Chris Sharp Archives - Bluegrass Today

Never Ending Song Of Love from Hugh Moore & Friends

If you spend any time online, you will have seen some of these social distancing music videos where performers record a video together from various locations around the country, or around the world. They have popped up in every imaginable style, and at every conceivable level of expertise and quality.

Because of the relative ease of recording acoustic music, we have seen a great many from bluegrass and old time artists. Some arose as an effort to defeat the boredom of being stuck at home when you are used to touring on the road. And some of them have been inspired by a desire to stay in touch with fans during this enforced break, or even monetize their time while out of work. Others still have been an attempt to figure out the technical issues involved, and just give it a go.

Here’s one we discovered this week from a different perspective. Banjo player Hugh Moore created just this sort of project, and not for any reason but to give a gift to the bluegrass community he loves, and have a way to pick with friends again while so many of us are locked in at home.

Hugh has spent many years in our music, and ran the OMS Records label starting in the late 1990s. There he oversaw releases from Bobby Osborne, Kenny Baker, Johnny Russell, Josh Graves, Jesse McReynolds, Pam Gadd and others.

Recently he called on a number of his pickin’ buddies in the professional bluegrass world, and they all agreed to be involved. Hugh played banjo, Ray Legere was on fiddle, Chris Sharp on guitar, Allyn Love on steel, and Billy Troy on lead vocal. On a lark, Moore also reached out to Bobby Osborne to see if he would sing and play mandolin, along with his son Boj on bass.

With everyone on board, they set to work on the pop song Never Ending Song Of Love, which was a charting hit for Delaney & Bonnie & Friends in 1971. Since that time, it has been covered by grassers from Earl Scruggs to Country Gazette, Gary Brewer, and several others. Country singers have also embraced the song, with Skeeter Davis and Lynn Anderson covering it, as well as duets by George Jones & Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty.

Hugh knew that Billy Troy would do a great job singing it, and indeed he did. Billy has a solid bluegrass pedigree as the son of Uncle Josh Graves of Flatt & Scruggs fame, though he has worked in the pop music world as well during his career. Back in the grass now with 40 Horse Mule, we expect to hear more music from him soon.

Once everyone had recorded their individual parts, Hugh mixed the audio parts, and he and his wife Linda edited the videos.

Check out the final product they created, given as a love offering to bluegrass lovers wherever they may be. See how well they work in both a bluegrass and a country vibe in this arrangement.

This take on Never Ending Song Of Love isn’t being offered for sale, though it is available to radio programmers at AirPlay Direct.

Well done and thanks, Hugh, and all involved in this video!

John Hartford Stringband does St Louis TV

We’ve posted previously about The John Hartford Stringband, and the marvelous album, Memories Of John, which they released in April of 2010 in tribute to their namesake.

The band is a joint project of banjoist Bob Carlin, fiddler Matt Combs, and guitarist Chris Sharp, friends and musical collaborators of Hartford’s, who toured with John near the end of his life. They were known at the time as The John Hartford Stringband, and along with Mike Compton on mandolin and Mark Schatz on bass, they also supported Hartford on a number of his recordings.

They do a bit of touring as well, and have found themselves in St. Louis this past few days, during which they stopped in to play live on the local Fox TV affiliate.

You can follow them comings and goings online.

The John Hartford Stringband – Memories Of John

Gone but not forgotten… That’s not just the name of a terrific song, but the sentiment that most bluegrass lovers express when discussing the giants of our music who have passed on.

One who squarely fits in this category is John Hartford, who left a powerful wake in his path during the 64 years he lived amongst us. His distinctive voice, unmistakable banjo sound, classic songs and unorthodox performance style left an indelible mark on those who saw him on stage, and his many recordings are a legacy any artist would be proud to claim.

As we approach the 10th anniversary of John’s passing in 2011, the members of his final band have recorded a tribute project (Memories Of John) that not only includes new versions of some classic Hartford songs, but also a pair of previously unreleased tracks from the 1960s, and new recordings of songs John had written for a project he never got to record.

Going as the John Hartford Stringband, the core players were all members of his touring group: Bob Carlin on banjo, Mike Compton on mandolin, Matt Combs on fiddle, Mark Schatz on bass and Chris Sharp on guitar. Guest performers on the CD include Alison Brown and Béla Fleck on banjo, plus Tim O’Brien and Alan O’Bryant on vocals.

This project was initially recorded for Red Clay Records in Japan, but has been licensed to Compass and will be shipping no later than April 1. The producers created this video to introduce the album.

Memories Of John is one that fans of the late Mr. Hartford won’t want to miss. Audio samples and pre-release orders can be found online.

Ed Dye Memorial Bench

We posted back in March to mark the passing of Ed Dye, who had performed with Butch Robins, Alan O’Bryant and Blaine Sprouse in The Bluegrass Band during the 1970s. He was something of a fixture at Nashville’s Station Inn where he often sat in performing on the bones with The Sidemen.

One of Ed’s friends, Chris Sharp (Mississippi Chris Sharp), sent along some photos of a memorial he recently dedicated to Ed – a bench by the side of a pond on Chris’ property in Porterville, MS, with a plaque that reads “Ed Dye, 1936-2009, An Honest Man.”

“Several of Ed’s friends and family contributed toward the bench. It is at my home. The pond it overlooks is where Ed’s sons distributed his ashes. The black and white “ED” sign on the pond dam was one that was out on the highway to let people know where to turn. His sons took it and placed it on the dam. I cannot bring myself to take it down. I suppose it will return to the earth right where it is.

Ed spent a lot of time at my home over the last 15 years. There was no one like him. My entire family misses him as one of our own.”

In early May of this year, a group of Ed’s friends held a concert in his memory in Meridian, MS. Audio files from that show are posted on Sharp’s web site, along with photos and a narrative description of Ed’s Memorial Service.

Sharp says that though the Memorial Bench is located on private property, he hopes that people will see it as a public space.

“Anyone… fan of Ed, or bluegrass fan, is welcome to come by his memorial at any time.

Ed was powerfully influential on many Bluegrass musicians.”

You can reach Mississippi Chris Sharp through his web site.