The Vestal Brothers ride again! Scott Vestal, surely at or near the top of anyone’s list of banjo players, and his bass playing brother, Curtis, likewise an experienced pro, are working on new music together for True Lonesome Records.
The two grew up in Texas playing bluegrass and old time music with their grandfather, Famon Self, and listening to their dad’s bluegrass record collection. Scott struck out first when he came out east to play with Larry Sparks, and Curtis followed into professional touring when he and Scott formed a group with Russell Moore called Southern Connection. Doyle Lawson eventually pulled Russell and Scott from that group, and both have gone on to legendary careers in the music, while Curtis stepped away from touring to pursue a different career.
But Curtis moved to Nashville in 2018 and has re-entered the music scene, releasing a number of songs under his own name, and recording with Tina Adair, Dale Ann Bradley, Alan Bibey, Clay Hess, and Wayne Benson. Now he and Scott have teamed up with True Lonesome as The Vestal Brothers.
Their first release is one that Curtis had as a single a few years ago, one titled Cabin on the Hill, but not the Flatt & Scruggs classic by that name. This is a song written by Gerard Crawford and Buzz Carson, which Vestal told us in 2022 that he had found recorded in a rockabilly style some time ago. He held on to it all this time, waiting for a chance to cut a grass version someday.
With Curtis on lead vocal and “bluegrass electric bass,” as he likes to call it, brother Scott plays banjo and sings harmony vocal. Jimmy Haynes is on guitar, Seth Taylor on mandolin, and Tim Crouch on fiddle. Darren Beachley adds the tenor vocal.
If you didn’t catch it two years ago, be sure to listen now. It’s a solid track, and Curtis has just the right amount of grit in his voice to pull it off.
Today David Parmley has announced who will be touring with him in support of his new project with 615 Hideaway Records, So Wha’d I Miss?
This answers a big question fans have had since David’s return to recording last year, i.e., whether or not he would be going out to perform live. The road life has never appealed to him, leading Parmley to twice disband a group after tiring of touring. His decision was also influenced by health concerns.
David is reuniting with two former members of Continental Divide, including his former partner in the band, Scott Vestal on banjo, one of the most highly celebrated players in contemporary bluegrass. Also a former member is Mike Anglin on bass, along with Doug Bartlett on mandolin and Craig Fletcher on fiddle.
Parmley says that he is rarin’ to go.
“I’m really excited to start this new chapter of my career in music. The announcement of my new band, these guys are some of the very best musicians and people I know! I’m looking forward to the future and the music we’re going to make together.”
Tour dates for David Parmley are expected to be announced soon for 2023.
Pinecastle Records has released another single from their instrumental tour de force project, Bluegrass 2022, headed up by banjo wizard Scott Vestal. Scott has turned out these records from his studio, Digital Underground, for years, assisted by fellow Nashville super pickers.
For 2022, the lineup was Vestal on banjo, Cody Kilby on guitar, Tim Crouch on fiddle, Randy Kohrs on reso-guitar, Jonah Horton on mandolin, and Byron House on bass.
This week’s single is Gold Rush, a classic Bill Monroe fiddle tune from 1968. Initially recorded by Monroe as The Gold Rush, the shortened name has stuck as the tune has become a jam standard.
Listening to this new version, one wonders whether Monroe and Byron Berline had any notion when they wrote this tune that, two generations hence, there would be such virtuosic bluegrass pickers around to give new life to this fairly straightforward melody. In any event, here we are, and here they are.
Pinecastle Records has released a second single from their upcoming celebration of instrumental bluegrass, Bluegrass 2022, featuring banjo master Scott Vestal with a cast of fellow super pickers.
All recorded at Scott’s Digital Underground Studio just outside of Nashville, this album continues in the tradition Vestal established back in the ’90s, releasing a project of fiery tunes every year from 1995-2001. The personnel varied a bit from one to the next, but Scott’s brilliant banjo was a constant on each.
For Bluegrass 2020, he has Randy Kohrs on reso-guitar, Tim Crouch on fiddle, Cody Kilby on guitar, Byron House on bass, and Jonah Horton on mandolin.
This latest single finds Vestal paying homage to one of the all-time greats of the five string, Bill Emerson, who passed away last summer. It’s Bill’s classic tune, Welcome To New York, which he wrote with Doyle Lawson during their time together with The County Gentlemen. He recorded it on his Home of the Red Fox album, and loved to tell the story about how he had to drive to New York to cut the project, and had this song in C (capoed to D) which he wanted to record, but hadn’t named. As they drove into the Holland Tunnel, he would say that he looked up and saw a grimy old sign that read, “Welcome to New York,” and he knew that was the title.
