Casey Henry has agreed to send us occasional updates from The American Revival Tour, where she is performing with Dixie Bee-Liners. Also on the tour are Sierra Hull & Highway 111 and headliners Uncle Earl.

Here is Casey’s report.

The arrival of November saw The Dixie Bee-Liners, Uncle Earl, and Sierra Hull and Highway 111 burning up the roads of the southeast in the first week of our much anticipated tour – American Revival: Celebrating the New Stars of American Roots Music.

When three bands of young-ish people get to travel together for four weeks, hi jinx will ensue. We have a long-running tour game involving sausage, but I’ll leave that for another time. Our most fun show, by far, was Halloween at the American Theater in Hampton, VA. Buddy Woodward, Bee-Liner mandolin player, is great at zombie makeup and we took full advantage of his talents. He also helped out Sierra’s band, giving fiddler Christian Ward a slash across the face, bassist Jacob Eller a bullet hole in the head, and transforming guitarist Clay Hess into a very convincing wolf-man. Ron Block went as Ron Howard—no makeup needed! Uncle Earl was four bad witches and one good witch.

Punch Brothers Chris “Critter” Eldridge and Noam Pikelny came for the night’s show. Critter dressed as a Christmas party guest, complete with battery-powered lights. Noam borrowed a spare witch hat and grey wig from Uncle Earl. They joined the Earl girls on stage to sing Happy Birthday to their fiddler, Stephanie “Pumpkin” Coleman, who turned 24.

Our post-show Halloween celebration took place at a little martini bar down the street—Six—where we had tapas and cocktails and played with the motorized witch hat KC Groves had found at the grocery store. It played Ding, Dong, The Witch Is Dead, and wagged its bell-adorned, pointed tip merrily back and forth.

Monday night we played at the Birchmere in Alexandria, a legendary bluegrass venue. For most of the Bee-Liners it was the first time we’d played there and we were honored to get to take the stage where the Seldom Scene ruled for so long. I actually had my fifteenth birthday party at the Birchmere. My parents took me and a group of my friends to see the Johnson Mountain Boys play. My friend Nancy Peterson, who came to the show last night, was at that party. She said it was like coming full circle, getting to see me play on that same stage.

Today is a travel day—more than 500 miles down to South Carolina. The Bee-Liners are stopping by WAMU this morning to play a little in-studio music and then hitting the road.

For more pictures and anecdotes, see Sierra Hull’s blog. I feel this must be the most-blogged-about bluegrass tour ever!

Our UK correspondent, Richard F. Thompson, shares this review.

Claire Lynch has recorded five CDs for the Rounder label previously. The latest, Crowd Favorites (Rounder 0600), consists of several songs in a ‘best of’ collection that in typical fashion these days includes a few new recordings – in this instance, four out of a total of 14 tracks.

Ms. Lynch is a very talented singer with a distinctive voice that is so well suited to the bluegrass, jazz, folk and swing numbers found throughout this album. The evocative and pensive The Day That Lester Died captures an historic incident that is so momentous; the song cleverly relates what the writer/singer was doing at the time. A JFK moment! Other highlights are the swinging Fallin’ In Love and the up-tempo If Wishes Were Horses a great bluegrass reading of a Gretchen Peters song.

Six of the songs were written by Claire Lynch, albeit often with others, the jazzy Jealousy and at the other extreme, Friends For A Lifetime, a loving expression of hope for a long-lasting mother-child relationship, are just two examples of those top quality songs.

At eight minutes long, the original arrangement for Wabash Cannonball, is just as much a showcase for Jim Hurst’s exceptional guitar playing and for Missy Raines’ bass soloing as it is for Ms. Lynch’s vocals. Contrastingly, there’s a noticeably fuller sound to Silver And Gold and Sweethearts Darlin’ Of Mine, both from the same CD originally.

Three of the new recordings are re-done versions of songs from Lynch’s time as a member of Front Porch String Band. Being based in Alabama for much of her life it is natural that Ms. Lynch should write and sing about Hills Of Alabam. Another piece of the Deep South is heralded in Kennesaw Line, the moving story of a personal account of events from the Confederate point of view during a Civil War battle in north Georgia.

