a banjo player and part singer, in Delaware during high school, and in college in Ohio, then during his graduate school days in Arizona, where he earned a Master’s degree in geology. In 1982 he moved to Colorado to work as a geologist. Amos played around with various friends before forming Front Range with the help of mandolin player Mike Lantz.

They recorded a couple of self-released albums, made an appearance at the IBMA World of Bluegrass convention in 1991 and shortly afterwards signed with Sugar Hill Records. At about that time the band line-up consolidated with the addition of Ron Lynam (banjo) and Bob Dick (bass); Amos had switched to playing guitar when the band was first formed.

Amos penned most of the songs that Front Range recorded. These include Julia, High Mountain Meadow, He is Risen, Absence makes the Heart grow Fonder, The Road Home, Delaware, The Only One I Love, Waiting For the Real Thing, Chains of Darkness, Without You, So Far Away, Happy After All, The Hills I Call Home, Two Empty Arms, Forever By My Side, So Many Pathways, I Am the Way, Judge Not Your Brother, My Heavenly Home, He’s Coming Back, Under the Influence of Love, Way Back in the Hills, He’s Everywhere, the ghostly tale of The Lantern, Kissing The Blues Goodbye, Montana Gal, Leave Me To Cry, Sweetest Flower of My Heart, Silent Ground and Sing Me A River.

In 1991 his song One Beautiful Day won the IBMA Gospel Recording of the Year award.

Hot Rize is one of the few bands to record a Bob Amos song, adding Where the Wild River Rolls to their last album. Otherwise, One Beautiful Day has been recorded by some regionally known bands, as has High Mountain Meadow. Amos comments, “I haven’t ever purposely written for other people. I just write what I like to write, and sometimes other folks pick up the songs”.

Front Range disbanded in 2006 after Lantz died of brain cancer.

Since then Amos has relocated to Vermont where he has established a recording studio and is producing album projects for other artists, as well as working on his own projects. He continues to perform regionally with various ensembles also.

Those include Wherever I Go (released in 1999), Reels of Life (2004) and Wide Open Blue (2010). They all contained an eclectic mix of songs that Amos has written, regardless of style. It was a way for him to stretch out as a songwriter, and embrace all the styles of music that he loves.

From 2005 to 2010 he led The Bob Amos Band, which was ‘a singer-songwriter band,’ and included his son Nate and daughter Sarah.

Currently, he fronts a bluegrass band called Bob Amos & Catamount Crossing.

His latest album is the excellent all-bluegrass collection Borrowed Time (Bristecone 1007).

Where were you born and raised?

Delaware during the school year (my Dad taught school there), and Vermont in the summers. I have strong ties to both places.

In the notes to Borrowed Time you say that your mother nurtured your artistic bent. How did that manifest itself?

She always supported me, and she was also an inspirational figure for me. My father was a science teacher, and while he always appreciated my talent, he would often think in more traditional or practical terms, as in “music is fine for a hobby, but what are you really going to do?”

But my Mom from the start recognized my connection with and the depth of my passion for music. Her father had been quite musical, and they were very close. Over the years she encouraged me to listen to my heart and follow my dreams.

She wasn’t a musician herself, but she was a very good amateur poet, and she was a keen observer of life and people, which helps when you are a songwriter. She was always very interested in my song lyrics, and would often read my lyrics carefully and make thoughtful suggestions.

My wife Anne often does that too. I think having people who are close to you giving you honest feedback is key, and I think that’s why I’ve always worked on my lyrics so devotedly.

When and why did you become interested in music / bluegrass music?

Music was constantly being played on record players in our house when I was growing up. Although it was a large family, and we all sang in school and church choirs, I ended up being the only real musician in the end. But everyone in that big old house loved listening to music, and so there was always music on: all sorts of music; everything from show tunes and opera to folk music and African drum records. Not to mention all the great popular music of the 1960s.

As far as hearing bluegrass specifically, I probably first heard it on the Beverly Hillbillies TV show, when I was quite young. I do remember being entranced with the banjo. My father had some records with banjo on them, and I was fascinated with the sound. My oldest brother also had some bluegrass records, which I think I borrowed as a little kid.

It didn’t take me long to get hooked. In my early teen years I became obsessed with the older music of the Stanley Brothers, Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs and Jimmy Martin, and when I started getting to know Dave Staats (my first bluegrass mentor) he lent me all kinds of records and I would tape them and listen to the cassettes over and over.

continued…

Bob Schacht passes

Bass player Bob Schacht passed away at his home in Flagstaff on December 30, 2012. He was 69 years old.

Born September 18, 1943, in Racine, Wisconsin, Robert Marshall Schacht was the second of five children. His was a musical family and he pursued his love of music throughout his life, playing up-right bass and singing tenor in bluegrass bands and guitar in church groups.

He was a founding member of the internationally-recognized Fort Collins, Colorado-based band, Front Range.

Bob Schacht was introduced to bluegrass in the 1970s while teaching anthropology at the University of Maryland.

After graduating from Madison’s Wisconsin High School in 1961, and from the University of Wisconsin in 1965, Bob earned a Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Michigan, specializing in archeology.

In the 1970s he went to Iran to do some archeological research, and academia took him to various parts of the States. He taught anthropology at the universities of Maryland and Houston, Wayne State, Ganado College and Northern Arizona University, before obtaining a research and grant support position at the Northern Arizona University Institute for Human Development in Flagstaff, where he worked for many years. In 2004 he moved to Honolulu to work as Research Director of the Pacific Basin Rehabilitation Research and Training Center.

During the late 1990s he played in the Hillwallys bluegrass band.

Schacht was an early member Bluegrass Hawaii, the Traditional & Bluegrass Music Society founded in 2003, and their Secretary for a while.

