Tag: folk music

Review: New Christy Minstrels 1962-1970

 in Reviews

By Ken Paulson

–The New Christy Minstrels, a highly commercial folk ensemble formed in 1962, is perhaps best known today for the musical achievements of alumni, including Kenny Rogers, Kim Carnes and Gene Clark.

Former band members went on to play in the Byrds, the Association and the First Edition, a measure of the rich recruiting done by founder Randy Sparks.

Documenting that history is The New Christy Minstrels, 1962-1970, a Real Gone Music collection. The excellent liner notes by Tom Pickles document the path of the group from groundbreaking “folk chorus” to a folk corporation with interchangeable parts.

The New Christy Minstrels were lampooned in the film A Mighty Wind, and a handful of tracks here sound like they could have come from the movie soundtrack. The group’s “This Land is Your Land” conveniently excises Guthrie’s lyrics about the inequity of land ownership.

But other songs are quite notable, including five of their six charting singles and the long-shelved “Funny Familiar Forgotten Feelings,”  a Mickey Newbury song performed by a young Kenny Rogers.

There’s also the oddity “You Need Someone to Love,” a 1970 release featuring session singers rather than group members. It’s a fun bit of pop that could have come from that Fifth Dimension’s catalog.

For New Christy Minstrels fans, this long-awaited compilation will be a real treat. For others, it offers a glimpse into a time when clean-cut Americans with banjos looked like the next big thing.

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Review: Bill Monroe 100th Year Celebration: Live At Bean Blossom

 in Americana Music, Reviews

By Joe Ross

– A CD sampler of live cuts from a bluegrass festival can rarely capture the real feeling and spirit of those special musical moments when bands play their hearts out to thousands of fans. However, second best to actually being there, some favorite LPs of mine were those double-disc sets with an array of professional bluegrass bands on a a festival’s stage. The 1973 Bean Blossom LP comes to mind, and The Stanley Brothers’ Live at McClure album from is another winner. In more recent times, the Rural Rhythm record label released Live at Graves Mountain (RUR-1073), a great sampling of music from the 18th Annual Syria, Va. bluegrass festival in June 2010. That product celebrated the 55-year anniversary of the record label. Now they’ve released “Live at Bean Blossom” (RUR-1090) as a salute to Bill Monroe who would’ve been 100 years old in 2011.

Live at Bean Blossom was recorded June 11-18, 2011 at the 45th Annual Bill Monroe Festival in Indiana. Twelve different professional acts pay tribute to the Father of Bluegrass Music. The album begins with “Uncle Pen,” one of the greatest bluegrass songs ever written and a tribute itself to one of the Big Mon’s key influences. “Can’t You Hear Me Callin’” is one that Bill Monroe referred to as a “true-life song,” with its autobiographical, yet also universal meaning. Grasstowne’s acappella quartet arrangement of “Were You There?” is particularly reverent and moving.

The crowd never tires of the classic “Footprints in the Snow.” Some of the bands also choose to cover some of Monroe’s newer material such as “Six Feet under the Ground” (1978) and “Southern Flavor” (1988), as well as some of his most powerful instrumentals from the ’40s and ’50s, including “Big Mon” and “Bluegrass Breakdown.” The latter is performed with the three mandolins of Ronnie Reno, Jackie Miller and John Mayberry.

In the introduction to “With Body and Soul,” Chris West (of Blue Moon Rising) says, “I think Bill Monroe was the best songwriter ever, both in melody and lyrics. They’re just awesome.”

This album affirms it, as well as the fact that Monroe started a genre of music that continues to grow around the world today. Every bluegrass musician has memories they cherish of Bill Monroe and his music. The man was larger than life, and this CD provides only a snapshot of the tremendous influence he’s had on so many others.

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Review: Blackberry Winter’s “In These Ozark Hills”

 in Americana Music

By Joe Ross

With four traditional tunes, five originals, and eight covers, the Missouri-based string band Blackberry Winter has produced a pleasant album chock full of downhome flavor and personality.
These self-professed “old hillbillies” have long resumes with folk, big band, swing, rockabilly and even funk music. Common interests in music, friendship and camaraderie bring the  players together from many walks of life. Blackberry Winter’s seven eclectic members have also pursued careers in journalism, broadcasting, photography, nature study, music teaching, massage therapy, real estate and home remodeling.
The band originally formed when singer/storyteller Marideth Sisco pulled them together to play soundtrack music for “Winter’s Bone,” an award-winning melodrama set in the Missouri Ozarks. The rest of the affable group is Dennis Crider (guitar), Bo Brown (guitar, mandolin, Dobro), Van Colbert (clawhammer banjo), Linda Stoffel (vocals, washboard), Tedi May (bass), and Billy Ward (fiddle).

In a tribute to their home, the album opens with Sisco’s passionate lyrics about the “rich, deep current of life always running through these Ozark Hills.” The songs with spare instrumental settings are especially effective for the nostalgic and evocative sentiments. “Cold Rain and Snow” brings chills with its rustic accompaniment of banjo and fiddle.
Tom Waits’ “House Where Nobody Lives,” Hedy West/Don West’s “Anger in the Land” and Hazel Dickens’ “Fly Away Little Pretty Bird” are also sparsely arranged, imparting old-timey front porch intensity. The project also taps the work of luminaries like Dave Macon, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Natalie Merchant, Kate Long and Bill Carlisle. I’ve heard several bands cover “Who Will Watch the Home Place,” a song that seems a perfect fit for this band’s ethos and approach, as do “Gone Home” and “The Water is Wide.”

Blackberry Winter is a successful regional band, and they recently completed a 27-city “Amazing Geriatric Hillbilly U.S. World Tour” to promote the “Winter’s Bone” soundtrack. It’s nice to see them keeping the ensemble together, as well as pursuing a variety of string band styles.
While large-scale commercial success may elude them, I’m sure they have a solid fan base in their home state. “Use It Up” might even have a biographical thread – “no need to strive for riches, you can patch it up with kisses, it ain’t old, it ain’t old, it ain’t old, it’s just seen a lot of life.”
Sung from the heart, their music helps us lay down heavy burdens and weary bodies. A swingy song like “City Kicks” might best capture their prevalent message – “I’m going to throw away all my bills, when I get to those Ozark Hills, and trade these old hard times for an easy chair. And I ain’t gonna need no liquor, gonna hang with them guitar pickers, gonna play away my blues when I get down there.”

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