Mainstays in supporting Lynch are Missy Raines (bass), Jim Hurst (guitar and vocals), Jason Thomas (fiddle ) – all members of Lynch’s current band – former husband Larry Lynch (mandolin and bazouki) and Rob Ickes (Dobro¬Æ). There’s some stellar moments from several other sidemen, most notable is the Cajun fiddling of the late Randy Howard.

Crowd Favorites is a good showcasing of Claire Lynch’s varied vocal talents.

Our UK correspondent, Richard F Thompson, shares this review.

Cedar Hill is renowned for its adherence to the ultra-traditional style of bluegrass and nothing much has changed with the group’s switch from Hay Holler Records to the recently-formed Blue Circle Records label .

The latest release, Poverty Row (Blue Circle BCR-011), serves as a showcase for fiddler Lisa Ray’s crystal clear and emotive lead singing, more Rhonda Vincent than Alison Krauss in character. Ms Ray is featured in that role on no less than eight of the 12 tracks and two of those are instrumentals. Her voice is keening on the driving opening track, plaintive on the title song, another classic from the pens of Miss Dixie and Tom T Hall and melodious on another great Hall-written number, Big Blue Roses that bears all the hallmarks of a top-notch country song of the 1950s, both in its writing and its performance. Ferrell Stowe’s resophonic guitar playing is a significant factor in creating that sound. Apparently, folks have been asking for awhile now to hear more of Lisa’s vocals and nobody can be disappointed by those three opening tracks.

There’s two instrumentals, the quaintly titled Whiskers In The Sink, by Lisa Ray, which has the hallmarks of those swinging fiddle numbers that Kenny Baker led back in the days of his tenure as a Blue Grass Boy, and Soldier’s Joy, with clawhammer banjo from guest Bobby Minner, who with Ronnie Bowman wrote the closing number, Blood Stained Bible, which relates a story about an Army Chaplain involved in the Normandy troop landing.

Rob Collins shows that he has a fine voice on two numbers, the country standard, Love Gone Cold and Call Me Gone, one of two songs that the songwriter Frank Ray calls, “light hearted songs.” (more…)

Our UK correspondent, Richard F Thompson, remembers Benny Williams, and recounts his long, and largely unheralded career in bluegrass and country music.

Benjamin Horace “Benny” Williams: March 28, 1931 – October 11, 2007.

Benny Williams died earlier this month in St Thomas Hospital, Nashville, Tennessee, from natural causes. He was 76 years old.

One of bluegrass music’s unsung ‘Mr Versatiles,’ Williams was born on Dayton Mountain, Bledsoe County on the Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee. For nearly fifty years, he was noted as one of country music’s most accomplished musicians, singers and songwriters. During his career, he worked with such luminaries as Marty Robbins, Grandpa Jones, Jimmy Martin, Kitty Wells and Johnny Wright, Stonewall Jackson and others (see below). He was adept on autoharp, mandolin, guitar, banjo and, most notably, fiddle.

While still a teenager, Williams got his first job as a bluegrass sideman when he went to work with Mac Wiseman on the Old Dominion Barn Dance in Richmond, Virginia. Then, as a 25-year old, Williams was a member of the Tennessee Cut-Ups when Reno and Smiley were fully re-united after a brief break in the mid-1950s. Subsequently, he had a brief stint with the Stanley Brothers firstly, then with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs.

In 1961 Williams joined the Blue Grass Boy, playing guitar. Later he showed his versatility by switching to play the fiddle and he stayed with that instrument for most of the remainder of his time with Bill Monroe, which ended late in 1967.

He leaves a legacy in the form of contributions to many recordings made during the classic country and bluegrass music era.

In August 1956, during a 12-song recording session in Cincinnati, Williams played some cross-picked mandolin breaks – learned independently from Jesse McReynolds – on Never Get To Hold You In My Arms Anymore and mandolin or fiddle on other songs. These recordings are available on the 4-CD box set, Reno & Smiley and the Tennessee Cut-Ups 1951-1959 [King KBSCD 7001]. (more…)