Following his retirement in 2008 he returned to Flagstaff.

Bob Amos, Front Range co-founder, now of Bob Amos & Catamount Crossing, remembers ….

“Bob Schacht was a really nice guy and a fine bass player. When Mike Lantz and I started Front Range in Denver in 1983 Bob Schacht was our first bass player. He stayed with us for about a year, until he moved away. We were basically a local Denver band at that time. We went through several line-ups after Bob left before the eventual formation of the final long-term recording and touring line-up of myself on guitar, Mike Lantz-mandolin, Ron Lynam-banjo, and Bob Dick-bass in late 1991, but Bob Schacht was the very first bass player we had in those early years in Colorado. We saw him several times off and on during our touring years, and he remained a good friend. He will be greatly missed.”

More from Delaware Valley

Here’s a second gallery of Frank Baker’s fine photos from the 2012 Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival. One more still to come.

Borrowed Time from Bob Amos

It’s been nearly a decade since Bob Amos put out a bluegrass CD, with the talented and widely praised band Front Range.

But fans who have pined for Front Range since the band’s final album in 2003 will find the former frontman’s project, Borrowed Time, worth waiting for. And those who hear this CD but missed out on Front Range’s 16-year run are likely to find themselves circling back to see what they missed.

Borrowed Time features masterful but restrained picking and smooth harmonies throughout, the kind of music that makes me think of sweet tea in the shade on a lazy weekend afternoon.

And Bob’s songwriting abilities are front and center, too. He wrote all but one of the dozen songs found here. The lone exception is Robert Johnson’s Last Fair Deal Gone Down, superbly arranged to feature Jesse Brock on mandolin and Freeman Corey on fiddle. Those two also shine, along with Bob’s first-rate banjo work, on Crazy Legs, an up-tempo instrumental. At just 2:26, it’s the shortest cut on the CD and it left me longing for more.

But while the picking is stellar, the vocals are the real selling point here. Bob brings an easy-going Tim O’Brien feel to his music, especially on Where the Wild River Rolls and Backwards and Forwards.

Backwards and Forwards is my pick for the best song of the dozen, elevated by Bob’s singing with Patti Casey and its sticks-with-you chorus:

“Everything ending before it begins; backwards and forwards and backwards again.”

Patti and Bob also team up for a splendid duet, Jenny and Jimmy, which traces a familiar bluegrass journey – from love to despair and then back to love again.

Other memorable moments include The Road Home, a gospel song with Bob’s daughter, Sarah, singing the lead and Mother of Mine, which features ethereal four-part a cappella harmonies.

Borrowed Time is dedicated to Bob’s mentor, Davey Staats, who “patiently, but firmly, implanted the fundamental elements of soul, drive, tone and timing into my brain.”

All of those things are in evidence on Borrowed Time, with Bob playing all the guitar and banjo parts and doing some of the mandolin work. He gets help in the time department from former Front Range bassist Bob Dick.

While we’re talking about time, here’s hoping Bob Amos doesn’t take so long before delivering his next bluegrass gem.

Borrowed Time from Bob Amos

If you have followed bluegrass music more than ten years or so, you’ll recall a band from Colorado called Front Range. They had a string of successful records and toured all over the US until the death of a band member brought the enterprise to a close.

The band has been quiet now for six years, though founding member, guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Bob Amos has released a couple of non-bluegrass projects on his own. This year Bob is back with a bluegrass album, Borrowed Time, which also features former Front Range bass player Bob Dick, Jesse Brock on mandolin and a number of additional players and singers like Patti Casey, Colin McCaffrey, Freeman Corey, Sarah Amos, Nate Amos, and Mike Santosusso.

We caught up with Bob last week as he was heading off to enjoy the Ralph Stanley festival, and he explained why he has been away from bluegrass so long.

“My Front Range co-founder Mike Lantz became ill with cancer in 2004, and so Front Range had to stop playing at that time.

After Mike passed away in 2006 we felt, as a band, that we should ‘retire’ Front Range as a band, or at least take a prolonged break. We had had the same 4 guys in the band for over fifteen years, and it just didn’t seem to us at the time that we could, or should, replace him. That band had a very special chemistry, and it would have been very difficult to try to recapture that without Mike. Also, I wanted to spend more time with my family, and not be away so much, so it felt like a natural time to step back.

In the meantime I really increased my recording studio business and that has kept me very busy over the past five years. But all during this time bluegrass, and the intention to return to it, was never far from my mind. And, believe me, I really, really missed it!

My two kids are now grown and have ‘flown the nest’ (although I did get them to contribute to a couple of the tracks before they left – they’re pretty talented musicians these days), and so I have more freedom in my schedule now. It just felt like the right time to get back to what I love, and to put out a new bluegrass CD.

Though I haven’t been out touring, I’ve continued to write songs, many of which were intended for an evenutal bluegrass project. I wrote most of these songs over the last few years, but there are also a couple of older songs of mine that I’ve redone, like Where The Wild River Rolls.”

You can hear audio samples and purchase the album from CD Baby. We’ll have more to say about Borrowed Time once we have a chance for a listen ourselves.

Bob Amos songwriter chat tonight

Tonight (March 20) will find bluegrass singer/songwriter Bob Amos as the guest on The Bluegrass Guide’s monthly Songwriter Chat. Bob is a founding member of Colorado’s Front Range, and has a new CD with his Bob Amos Band, Reels Of Life, recently released.

This will be an interactive online conversation, where songwriters are encouraged to ask questions and discuss their craft with each month’s featured guest.

To participate in tonight’s Songwriter Chat, simply visit the Bluegrass Guide Chat Room at 8:00 p.m. As always, the chat will be hosted and moderated by Rick Lang.