Here’s another Christmas video from Missy Armstrong and Jeff Rose of Detour, their version of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas. This song is said to be one of the top selling records of all time, with various versions notching 100 million sales since 1941 when Bing Crosby sang it in the film, Holiday Inn.
Some of our friends may be preparing for a white Christmas this year, but it looks like dark, wet, and cold here at the Bluegrass Today Virginia office. But Merry Christmas all the same to our friends wherever they may be, and whatever their ground is covered with tomorrow.
Jeff Rose and Missy Armstrong from Detour recorded this video as a Merry Christmas wish for all their fans and friends. It’s their unadorned arrangement of Go Tell It On The Mountain.
Any time is a good time to hear Missy sing, and that includes Christmas time.
Keeping with the Veterans Day theme, two popular bluegrass groups have made donations this week to veterans groups, based on sales of their music online.
Joe Mullins used the occasion of this past weekend’s Southern Ohio Indoor Music Festival to present a check for $3000 to the Ohio State Captain of the Patriot Guard Riders, based on proceeds from digital downloads of the song The Last Parade from Joe Mullins & the Radio Ramblers current CD, Another Day From Life. The Riders provide volunteer motorcycle escorts for funerals honoring fallen military heroes, first responders, and honorably discharged veterans.
The song, written by Steve Bonafel, tells of a man attending a funeral parade for a young fallen veteran he knew in the community. Mullins expressed his admiration for military veterans, and the various support groups who honor them.
“Our sincere thanks go to ALL who have contributed to our efforts assisting the Patriot Guard Riders. Each time we have performed The Last Parade for audiences this year, we have dedicated the song to the fallen heroes who have given all to serve our country and communities. The Patriot Guard Riders assist hundreds of families each week, nationwide, with such passion and dignity. And it was very moving to find out that Captain Bob Woods, who accepted the donation, actually assisted in the procession the song is about, for Staff Sgt. Nicholas Carnes – powerful.”
Also this week, Jeff Rose of Detour was able to present a $2000 check to Goodwill’s Patriot Place Project, from sales of two songs, Soldier’s Sorrow and Homeless Of The Brave, from their recent albums. An additional donation of $3000 is expected to be delivered soon from fan donations, and the band’s label, Mountain Fever Records.
Patriot Place provides transitional housing for homeless vets in northern Michigan, with support services available for up to two years while they work towards independent living.
Rose says that the whole band is delighted to share the money they raised.
“We are honored to be able to be part of this effort to assist homeless veterans. All of the friends of Detour have been so supportive of this effort and we thank them for buying our music to make these donations possible. You just can’t beat the bluegrass music family.”
Hats off to all involved in both of these fundraising efforts!
Detour fans have been anxiously awaiting new music from the band since word first started circulating about a new recording some months ago. Expectations have been high since the success they enjoyed with their last record, A Better Place, and today Mountain Fever Records has announced a debut single from their upcoming album.
Too Blue To Have The Blues is a co-write between Detour mandolinist Jeff Rose, and Bluegrass Today’s Terry Herd. It’s sung by the band’s fast rising star, Missy Armstrong, who recalls the first time she heard this one.
“It’s always interesting to see a song from its beginning to its release. I remember hearing this song for the first time in an air conditioned tent behind the stage at a festival in Kentucky. The entire band took to it immediately.”
Rose tells how the song got its start.
“Songwriters are always waiting for that phrase that jumps out. While at a festival in Kentucky, I heard something that led to the idea that you could be so blue that you couldn’t even have the blues. I created the music and the lyrics, then leaned on my friend Terry Herd to help me wrap the song with a third verse.”
In addition to Rose and Armstrong, the band consists of Peter Knupfer on fiddle, Scott Zystra on guitar, Lloyd Douglas on banjo and Jeremy Darrow on bass.
Radio programmers can download the track now from Airplay Direct. The single is available from iTunes.
Look for the new album, as yet untitled, later this year.
The story on the radio stopped Jeff Rose in his tracks. He was shocked to discover there were so many homeless veterans in northern Michigan and many thousands more across the United States.
So he did what musicians do. He wrote a song, called Homeless of the Brave. He and Detour bandmate Missy Armstrong played it the first time at a Veterans Day event, and the standing ovation encouraged him to keep playing it.
But he didn’t stop there. When he and other members of the band Detour added the song to their terrific project, A Better Place, they pledged proceeds from the song to a shelter for homeless veterans.
Earlier this month, Jeff and his bandmates delivered a check for $1,000 to the Patriot Place in Gaylord, Mich., a shelter for veterans affiliated with Goodwill.
“I wish that first check could have been for $10,000,” Jeff said. “Our goal is make so much money on it that all the needs in Michigan are met, and they can start sending money elsewhere.”
The song isn’t overtly political, but it does have a jarring chorus:
It’s time we stand up and say
there’ll be hell to pay
if another soldier dies upon these streets.
In the richest land on earth
please tell me what it’s worth
if we let them go down in defeat.
Oh, there has to be a way we can save
those living in the land of the free
and the homeless of the brave.
The song is a perfect reminder on Veterans Day that many who fought to give us so much now have so little. And it’s inspirational that Jeff and the other members of Detour are standing up and fighting for them. You can join the fight by downloading the song.
During IBMA week in Nashville last month, David Morris spent a few minutes with Jeff Rose of Detour for this next installment of Songwriter to Songwriter.
They talked about Quarterline Road, a song from the band’s latest CD, A Better Place, which has been a hit on bluegrass radio.
And then Jeff returned the favor, and interviewed David.
