Town Mountain at The Shed in Marysville, TN (713/24) – photo © Scott Shankland
It was a relatively small but especially enthusiastic crowd that greeted Town Mountain at The Shed in Maryville, TN midway into the band’s six day jaunt this past Saturday night. Happily then, the Asheville North Carolina-based band repaid the audience’s anticipation with a riveting 18 song set that lasted nearly two hours, and never lapsed in terms of drive or delivery.
The six piece ensemble, consisting of co-founder, guitarist and vocalist Robert Greer, co-founder, singer and mandolinist Phil Barker, fiddler Bobby Britt, Zach Smith on bass, and more recent additions Silas Hamilton playing pedal steel, and new drummer Camry Harris, maintained that steady stride courtesy of the rock and roll revelry they infused within a specific bluegrass template. Harris and Smith effectively propelled each of the songs with a determined energy and exuberance, while Barker and Greer manned the front line as Britt and Jernigan added the extra textures.
With a selection of songs culled from each of the band’s albums, and three in particular drawn from their recent covers EP, the band ran the length and breadth of their prodigious career. Their takes on the Dire Straits classic, So Far Away, Bruce Springsteen’s I’m On Fire, and the rousing bluegrass instrumental, Flannery’s Reel, were especially affecting, but, in fact, every song added to the overall excitement.
Greer introduced Whiskey With Tears as a “good ‘ole country shuffle,” and the audience roared its approval in return — this was a Saturday night crowd after all — but so too, the sweet serenade conveyed through Snowin’ On Raton offered a nice respite as well. Farewell Boy shared the sound of a Cajun celebration, further fostering the band’s resolute reputation.
“It can be difficult,” Barker replied when asked about the challenge of transforming the sound of the studio to the energy on stage. “It depends some on the record. Some of the songs we had on Lines In the Levee, we did from a production standpoint that we found hard to replicate onstage. You have to find a way when you’re playing live to try to replicate that with what you do have on hand. I have a couple of effects pedals that help achieve that. Or maybe we’ll have the fiddle cover the accordion part. You have to pay attention arrangement-wise. With our cover record, we were kind of playing it live anyway. ‘Okay, here it is. Let’s do that again.’ But with a live show, we have the energy of the people watching us, which always adds to the moment. It’s all depending on the conception of the record that you’re trying to replicate. Some are easier than others.”
Backstage, before the show, Barker was amiable, personable, and fully candid when it came to discussing the band’s positioning. For example, he said that their stage show leaves room for spontaneity, but only within certain parameters.
“If we keep our arrangements somewhat organized, we all know what to expect,” he explained. “There’ll be moments where we can let it go, and we’re just listening to see what’s going to happen. But I’d say for the most part, we’ve kind of got an idea of how it’s gonna go — your solos, your fills, when you can jump in and do something different, which is always a nice moment to have. Still, I’d say for the most part, we kind of keep it somewhat predictable.”
This was the band’s first visit to The Shed, although Barker said they had played nearby Knoxville quite a bit in the past. “We’ve always heard about this place,” he added, taking notice of all the posters and memorabilia dotting the ceiling of the dressing room. Of course, given the recent heatwave and the fact that they were playing an outdoor venue, might not have made for the most comfortable setting.
“It’s very difficult,” Barker conceded. “It’s been a tough weekend. Humidity plus record breaking temps. It’s like ‘drink your water. Bring some extra strings because they will be crusty or popping.'”
When the subject turned to the band’s covers EP, Barker mentioned that it was their label, New West Record’s idea. “They wanted us to go into the studio and just have fun, and what better place to do it than at Levon Helm’s Barn?” he reflected. “That place is just legendary. And it’s just got such a buzz — a musical buzz when you walk in there. You can’t help but think about all the amazing moments that have happened in that room. That was probably some of the most fun we’ve had in the studio, because there was literally no pressure. We were in there for three days and just had fun. We probably lean towards that record the heaviest on stage, but we still throw in some of the classics that we know that people love to hear. Our show is kind of all over the place.”
Barker also said that Town Mountain’s next album is currently in the planning stages, and they hope to have it out by the end of the year. “It’s on the horizon,” he suggested. “I’m thinking maybe winter, which would be nice. We have new material happening all the time. We’ll play a couple of new songs tonight, which is part of the thrill of the live show for us. It just keeps it fresh for us, because that’s the energy of a brand new song. It makes it fun for everybody.”
He said that in the past few years, they’ve performed roughly 80 to 100 dates a year. The travel adds another 30 day days on top of that. “We stay busy,” he suggested. “We keep working on it, and keep chipping away at it, and just love doing it. At the same time, we’ve kind of found this nice balance where we also get our time at home, and have time to do a few other things. That’s important, very important.”
Happily, that arrangement adds to his satisfaction. He insisted that he continues to enjoy performing and being in front of a live audience. “I absolutely do,” he said. “And as soon as I don’t, I don’t think I’ll do it. It’s exciting to make new friends and to see the old friends at this point, and get to travel to amazing places. At the end of the day, you have to be grateful you’re playing music for a living. You’re doing something that so many people would love to be doing. You can lose sight of it after you’ve been at it for a number of years like we’ve been at it, but it’s something I try to remind myself of daily. This is a privilege to have people want to come see you play music and request your songs. That’s an honor, and I try not to take it for granted and, in turn, try to fulfill it to the best of my ability.”
He also makes a point as far as emphasizing the work that’s involved as well. “You’re working from the time you pull into the gate, you’re loading in for soundcheck, and rehearsing,” Barker noted. “There’s a lot that goes into that moment when you’re on stage. But at the end of the day, there’s a lot of worse ways to earn a living.”
