Video Premiere – Gap To Gap from Cane Mill Road

By now most of us have heard jokes and jibes about how well young people understand technology. “If you can’t figure out how to use your smart phone, ask your grandchildren for help!”

And of course it’s true. Young folks today have grown up in a digital world, where screens, computers, and microprocessor-based tech are in the air they breathe. They aren’t in the least bit intimidated by something new in this realm, and swim comfortably in “there’s an app for that” waters.

All this came to mind talking yesterday with William Purcell, the 16 year old mandolinist with Cane Mill Road. They had just completed a first music video for the title track on their current Patuxent album, Gap To Gap, and no… they didn’t hire a production crew to tackle the job. Purcell and his teen and early-twenties bandmates figured out how to do it themselves.

They scouted and shot at locations near their homes in the Blue Ridge region of Virginia and North Carolina, and then edited in nicely into a finished video. The song was likewise written jointly by Purcell and the members of the group, Eliot Smith on bass, Tray Wellington on banjo, and Casey Lewis on guitar. 

William, who also goes by Liam, tells us that the song title and topic came up organically through their shared experience.

“Because we spend our time driving between Rocky Gap where Casey lives, and Deep Gap where I live, with the other two in between.…gap to gap.”

Cane Mill Road is already being noticed in the wider bluegrass world. They were an invited showcase act during this year’s Bluegrass Ramble at the World Of Bluegrass convention, where Wellington had been an IBMA Momentum Award nominee as well.

You can pick up Gap To Gap wherever you stream or download music, and get a CD copy directly from the band online.

Well done, gentlemen!

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About the Author

John Lawless

John had served as primary author and editor for The Bluegrass Blog from its launch in 2006 until being folded into Bluegrass Today in September of 2011. He continues in that capacity here, managing a strong team of columnists and correspondents.