Your independent source of bluegrass news.
Ella Jean Dawson was born on Sunday (1/19/14) at 2:35 a.m. She came in at 5 lbs, 13 oz, one month early.
Mom, dad, baby and big sister, Claire, are all doing well.
Jamie suggested that they were growing their own family band. Watch out bluegrass world!
Welcome Miss Ella, and congratulations to the Dawsons.
The album perfectly captures the band’s stage show, which blends guitarist Lynda Wittig Dawson’s folk and blues-inflected original material with the group’s contemporary-to-progressive approach to bluegrass. All but four of the songs are hers: bassist Patrick Walsh tackles Roger Miller’s Chug A Lug; banjo picker Hank Smith contributes a complex, multi-part banjo instrumental called Thirty One which also highlights fiddler Pattie Hopkins; mandolinist Jamie Dawson sings his song Left This Town and an automotive-themed number from Adam Lane, The Filling Station.
The primary focus, though, is on Lynda’s songs and her as lead singer. A trace of rapid vibrato in her voice brings the flavor of a folk singer to her style, contrasting with the smoother delivery you hear from most bluegrass vocalists. Jamie’s voice is a bit more ragged, well-suited to the grittier numbers he sings, and Pattie seems underutilized as a vocalist, featured solely on Lynda’s Walk With Me.
Highlights for me are Molly, which starts with a nice single string banjo intro, resolving into a novel “never came home” story with a Celtic twist, and the final track, The Morning Train, a simple but very sad song about faith and loss.
Being an anniversary concert, the band also welcomed a number of former members to the stage. The opening track, Lynda’s Gasoline Blues, features Ben Walters on banjo and Matt Hooper on fiddle. Kyra Moore took on the banjo duties on Life Is Not A Guarantee.
Both the audio fidelity and the performances are quite strong, which can be difficult to achieve with a live recording, and the audience reaction, while included, is kept to a minimum. You could easily forget that it’s a live album, until the end of each track.
Kickin Grass will be prominent during the IBMA World Of Bluegrass later this month, where they have the distinction of being hometown representatives for Raleigh, NC where the events will be held.
Live At The Carolina Theatre is available from popular download sites and on CD from CD Baby.
If you would like to have one of your songs considered for the 2013 Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at MerleFest, you’ll need to get your application in by February 19. The competition is open to any songwriter whose income in not primarily derived from writing (-50%), with both cash prizes and performance slots on the MerleFest stage provided to the winners.
Three winners are chosen in each of four categories: bluegrass, country, general, and Gospel/inspirational.
MerleFest has just announced the judges for this year’s competition, which include three successful writers in the country, bluegrass and Americana fields. The 2013 panel includes Nashville songwriter Matraca Berg, North Carolina’s Lynda Wittig Dawson (from Kickin’ Grass), and veteran master singer/songwriter Chris Smither.
Applications can be sent by mail or submitted through Sonicbids. Full entry details are listed online.
Here’s another photo gallery from World of Bluegrass 2012, shot during the events on Wednesday afternoon and evening.
The Kickin Grass Band slips easily from melancholy, lonesome songs to peaceful melodies to upbeat tunes ready for dancing. Ghosts in My Head is a haunting song featuring the lead vocals of bass player Patrick Walsh. Walsh puts the perfect amount of weariness into his words, matching the lyrics’ lament of not being able to “tell my mind from the ghosts in my head.” Walsh also sings lead on another dark song, King’s Highway, which speaks of someone who killed a man “just because.” Fiddle player Pattie Hopkins takes the lead for two bluesy sounding songs, the Gospel-influenced title track, which features a stripped-down arrangement, and That’s What I Like About the South, which is bouncy, with somewhat of a western swing feel. Another fun, upbeat track is the original composition Gum Stump Squirrel, written by guitarist Lynda Wittig Dawson, with prominent old time fiddle and mandolin.
The band also puts their own spin on a couple traditional bluegrass songs: the Delmore Brothers’ Blue Railroad Train and Bill Monroe’s Roanoke. Blue Railroad Train is folk-influenced and cheerful, while Roanoke features red-hot picking and fiddling. Another cover song, Patty Griffin’s Long Ride Home, is one of the album’s standout cuts. The group stays true to Griffin’s version of the song (which listeners may have heard on the popular, Americana-influenced soundtrack to the film Elizabethtown), sounding both wistful and reflective.
The Kickin Grass Band recently received the Carolina Music Award for Best Bluegrass and Americana, and this album helps demonstrate why. With great instrumentation from band members Lynda Dawson (guitar and clawhammer banjo), Jamie Dawson (mandolin), Pattie Hopkins (fiddle), Hank Smith (banjo and guitar), and Patrick Walsh (bass), intriguing original songs, and a sound that incorporates elements of both modern and old time music, the Kickin Grass Band is sure to make an impression with Walk With Me.
For more information on the Kickin Grass Band, visit their website at kickingrass.com.
Their music can be purchased from iTunes, Amazon, CDBaby, and various other music outlets.
It’s been a while since the band’s last record. Their most recent was in 2008, and since that time founders Jamie and Lynda Dawson and Patrick Walsh have welcomed two new members. Pattie Hopkins is now playing fiddle and adding vocals, and Hank Smith is on banjo. Jamie plays mandolin, Lynda guitar and Patrick bass.