Pinecastle Records has released a new single from their upcoming instrumental bluegrass album, Bluegrass 2022.
Following in a long tradition begun in 1995, banjo master Scott Vestal has recorded stellar projects for the label in many of these years, each similarly named for the release date. Working in his own Digital Underground studio near Nashville, Scott brings in a group of top bluegrass pickers to cut a mix of standard and original music. That initial record, Bluegrass ’95, was named Recorded Event of the Year by the IBMA at their Awards ceremony the following year.
This next, set for wide release later this year, again finds Vestal on banjo with Cody Kilby on guitar, Jonah Horton on mandolin, Tim Crouch on fiddle, Randy Kohrs on reso-guitar, and Byron House on bass. Scott also engineered and produced. It even boasts of original artwork from impressionist painter and banjo picker CW Mundy.
Today’s single is EMD, an early David Grisman classic from 1977, included on his first, self-titled album with The David Grisman Quintet. Here it gets a raucous bluegrass treatment, with banjo and dobro, which you can hear below.
The much heralded annual instrumental projects helmed by Scott Vestal for Pinecastle Records have returned after a 19 year hiatus. Launched 25 years ago as Bluegrass ’95, these virtuosic recordings featured Vestal on banjo with a revolving cast of Nashville superpickers running through a mix of bluegrass standards and new compositions. Always transparently recorded at Scott’s Digital Underground studio, the albums were released each year through 2001, and are highly treasured by listeners who enjoy contemporary bluegrass picking.
And now they’re back. Pinecastle has dropped a first single from Bluegrass 2020, which finds Vestal back at the board – and the five – with a new generation of young bluegrass artists at his side. Patrick McAvinue from Dailey & Vincent is on fiddle, Cody Kilby of Travelin’ McCoury’s on guitar, and Dominick Leslie of Hawktail on mandolin, with Scott’s brother Curtis on bass.
Though the cast is new, the formula hasn’t changed from its founding concept. Bluegrass 2020 starts with Earl Scruggs’ classic, Foggy Mountain Chimes, and ends with Vestal’s By Stealth, originally cut for the Knee Deep In Bluegrass record in 2000. In between are strong takes on familiar numbers, along with new tunes from the various members.
A complete playlist follows:
Foggy Mountain Chimes
Five & Dime
Kentucky Mandolin
Pipeliner Blues
Sunday Drive
Shenandoah Breakdown
Storm and Desire
Vanleer
Valley Forge
By Stealth
For the single, Pinecastle has chosen the second track, Five & Dime, written by McAvinue, a hard-charging fiddle tune where everyone gets a piece.
Bluegrass 2020 is expected on June 26 from Pinecastle. The single will be available soon wherever you stream or download music online. Radio programmers can get it now via AirPlay Direct.
On Tuesday night, Sturgill Simpson played the Grand Ole Opry. No big news there, as the Americana/country singer and songwriter has become something of a celebrity in town this past few years while his records have garnered more and more critical acclaim and chart success.
But this show was different, as he appeared with a bluegrass band made up of Nashville super pickers, and did an entire 30 minute acoustic set. The neo-outlaw singer was born and raised in Kentucky, and knows his way around some Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley.
He enlisted help from Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Scott Vestal on banjo, and Sierra Hull on mandolin, and they performed a set of bluegrass standards on the Opry stage, along with one from his current album.
Not too shabby! Will a bluegrass album be in his future?
Over this past weekend, the 2017 Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass Music was awarded to Scott Vestal. This makes him the 8th recipient of this prestigious prize, which recognizes a player who has demonstrated “a fresh appreciation of this music, either through artistry, composition, innovation or preservation, and is deserving of a wider audience.”
In addition to the recognition, which comes from Martin and a board of banjo players who choose each winner, the prize also includes a $50,000 honorarium and a custom piece of sculpture commissioned from Eric Fischl. The endowment which funds the prize was a donation from Martin.
The award was presented Saturday night (July 29) at the RockyGrass festival in Lyons, CO where Scott was appearing with The Sam Bush Band. Vestal said he had no idea what was going on when someone from offstage approached the microphone.
