Richard Thompson reviews a CD from the Spring of 2007 that he wishes he had written much sooner.

Hunter Berry, a native of Elizabethton, in the foothills of eastern Tennessee, began playing the fiddle at the age of nine, learning partly under the tutelage of old-time bluegrass fiddler Benny Sims. Berry has learned his craft very well.

More recently he had played with Melvin Goins and Doyle Lawson before joining Rhonda Vincent & The Rage in 2002. He has won SPBGMA fiddle awards for four consecutive years and has been nominated for the IBMA award on two occasions, demonstrating that fans and peers rate his playing highly.

Lawson leads a select group of musicians who form the band backing Berry along with Tony Rice (rhythm guitar, mostly), Ronnie Stewart - playing banjo - and Darrin Vincent (bass and harmony vocals), offering further proof of the esteem in which Hunter Berry is held. Other notables in the mix here and there are Adam Steffey, Randy Kohrs, Dan Tyminski and Jason Carter.

Arranged to showcase the fiddler, Wow Baby (the title tune and opening track) is an apt response to how Berry plays on this CD. It sets the standard and the bar is set high and kept up there throughout.

There are seven instrumentals in all, some traditional pieces like Leather Britches performed as a classic fiddle/banjo duet with that master of all instruments, Ronnie Stewart, Ragtime Annie, with a full five-piece band, and Kansas City Kitty with the great Bob Moore anchoring this sassy swing number which features a second fiddle, played by Buddy Spicher, and Buck White on piano and Bryan Sutton (guitar).

The balance are all vocal pieces with a variety of singers; two feature Keith Williams, the first of which, In The Pines, has Berry overdubbing a further two fiddle parts, one with Marty Stuart and Bobby Osborne - I’m Waiting To Hear You Call Me Darlin’, Sally Sandker (Rhonda’s daughter) demonstrating that she has a good set of pipes on Blue Kentucky Girl, another triple fiddle piece - this also has Sally’s uncle singing harmony - and Rhonda Vincent with Sonya Isaacs harmonize on the driving bluegrass number Hard Living. The fiddle work on each is stellar, artfully tailored to suit the relevant vocalist.

For me two tunes Waltz For Mom And Dad, a second Hunter Berry composition, and Ragtime Annie, juxtaposed as tracks seven and eight, demonstrate the finesse, the power and drive that Berry brings to the world of the bluegrass fiddle.

Wow Baby was nominated for both the IBMA Instrumental Album of the Year and Recorded Event of the Year awards last year and I can understand why it is so highly rated. You won’t get any argument from me as far as quality is concerned.

When the roll is called of the all-time greatest fiddlers in bluegrass, the name of Benny Martin will always be included. He was a member of the Flatt & Scruggs show for several years in the early 1950s, and also worked briefly for Bill Monroe. He played on The Grand Ole Opry as a solo performer, and had stints with country artists Johnny and Jack, Roy Acuff and Kitty Wells.

He was a flamboyant performer, and a favorite with fans in the 50s and 60s for his singing and fiddling, plus his huge smile and larger-than-life persona on stage. Benny passed away in 2001, but had been in ill health since the mid-’80s, so a great many younger bluegrass fans and fiddlers have only a passing acquaintance with his brilliant playing.

Thanks to CMH Records, one of his classic recordings is set to be reissued on CD. The Fiddle Collection, originally released as a 2 LP set in 1977, is set to hit the street on October 9 in a special CD edition. The tracks from the original vinyl have been remastered, and a number of bonus tracks are included as well, all of which feature John Hartford on banjo.

Among the 28 tracks are such favorites as Lee Highway Blues, Fiddlers Dream, Back Up And Push and Ragtime Annie, as well as bluegrass numbers like Flint Hill Special, Footprints In The Snow and Foggy Mountain Breakdown.

To get a feel for just how influential Martin was on the next generation of fiddlers, we asked a few of the current nominees for the IBMA Fiddle Player Of The Year Award for comment.

First up is Mountain Heart’s Jim Van Cleve:

“Big Tige (Benny Martin) was the quintessential bluegrass fiddle player…Unbelievably rich tone, especially considering the recording technology of the time, an incredible awareness of the vocal and an inventiveness for where he needed be in context to it. It was so natural for him. Ultimately, he played a huge part in defining for a lot of players, myself included, what types of things were appropriate for the bluegrass fiddler. It’s not unlike what Tony Rice eventually did for bluegrass guitar. His signature fire and enthusiasm just underlined the fact that what he was playing and creating was perfect!”

Ron Stewart, fiddling with JD Crowe & The New South added these words: (more…)

Here’s a great new CD we had neglected to mention when it was released last month. It’s the debut release from Hunter Berry, the dynamic young fiddler with Rhonda Vincent & The Rage, with the appropriate title, Wow Baby.

The recording is a mix of vocal and instrumental tracks, including fiddle favorites like Ragtime Annie, Leather Britches and Billy In The Lowground, with bluegrass classics like I’m Waiting To Hear You Call Me Darlin’ (with Marty Stuart and Bobby Osborne) and Blue Kentucky Girl, featuring Sally Sandker (Rhonda Vincent’s daughter). A number of Hunter’s original fiddle tunes are featured as well, the title track among them.

Assisting on the CD is a stellar bluegrass rhythm section, consisting of Tony Rice and Bryan Sutton on guitar, Ron Stewart on banjo, Doyle Lawson and Adam Steffey on mandolin, and Darrin Vincent on bass.

You can read detailed track information on Hunter’s web site, and we found a few sample audio tracks at The Music Shed.