With the release of his third album for Patuxent Music, That’s Why I’m Lonesome, Danny Paisley builds on his solidly established reputation as a specialist in powerful, unadorned and intense traditional bluegrass music.
This release features a mixture of old and new songs and tunes as did his earlier CDs. In the first category is the classic Ted Lundy-Bob Paisley tunes Never Been So Lonesome in My Life (Ted Lundy, Fred Hannah and Sam Humphrey) and (You’re the) Rainbow in my Dreams. In this instance Rainbow in my Dreams has Dudley Connell singing lead while Danny Paisley switches to tenor, saying, “Dad said he could remember Charlie Bailey singing it.” No Vacancy is the title track of a Brandywine CD recorded by Bob Paisley; the Gospel song Light at the River was penned by Carl Story; Harold’s Super Service, a Bobby Wayne song recorded by Merle Haggard, is another given hard-driving treatment; Rhonda Vincent sings tenor on Will You Visit Me On Sundays, a Dallas Frazier-penned tear-jerker recorded by George Jones and Conway Twitty, among others, is given a country music arrangement with Billy Wheeler playing the steel guitar.
The recently penned songs are the opening track, the title cut written by Tom Mindte, “in an airplane on the way back from the IBMA leadership bluegrass meeting,” where “some of the panelists were stressing the need for artists to use original material;” long-time friend of Paisley’s and banjo picker, Bill Runkle, wrote Who Do you Think you’re Fooling?; while Bob Amos pitched I’m a Walking Back to Bluefield, originally Walking Back to Bristol.
There are three instrumentals, one an ‘oldie’, Cattle in The Cane, show-casing TJ Lundy’s fiddle, a Mark Delaney composition, Runnin’ Late, and Ryan Paisley’s original Mullingar Quickstep, a “nifty little tune…. title[d] in honor of my mother, Ryan grandmother’s – Vivian O’Connor Paisley – whose family came from Mullingar, Ireland.”
Supporting Danny Paisley, IBMA’s 2016 male vocalist of the year on guitar and vocals, are Southern Grass members Ryan Paisley (mandolin and vocals), highly-respected banjo player Bobby Lundy (playing bass and providing vocals); returning after a brief hiatus, TJ Lundy, a noted fiddler bridging the gap between old time fiddling and bluegrass music, and Mark Delaney, formerly with Randy Waller and the Country Gentlemen, and Darren Beachley & Legends of the Potomac, (banjo).
Augmenting the regular band are guests Rhonda Vincent – tenor vocal on Will You Visit Me On Sundays?; Dudley Connell – lead vocal on Rainbow in my Dreams; Bill Runkle – lead vocal on chorus of Who Do You Think You’re Fooling? and Never Been So Lonesome in My Life; Tom Mindte – tenor vocal on That’s Why I’m Lonesome, bass vocal on Light at The River and baritone vocal on Will you Visit me on Sundays?; and Billy Wheeler – pedal steel guitar on Will You Visit Me On Sundays?.
The full track listing is as follows –
That’s Why I’m Lonesome / Rainbow in my Dreams / Does It have To End This Way? / Runnin’ Late / No Vacancy / Harold’s Super Service / Cattle in The Cane / Who do You Think you’re Fooling? / Mullingar Quickstep / Never Been So Lonesome in My Life / I’m a Walking Back to Bluefield / Light at The River / Will you Visit me on Sundays?
A copy of this Tom Mindte-produced CD, That’s Why I’m Lonesome (Patuxent 311), or a digital download can be purchased direct from Patuxent Music.
There is a launch party taking place this coming Friday, December 7, 2018, at the Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music concert at the Unitarian Fellowship Hall in Newark, Delaware, starting at 8:00 p.m.
Tickets are available online now or at the door, priced as follows – General Public $20; Seniors $17; Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music Members $15; Students with school ID $10; Ages 17 and under free.