“We were just finishing up our set, getting ready to do a jam thing to close out. Pete Wernick came out on stage and he had a letter, and I didn’t know what he was up to. I was totally in shock when he read it.
I was almost just kind of laughing… is this really happening? Is there where I should cry? All I could do was giggle.
It was really special having Pete read the letter out. He was always a big cheerleader for me – he and Tony Trischka thought it was so cool that I could play it super straight with Doyle back in the day, but then play all that other stuff too.”
Scott was referencing his introduction to most of the bluegrass world when he worked with Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver from 1985 to ’88. This was the same group that introduced vocalist Russell Moore to the scene, and in fact Scott and Russell came to Doyle together. They had been performing with Southern Connection, along with Scott’s brother, Curtis, on bass and Marc Kellar on guitar. Russell was playing mandolin.
The band had moved from Texas to North Carolina a few months earlier. They were booked at the Denton festival, and just stayed. Lawson called when his original band (Terry Baucom, Jimmy Haley, and Lou Reid) left en masse to start their own group. He hired the whole Southern Connection minus Kellar, and moved Moore over to guitar.
With Quicksilver, Scott played a very traditional, driving banjo style, in keeping with the template that Baucom had laid down for the band. But he also began to slide in some more modern sounds, incorporating more blue notes and unexpected melodic twists that were then known as the chromatic style. It was always perfectly appropriate to Doyle’s approach, but caught the ear of a great many young banjo pickers who were eager to do the same. The band recorded an instrumental of Vestal’s on their Once And For Always album that was an instant jam session classic, Up On The Blue Ridge.
When Scott left Doyle in 1988, he moved down to Georgia and formed Livewire with Wayne Benson, Ernie Sykes, and Robert Hale. They produced a single album, Wired!, for Rounder in 1990. After that group ran its course, Vestal took a gig in Japan for nearly a year. Upon his return he settled in North Carolina, until Harley Allen called from Nashville and told him, “Come on down here and we’ll put us a band together. We’ll get Parmley; he’s just driving a bus.”
That was the beginning of Continental Divide, a partnership that Scott and David Parmley kept intact for the next four years. Allen was only involved at the beginning, as Scott tells us that Harley’s songwriting career was picking up and he really didn’t want to travel much. Their sound had a decidedly Nashville vibe, intentionally seeking to mix bluegrass with contemporary country.
This was a time when Scott’s musical interests were expanding rapidly to include influences from a variety of styles and sounds. He recorded a solo project in ’92 called In Pursuit Of Happiness which merged all these new ideas on a single disc. There were very modern blues funk numbers side-by-side with Texas fiddle tunes and banjo classics. The banjo approach included all the styles he was experimenting with, roll-style, a Reno-esque single string style, and his fully-developed melodic style. His version of Earl Scruggs’ Ground Speed is a perfect example.
In 1996, Scott won the IBMA’s Banjo Player of the Year award, one he shared with Sammy Shelor.
While working with Doyle some years earlier, Vestal had begun working on his idea for a radically different banjo design. Its unique look and sound came partly by design, and partly by chance. In England he had seen a banjo where the 5th string was attached at the headstock with the others, and traveled through a tunnel cut in the neck until it emerged at the 5th fret. He was taken by the smooth contour of the neck and intrigued by not having a 5th string peg in the side of the neck interfering with his left hand movements.
The first neck he had made like this had a shorter scale than a standard 5 string banjo, requiring that he move the bridge in towards the center of the head in order to note true. Scott liked the darker, richer tone it generated, and he has played a banjo like this ever since. He markets them to banjo players worldwide as the Stealth Banjo. It is a distinctive part of his sound.
After he left Continental Divide, Scott worked from 1998 to 2003 with The John Cowan Band. Here he was able to stretch his creative wings and reach for new things on the banjo. John’s music was acoustic, but very progressive, plus he performed much of the material he had recorded with New Grass Revival. This was all right in Vestal’s wheelhouse. They even cut an acoustic version of Long Distance Runaround from ’70s English prog-rockers, Yes.
Scott kept his bluegrass sweet tooth sated while working with Cowan by producing and playing on a series of popular instrumental projects for Pinecastle, starting with one called Bluegrass ’95. This one started as a solo record for guitarist Clay Jones, but when he went to ground after it was finished Pinecastle called Scott to ask what they should do with the master. He suggested they put it out as a generic release and call it Bluegrass ’95. They did, and it was so well received that he created one each year for them through 2001.
