Tag: Three Tall Pines

As long as there has been bluegrass music, musicians have been reinventing older songs. With their latest release, Taproot, Massachusetts-based quartet Three Tall Pines offers their takes on instantly-recognizable classics made famous by Bill Monroe, The Stanley Brothers, and other bluegrass and pre-bluegrass groups. Though the album could really be considered an EP, with only six songs, it’s still chock full of Americana-grass that the band’s fans should certainly enjoy.

There are two Monroe songs here – a couple of his more lonesome numbers, although the Three Tall Pines arrangements aren’t quite as mournful as Monroe’s were. With Body and Soul opens up the album with an eerie triple fiddle intro (courtesy of band member Conor Smith and guests Brittany Haas and Lauren Rioux) that sets the song’s tone well. Imagine if Steve Earle went bluegrass, and you’d have the version here. Walls of Time has much of the same feel – dark and earthy. Guitarist Dan Bourdeau’s lead vocals are gritty and raw, and the other band members add nice harmonies on the chorus.

The Stanley Brothers are represented by Angel Band, which sticks quite close to the original version, with stripped down instrumentation. The album’s other Gospel track, Crying Holy, is perhaps the grassiest here. It’s upbeat, with fine fiddling from Smith and solid bass work from Nick DiSebastian. Many recent versions of this traditional song have been played at breakneck speed, and this is just a bit slower.

>Rounding out the album are a driving version of the traditional old time number Raleigh and Spencer, helped along by the banjo playing of guest Ron Cody (who also produced the album), and one original, Stonewalls, a well-written lament about the changes in a rural community. This song has a slightly different feel than the rest of the album, with more of a weary alt-country vibe.  Although it was written by Bourdeau, it sounds like it might have come from the pen of noted country/Americana singer-songwriter Chris Knight.

Three Tall Pines isn’t a band that sticks to the high lonesome sound, but their versions of these old songs are still well-done. Bourdeau (guitar), Smith (fiddle), DiSebastian (bass and guitar), and Joe Lurgio (mandolin) have put together a short but satisfying collection that gives a nod to both the past and the edges of bluegrass.

For more information on Three Tall Pines, visit their website at www.threetallpines.com. Their new album can be purchased from several online retailers.

In order to write and perform music featuring Appalachian subjects, one does not have to have a rural heritage, as proven by the members of Massachusetts-based band Three Tall Pines. Their latest release, All That’s Left, relies heavily on images of farming and the old homeplace, subjects that fans of bluegrass music might identify with the southern mountains – not the urban northeast. However, the sparse arrangements and mournful vocals of lead singers and songwriters Dan Bourdeau and Joe Lurgio make these themes seem right at home in Boston.

It is a rare occasion that a relatively new group within the spectrum of bluegrass is able to release a recording of all original material. However, the members of Three Tall Pines (Bourdeau – guitar; Lurgio – mandolin; Conor Smith – fiddle; and Gian Pangaro – bass and dobro) have done just that with All That’s Left, recorded at Hi n Dry Studies in Somerville, Massachusetts. With their last album, Short While Ago, the band received both regional and national recognition, being named #1 in bluegrass by Ourstage.com in July 2008, as well as finalists in NPR’s Mountain Stage Newsong Contest. Accompanied by a host of guest musicians and even a chorus of “Weary Travelers” accompanying the closing track and song of the same name, Three Tall Pines is set to achieve even more with this new album.

The members of Three Tall Pines and their guests play standard musical instruments associated with the bluegrass genre, but their musical style is far from traditional bluegrass, and instead fits well within the Americana and folk music realm. To label them as bluegrass would be imprecise, as they lack a banjo within the regular lineup. To pinpoint a place of origin for the band’s influences is somewhat difficult, as they list artists such as Jimmie Rodgers and Bob Dylan as inspiration, yet sound more akin to Justin Townes Earle. In order to show the wide array of styles these musicians draw from, you can look no further than their bass player, Gian Pangaro, who not only has experience in bluegrass bands but also in a San Francisco-based Latin dance band.

Two of the album’s standout tracks are its instrumentals, Rosebud and Metamorphosis. The latter features classical influences, including an interesting bowed bass solo. Broken Panes, the story of a man revisiting his childhood home, is an excellent piece with vivid images of “rusty nails and boards, dusty hardwood floors… all that’s left of this home place.” The sharp images in Blue Pontiac’s tale of a cheating husband and a wife who simply sits at “home in her old nightgown” also create a particularly striking song. Other pieces on this record range from historic numbers like the Dust Bowl-themed Black Sunday Blues to Tie One On, a celebration of partying on a Saturday night.

While this album may not appeal to fans of Flatt and Scruggs, it is a great example of modern Americana.

For more information on this new quartet, visit www.threetallpines.com.