Lynda, Kickin Grass’ primary lead vocalist, says that Walk With Me intentionally addresses large issues of life and death, hope and heartbreak. Since their last release, Walsh’s wife died from cancer, and Jamie’s brother passed suddenly. In the midst of the loss, the Dawson’s celebrated the birth of a daughter.
“These were life-altering events for all of us, both individually and as bandmates and close friends. We felt strongly that we needed to capture and express the emotional journey we had endured through our music, especially now that we’re on the other side looking back.”
Sales and downloads will be available 7/24.
One track, Hometown, is being offered as a free download from Reverb Nation. Here’s a sample:
Hometown: [http://traffic.libsyn.com/thegrasscast/hometown.mp3]
This report on the Kickin Grass 10th Anniversary show comes from their guitarist/vocalist Lynda Dawson. Photos are from Hunter Lee Elliott at 5 X 5 Photography.
Patrick Walsh, Bass Player and founder of the band, MC’d between songs, telling stories about the beginning of the band and each of the current and past bend members throughout the night.
We structured the evening to move backwards in time, so we started with a few songs off our self-titled album from 2008, then revisited tunes off our 2006 release, On The Short Rows, before heading even deeper into the 2003 songs off our first release, Backroads.
It was a heartwarming treat to share the stage with everyone who has been a part of our musical family throughout the years. Jerry Brown, sound engineer for The Rubber Room in Chapel Hill, was behind the sound board, Carl Wetter and his stage hands did a wonderful job with lighting and overall production, and we had a crew on multiple cameras filming for a live DVD of the performance, which we hope to release later this year.
Instrumental in the success of the evening were both The Carolina Theatre and Pinecone – The Piedmont Council of Traditional Music – both of whom partnered with us as presenting sponsors. We couldn’t have pulled off such a special evening without them.
All in all, it was an incredible night in tribute to 10 years together.
The band will mark the big 1-0 at The Carolina Theater in Durham on January 14, with a video crew on hand to record the festivities. Mandolinist Jamie Dawson told us this afternoon that they hope to release the show as a live concert DVD in the Fall, following on the heels of their fourth album set to hit Spring or Summer.
Kickin Grass guitarist/vocalist Lynda Wittig Dawson said that there was never a question where they would host this anniversary show.
“The past ten years have been a true joy for us, playing and introducing our rootsy-Americana style of bluegrass to new fans around the world. We‘re thrilled to share the stage with old friends and celebrate this milestone with hometown fans who have played a huge role in our success!”
In addition to the Dawsons, band members include Hank Smith on banjo, Patrick Walsh on bass, and Pattie Hopkins on fiddle.
Here’s a look at Kickin Grass on Song Of The Mountains.
The band is made up of Lynda Dawson on guitar and lead vocals, Jamie Dawson on mandolin, Matt Hooper on fiddle, Patrick Walsh on bass and Ben Walters on banjo. This is their third recorded project, but have chosen to make this one a self-titled release. Most of the songs are originals written within the group, with Lynda taking on the lion’s share of the songwriting duties.
Of particular interest is the creative way the new project was funded, a topic Brance had discussed in a post earlier this year.
After having completed six songs, Kickin Grass ran out of money to complete the album – a scenario that presents itself to countless unsigned bands. Instead of going into debt or waiting for a label commitment, they decided to try fan financing. And it worked.
Lynda Dawson explained how it all went down…
“That was definitely one of the coolest parts of this project‚Ķas a band member, it’s pretty amazing to have fans who not only support you by coming to shows, wearing your hats or t-shirts, etc., but by literally investing in you. We had been working on recording the CD for over a year, and we had a lot of folks coming up to the table at festivals and shows, always asking us ‘When is the new CD coming out? Jamie realized that everyone in the audience wanted it to be finished just as much as we did, and that they would probably help fund it in advance for some very early ‘pre-sale’ copies, and a chance to be more involved with the band.
We sent the word out via a blog on our website, and our monthly email newsletter. We also announced it from the stage at our shows.”
The Kickin Grass Join The Band appeal asked fans to contribute $100 to the recording budget, in exchange for 5 pre-release copies of the finished CD, a “thank you” listing in the liner notes, two invitations to a private CD release party and insider updates on the project’s progress.
Some fans gave us more than $100, others purchased the sponsorship as a gift for family or friends… it was very cool. We raised enough money between December ‚Äò07 and March ‚Äò08 to book studio time and finish recording and mixing in June ‚Äò08.
Superfan came into the picture in July ’08, after we had raised the money, recorded and mixed. Our artist/label relationship with them is a little different in that we didn’t need money for the project, but we really needed a hand with the time and effort we knew it would take to coordinate, promote and sell the record we had made. Katrina and the Superfan folks have been fantastic to work with. Our relationship is really collaborative, with everyone pitching in to help with whatever they do best.”
Lynda said that promos are going out to radio and print media next week, so you may be hearing and reading more about the new CD shortly. Audio samples can be found now on the band’s MySpace page or the Superfan site, and CDs can be ordered on the band site.