The material on these CDs included jam session standards and original tunes, produced with a rotating cast of Nashville super pickers. All are still available from Pinecastle, including a pair of compilation albums they put together when the CDs went out of print a few years ago. Taken together, they were the most successful instrument albums Pinecastle ever had.
A couple of tracks from Bluegrass ’98 demonstrate the whimsy and respect that they showed on these projects. First, a tune Scott put together as G Runs and Scruggs Licks, which is just as described. Along with Aubrey Haynie, Wayne Benson, Jeff Autry, Mark Schatz, and Randy Kohrs, Vestal throws a bevy of stock phrases at the wall and ends up with this tune.
And this cut of Dear Old Dixie, a Dixieland classic that Earl Scruggs recorded in 1957 and now exists in the forefront of the bluegrass banjo canon. Listen as Scott lays down a note perfect rendition of Earl’s arrangement.
Midway through this Pinecastle series, Scott opened his own recording studio, Digital Underground, located now in Greenbrier, TN. Bluegrass ’99, 2000, and 2001 were tracked and mixed there. Today he records just about every type of music Nashville produces, including top bluegrass acts like Band Of Ruhks.
He left Cowan’s band in 2003, and worked with a number of groups, spending time with Rock County, doing some fill-in work with Longview, and free-lancing with Shawn Camp.
Then in 2006, just as he had released a record with his wife, Alice, a call came from Sam Bush. Vestal has been a member of The Sam Bush Band ever since. Most of his performance energy has gone there, though he was featured playing banjo on Dwight Yoakam’s recent bluegrass record, Swimming Pools, Movie Stars.
In a bit of cosmic timing, he is finishing up a new instrumental project now which he hopes can be released later this year or early next. It will be more like his most recent solo album, Millenia, released in 2000, than the Bluegrass series for Pinecastle, i.e., on the progressive side of banjo music.
Speaking of his most recent honoree, Steve Martin tells us that they had Scott in mind each year since the award was launched in 2010.
“Scott has always been shortlisted and this year was his year. He’s a great melodious player with chops a mile wide.”
Each time it came up in conversation, Vestal’s response was the same… “It’s still kind of shocking.”
He says that his Bush bandmate Stephen Mougin accurately summed up his plans for the cash award. Someone came up to Mougin at RockyGrass and said, “I bet Scott will be buying a bunch of fancy new microphones with that money,” and he replied, “No. He’ll be paying for school for those kids!”
Congratulations Scott Vestal. A true innovator on the five string banjo and one of the most creative players we’ve yet seen.
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.
Seth Taylor, lead guitarist with Dailey & Vincent, is in the studio completing his first solo project in Nashville, with Jim VanCleve producing.
The 20 year old wunderkind first hit the scene playing with Pine Mountain Railroad while he was still in high school. He was a founding member of Monroeville in 2010, and was soon snatched up by Mountain Heart. After working with them for about three years, Seth jumped over to Dailey & Vincent.
By the time he was 12 years old, Taylor was placing and winning instrument competitions on both guitar and banjo. In 2008 he won first place in the MerleFest guitar contest. This kid can play.
VanCleve says that several members of Mountain Heart have already tracked for the album, and Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent are due to come in and sing on one shortly.
“Seth is currently in discussions with labels and hopes to have an agreement/announcement regarding that end of things very soon. This is already a very exciting project, and with every little piece of the puzzle we add in, it gets more and more electric!
We’re really pumped about what we’re getting to tape, and really look forward to watching the world learn more about Seth and his music. He’s simply one of the best around, and just one of my favorite people.
We’re shooting for wrapping up things in the next month or so and hopefully will have the project available for folks before the end of the Summer.”
Seth is delighted with how things are going.
“We’ve been working on this music for a few months now, and it’s coming together great. I’ve been fortunate enough to have some of my favorite musicians in the world come in and play on this stuff, and I’m so excited for everyone to hear it.
Sam Bush and Scott Vestal have been in this week (which has been unbelievable), we’ve had most of the Mountain Heart gang in, and we’ve got a few more special guests lined up to come in soon.
The material for this album has been such a challenge, but extremely fun. Heavily bluegrass-influenced, however we are definitely branching out. Hopefully people will enjoy what they hear when we finally get this thing released. Jim VanCleve, engineer David Hall, and all the musicians have worked really hard to make this thing come to life, and we’re really proud of how its turning out.”
We’ll be on the lookout for more details on this project, which promises to be a fine showcase for young Seth Taylor.
