In yesterday’s edition of the New York Times, the music section had a story featuring Tom T. Hall. The story was focused on Mr. Hall’s relationship to country radio stations and was appropriately headlined as…

Who Needs Country Radio? Not Tom T. Hall

The story spends a good deal of time discussing Hall’s growing alliance with the bluegrass music industry. The author suggests that the reason Hall has been pitching his tunes to bluegrass artists in recent years is that Hall felt the bluegrass artists would be true to the songs and not change them to make them commercially acceptable for country radio, thus preserving the integrity of his music.

Who would record them without changing them to make radio happy or forcing him into complicated business deals?

Bluegrass singers would.

Tom T. goes on to discuss his history of growing up in Appalachia, and made this great comment about writing bluegrass songs in collaboration with his wife, Miss Dixie.

Maybe our bluegrass songwriting works so well because we have such different views of Appalachia. As an outsider Miss Dixie sees these people as the hard-working, family-loving salt of the earth. As a member of the clan I see them as just the neighbors. She can see the trees, while all I can see is the forest.

The article is a fairly length piece, at a solid two pages, and worth the read. Four streaming audio files are also included featuring Tom T. and Charlie Sizemore.

Our UK correspondent, Richard F Thompson, shares this review of a CD he found to be especially worthy.

Charlie Sizemore recently released Good News, his debut album for Rounder Records (0591) and the first of any kind for five years. For a lot of people it is indeed very good news, even if the CD’s title is a bit convenient. But that’s not really important. What is important is the quality of the music found thereon.

It is exceedingly difficult to pick highlights, favourites, call them what you may, as this is a uniformly excellent album. The songs are all very strong, regardless of source. Sizemore and co-producer Buddy Cannon penned Alison’s Band, I Won’t Be Far From Here and The Less I Drink. The former expresses a wishful desire to play with you know who. Paul Craft wrote Mama Turns Aloosa My Soul and I’ve Fallen And I Can’t Get Up, the driving opener that features some sparkling banjo from Wayne Fields. Both are top quality songs. The tempo changes with the two following songs, I Won’t Be Far From Here and Hard Rock Bottom Of Your Heart, both excellent observations of relationship issues, as is The Less I Drink.

Friends of Sizemore’s, and providers of the recording studio for the sessions which produced these recordings, Dixie and Tom T Hall, wrote Whiskey Willie, and the collaboration with Sizemore, Silver Bugle, a haunting account of another horrific episode in the War between the States. Barnes’s clawhammer banjo playing gives this story an additional atavistic touch.

Other songs are no less enjoyable; Blame It On Vern (co-written by Jeff Barbra and Steve G Jones) eulogizes Vern Gosdin. Doesn’t Sizemore’s singing sound so much like ‘The Voice’ in his prime? Yes, very much so! Upright bass player John Pennell co-wrote Devil On A Plow with Harley Allen, wherein a deceased farmer’s offspring speaks of a hard working existence and the possibilities in afterlife. Providing a little more variation, Matt DeSpain sings lead vocals on Hey Moon, a jaunty request for the moon to shine down on two lovers. DeSpain’s lighter tone is just right for this Ron Workman song.

I suspect that Cannon brought the country numbers Eddie Noack’s No News Is Good News and Hank Cochran’s My Dying Day to the studio. Irrespective of the source, these are very much in keeping with the rest of the package.

Some titles might suggest a low, even funereal, mood, but these are rendered in a matter of fact way with a large dose of dry humour, soul and sensitive consideration of the subject. Sizemore puts all of that into his singing and the listener is very aware of that throughout.

I have already mentioned Wayne Fields and John Pennell, but this album is noted as being by The Charlie Sizemore Band, and Sizemore has gathered together a worthy troupe with two others in Danny Barnes (mandolin, banjo and vocals) and Matt DeSpain (Dobro ¬Æ, Hawaiian guitar and vocals). They all combine to support the vocals and enhance Sizemore’s wonderfully expressive voice. The harmony vocals, whether two-part or a trio, admirably underscore Sizemore’s mellow tones.

This is a consistently top quality CD and Rounder Records did very well to pick it up and release it when it was on offer.

Rounder Records has posted an interview with Charlie Sizemore on their web site. The occasion for the interview is his recent Rounder CD, Good News, but Charlie also talks about the influence of Ralph Stanley and The Stanley Brothers on his music.

In the interview, Sizemore recalls how he came to join Stanley as a member of The Clinch Mountain Boys.

It was 1977‚ĶI was playing with with Melvin and Ray ‚Äì the Goins Brothers. I played lead guitar. During this time, I became fairly well acquainted with Keith Whitley. In September of that year, Renfro Profit, who was playing guitar with Ralph, left the band. Keith wanted to get me into the band playing lead guitar, so he asked me to come down and play the shows with Ralph at Ralph’s festival. Ralph liked what he heard and everybody seemed happy, and Keith said he’d give me a call. I left there thinking ‚Äì and I think virtually everyone around was thinking ‚Äì that I was going to work with Ralph playing lead guitar. It didn’t turn out that way because Danny Marshall, who had previously played with Ralph, ended up getting the job.

Then Keith left the band in November of 1977. Ralph asked me to sing a few songs with him, and I did. And then he asked me if I would come on stage with him and sing a few songs, and I did. And he said I’ll call you on Monday. And guess what? He called me on Monday. That’s how it began and lasted for the next nine years‚Ķ

You can read the entire interview on the Rounder site.

The new CD from Charlie Sizemore, Good News, is out today (8/14) on Rounder. It’s been five years since there was a new studio project from this soulful bluegrass balladeer, songwriter and former Clinch Mountain Boy, and his many fans are not likely to be disappointed by this new release.

For more details on Good News, read this earlier post on the CD than was published on The Bluegrass Blog in June.

As of this morning, neither Rounder’s nor Charlie’s sites offer audio samples from Good News, but you can hear short clips from each song in iTunes. There is also a single song (I’ve Fallen And I Can’t Get Up) on Charlie’s MySpace page. Samples should be available elsewhere soon.

Update 8/27: Samples are now available on Rounder’s site.

Charlie has put together a short video that highlights his career in bluegrass – from the early days with Ralph Stanley to the present – plus highlights and discussion about the new release.

Watch it on Charlie’s web site, or click the player below.