CMT Blog: Bluegrass

If you like bluegrass music, I have a couple of recommendations for you. The first is Marty Raybon & Full Circle’s This That and the Other. You may recognize Raybon as the engaging lead singer of Shenandoah, who had a batch of popular country singles in the late 1980s and early 1990s. These days he’s pursuing bluegrass music full time yet the new material doesn’t stray far from Shenandoah hits like “Next to You, Next to Me” or “If Bubba Can Dance (I Can Too).” If you like those tunes, try “Everybody’s Reaching (Out for Someone)” and “Luzianna Man.” You’ll be pleased to discover that his voice still sparkles.

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Listening to Sarah Jarosz‘ album, Song Up in Her Head, I found myself soul searching on my way to work. There is something about this 18-year-old. I can’t decide if I was mesmerized by her impeccable instrumental skills, her blues-drenched lyrics or her passion. Still, she is just like any other teenage girl and loves to talk. Jarosz was so willing to chat with me that I felt like I was laughing along with my best friend.

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Last winter a young bluegrass group called the Abrams Brothers filed off their bus at the CMT offices after a long and snowy trip from their home in Canada. Groups or artists stop by and perform here once in a while, but this band of two brothers and a cousin was especially memorable. They were definitely a bluegrass group and had the type of chops that would be at home on the Grand Ole Opry stage — which they played in 2005 — but being teenagers, they were also very eager to experiment with the genre. One song in particular showed that — a well thought-out arrangement of Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida.” I’m glad to see that now they have a video to go along with the track, so enjoy as they walk crowded city streets singing about a once-powerful king on the verge of losing it all.

As the sun rose on the Summer Solstice, high above the festival grounds, I was busy celebrating the birth of the season with a ridiculously late lie-in. I’d jammed the night before until 7 a.m. with some of the finest acoustic musicians in the world, and only got back to my bed by 9 a.m., dishevelled and exhausted. That’s why I’m unable to tell you how Mike Farris did. The same for WPA (featuring Glen Phillips and Sara Watkins), the SteelDrivers and Todd Snider. Is this why I’m a musician and not a journalist … ? I’ll leave it to Tim O’Brien, who gave Farris the award for Most Effective Use of Three Chords. He also raved about the SteelDrivers (listen to Lee Ann Womack’s version of “Either Way” for Chris Stapleton’s amazing vocals) and WPA. Tim himself gave an exquisite set, armed with Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Bryan Sutton on guitar and Dennis Crouch on bass — a real master class in singing, playing and writing.

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Over the last few months, I’ve been working my way through a tall stack of independent CDs, hoping to unearth a few hidden gems for any adventurous listeners out there. I’ll launch this summer playlist with Hank Williams Jr., who pays tribute to his country heroes on “Mighty Oak Trees.” In a similar fashion, Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel honor the Western Swing pioneers with “Hesitation Blues,” while Daryle Singletary poignantly remembers the late Vern Gosdin with a cover of “How Can I Believe in You.” Beyond that, you’ll find some unfamiliar names, forging their path in the music world.

“Mighty Oak Trees,” Hank Williams Jr.
“Hesitation Blues,” Willie and the Wheel
“How Can I Believe You,” Daryle Singletary
“Anywhere Is Home When You’re With Me,” Rhonda Vincent
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We awoke on Telluride Mountain on Saturday (June 20) — day three of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival — to a dark and cloudy day threatening rain, so we all donned our raincoats and unloaded the gear as smatterings of rain fell upon us. Music lovers at this festival are not deterred by such transient things and most seemed to have packed accordingly. Several guests, including Bryan Sutton, Luke Reynolds and Kasey Chambers and her father, Bill Chambers, joined us onstage at a workshop in Elk Park in the centre of Telluride. It’s always fun to invite a singer on stage and try and see if you know a song in common — little does the audience know you are often inches away from a possible disaster! But not at Telluride. All the guests were amazing and sang their hearts out.

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Drop a bluegrass festival in one of the most stunningly beautiful environments in the country and you better get some great acts to do it justice. So how do you choose two musicians to kick off the party? Why not Tim O’Brien and Jerry Douglas? Tim can do no wrong — not for me, and not for the thousands of people who watched his festival opening set with Jerry. If he was any more relaxed onstage he’d take a nap (I’ve seen him do that actually), and as they ripped into “Times in Life,” you could feel the Telluride crowd collectively let out a sigh of relief as all their troubles floated up to the mountain top. Singing a collection of originals and folk tunes, Tim announced that by then he had lyrically already killed two women and made love to one - and he hoped to restore the balance before the end of the set!

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I arrived at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn., on Thursday (June 11) to questionable weather. After getting all checked in (and most importantly, a campsite set up after a torrential downpour) I ventured into the main area, Centeroo, to see how the fest was coming along. Finally at 8:30 p.m., I got to see some music. I checked out garage-punk-with-a-country-twist female trio Those Darlins from Murfreesboro, Tenn. They have a new record coming out soon and I’m anticipating my copy. After Those Darlins wrapped up a dance-filled, sweaty set, it was time to head to the campsite for some downtime. However, downtime turned into downpour and I listened to the Zac Brown Band’s great set from my dry campsite, since I was ensuring that the tents didn’t fly away in the storm. I can only visualize the drenched beards of ZBB after that set.

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Chris Pandolfi plays banjo for the Infamous Stringdusters, one of the most promising bands in contemporary bluegrass. He’s also the latest member of that band to step out with a solo album, Looking Glass. However, you shouldn’t write this off as a mere “banjo album” because the young musician enlisted many of his friends and heroes to play on the project, which he recorded in a home studio to capture a live and organic sound. Bluegrass fans will recognize the special guests, such as fiddler Stuart Duncan, guitarist Chris Eldridge, mandolin player Matt Flinner and bassist Byron House, as well as all the Stringdusters. On the whole, Looking Glass is a substantial, interesting album that is rife with top-notch picking without venturing into weird territory. In other words, it’s easy to enjoy and it suggests that the future of acoustic music is in reliable hands.

I took a road trip last weekend with a friend of mine who likes bluegrass music. As he was flipping through my CD carrier, I think he was reluctant when I suggested Steve Martin’s banjo album, The Crow, but we ended up listening to it a couple of times. It’s one of the finest albums I’ve heard all year, especially when Vince Gill and Dolly Parton sing to each other on “Pretty Flowers,” with Earl Scruggs joining Martin on the banjo lines. If that sounds like you’re cup of tea, check out a few other indie artists on this summer playlist.

“Clawhammer Medley,” Steve Martin
“Two Days of Darkness,” the Belleville Outfit
“Cuba Vera Swing,” Spring Creek (with Michael Cleveland)
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