This column, containing brief reviews of recent CD releases by Richard Thompson, is published in the current (Spring 2009) edition of British Bluegrass News. As it is a lengthy piece, we will break it into two parts, and run the rest next Sunday.

A series of rambles about CDs by bluegrassmercury…

A big bundle of CDs has landed on my desk in the recent past. They include those by Danny Paisley, the Infamous Stringdusters, Williams & Clark Expedition, Kenny & Amanda Smith Band, Daughters Of Bluegrass, High Windy, Gold Heart, Cherryholmes, Earl Scruggs, The Mashville Brigade, Crowe Brothers, Ralph Stanley II, Longview, Big Country Bluegrass.

The Infamous Stringdusters - Travis Book (bass, vocals), Jesse Cobb (mandolin), Andy Falco (guitar), Jeremy Garrett (fiddle, vocals), Andy Hall (dobro, vocals) and Chris Pandolphi (banjo) – are a bunch of young honchos who have just released their second album. This self-titled collection (Sugar Hill 4043) is growing on me. Book’s soulful vocals shine on Won‚Äòt Be Coming Back, the melodic Bound For Tennessee and the bluesy Get It While You Can. Garrett is a fine vocalist as well, as demonstrated on Three Days In July (historians, think Gettysburg, 1863), I Wonder and You Can‚Äòt Handle The Truth. There’s three enjoyable instrumentals in Glass Elevator by Pandolphi, Golden Ticket by Cobb and Black Rock by Hall, keeping interest going until the end. Overall the sextet produces a warm, full sound with fiddle and Dobro ¬Æ prominent, rather than just having one or other, as a lot of groups do.

There aren’t any surprises on Danny Paisley’s The Room Over Mine (Rounder 0589); he continues where he and his father left off. The 13-tack collection epitomizes the hard-driving Galax area mountain-style of bluegrass, with fiddle kick-offs and driving banjo ringing loud and clear. There‚Äòs a couple of outstanding new ‚Äòold’ songs in Chris Stuart’s opener, Don’t Throw Mamma’s Flowers Away and Drowning Sailor, both of which suit Paisley to a ‚ÄòT’. Most of the rest are bluegrass versions of songs from the classic country catalogue, with a couple from his dad’s repertoire, now re-done. In the former category are The Convict And The Rose, written by Betty Chapin and Robert A. King and recorded by Marty Robbins and Charlie Moore among others, I Thought I Heard You Calling My Name, done in a honk-tonk style with walking bass and I’m Coming Back But I Don’t Know When, a song Danny first heard done by Charlie Monroe.

In the second group are At the End of a Long Lonely Day, now done in different way and with different lyrics and A Memory of You, previously recorded by Jim and Jesse. Donnie Eldreth Jr does a great job having learned how to follow Danny’s lead singing and does likewise when he is singing lead as on Another Bridge to Burn, a song from Ray Price’s repertoire. Those Paisleys and the Lundy brothers know how to do it and they do it exceptionally well. (more…)

Rounder Records has announced details of the debut release by Danny Paisley and the Southern Grass. The CD entitled The Room Over Mine (#0589) is scheduled for release on June 24. It is the band’s first release since signing with Rounder Records in August 2005.

Recorded during three separate sessions at Bias Studios, Springfield, Virginia, the material featured on the album comes from the classic country music period, a more recent country song, old band favourites, two instrumentals and a couple of newly written songs.

Of the newer songs, there is one penned by Chris Stuart and Ivan Rosenberg, Don’t Throw Mamma’s Flowers Away, and a Stan Keach song that is tailor-made for the Southern Grass treatment, The Drowning Sailor.

Other tracks include Raising Cain In Texas, a song that singer Gene Watson recorded and was a Top Twenty hit on the Billboard country chart for him in 1980, which Danny arranged Jimmy Martin-style and a few older country songs: The Convict And The Rose, written by Betty Chapin and Robert A. King and recorded by Marty Robbins and Charlie Moore among others; At the End of a Long Lonely Day, a song that Danny’s father recorded, but now done in a different way and with different lyrics; I Thought I Heard You Calling My Name, done in a honky-tonk style with walking bass; A Memory of You, another song that Bob Paisley sang and that was previously recorded by Jim and Jesse; I’m Coming Back But I Don’t Know When, a song Danny first heard done by Charlie Monroe and Another Bridge to Burn, a song that A&R man Ken Irwin sent Danny’s way. Donnie Eldreth Jr. does a great job singing this song from the repertoires of Little Jimmy Dickens and Ray Price.

The band do a reprise of the popular The Room Over Mine, recorded a few years ago for one of Bob Paisley’s Brandywine CDs, and Leaving Detroit, a Charlie Moore song that Danny did for Rounder [Rounder 0142, 1981], along with a couple of old instrumentals, Sweet Potato Rag and Mountain Sally Ann, the latter of which finds Bobby Lundy using a special banjo tuning to get an old-time sound. (more…)

It was about 4:30 am on Thursday night after the awards show.  I was getting tired and about to pack it in for the night but decided with a few friends to go cruising the hotel one last time for the night.  I knew that Noam Pikelny, Danny Barnes, and Casey Driessen had been jamming on the 20^th floor at the end of the hallway with some guys because I saw part of that jam.  Since I was with Tony Watt (who shares a house with Noam in Nashville), we decided to go back to the 20^th floor to search out Noam.  Well, that session was done and there was nobody around.  So we started down the floors searching.

We came upon the Grey Fox suite and heard some music.  Clearly, adult beverages had been consumed and these few folks were having a good time.  I saw Jimmy Rollins from South Carolina (a long time friend of mine since he grew up in Maryland) playing banjo with Danny Paisley playing guitar.  Joe Zauner, a banjo player from Maryland, was also playing guitar and Mary Burdette was playing bass.

Jimmy was kind of sitting on the opposite side of the room from Danny.  Jimmy got up and said "I want to come over here and sing some tenor."  If I can’t play banjo in a jam session, I sure like to sing baritone.  So I got to sing baritone in the trios on some bluegrass chestnuts like "I Hope You’ve Learned,"  "When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again," and some other classics.  On the second song (Blue Moon Turns to Gold) when it came to the end of the second line and the baritone hits the sweet note on the third, Danny looked up at me and smiled and nodded.  What a great moment.  It was after 5:00 when Danny decided to take a smoke break, so I headed off to bed.  Another moment for the highlights of the 2006 IBMA week.