This morning’s edition of The Washington Post carries a nice feature piece on John Starling & Carolina Star.

Written by Post staffer Richard Harwood, the article highlights the return of DC-area music scene stalwarts John Starling, Mike Auldridge and Tom Gray, original members of Seldom Scene who started in DC in the early 1970s. The three former compatriots are reunited as members of John Starling & Carolina Star, along with Rickie Simpkins and Jimmy Gaudreau.

“The reaction’s been very heartwarming,” Auldridge says of the group’s reemergence. “It’s like in the early days of the Scene: We’re just doing this because it’s fun, but people are making us realize that they missed us, and that’s really nice to hear.”

Read the whole article online.

Adrian Fenty, the Mayor of The District of Columbia, has issued an official proclamation designating February 23, 2007 as John Starling and Carolina Star Day in the District.

The text of the proclamation reads:

WHEREAS, the greater Washington, D.C.-area has become one of the most active, creative and productive Bluegrass and Old-Time Music Communities in the world; and

WHEREAS, John Starling, Mike Auldridge and Tom Gray along with John Duffey, whose notice of passing was recently entered into the Congressional Record, have been instrumental to the D.C.-area Art And Cultural Landscape, influencing an entire generation of American Roots and Bluegrass musicians including Emmylou Harris and the Nash Ramblers, Ricky Skaggs and Linda Ronstadt; and

WHEREAS, John Starling served his country as a US Army surgeon in Vietnam and at the Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital; and

WHEREAS, the artists have rekindled their 30-plus year relationship and now return to Alexandria’s Birchmere Music Hall on the 23rd of February, 2007, to celebrate their impact on American Music and the Washington, D.C.-Area Bluegrass scene:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, THE MAYOR OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, do hereby proclaim February 23, 2007, as “JOHN STARLING AND CAROLINA STAR DAY” in Washington, DC, and call upon all the residents of this great city to join me in observing this day as we demonstrate our appreciation of these artists’ contribution to a unique American Art Form, and the Art and Culture of the Washington, DC area.

Adrian M. Fenty
Mayor, District of Columbia

The debut CD from Carolina Star, Slidin’ Home, was released today (2/20/07) on Rebel Records.

There has been a good bit of anticipation building up in the bluegrass world, awaiting the release next week of Slidin’ Home, the debut release from John Starling & Carolina Star. Starling is joined in this new endeavor by his original Seldom Scene bandmates Mike Auldridge and Tom Gray, a group whose popularity has endured even as it has been through an almost complete overhaul in membership over more than 30 years performing under that name.

Rebel Records announced yesterday that the entire project can be previewed at CMT.com, where advance orders for Slidin’ Home can also be placed for shipment on the February 20 release date. At that point, the CD will be available wherever bluegrass and acoustic music are sold.

We got a new CD recently that will appeal to folks who like to hear simple old time and folk melodies played on stringed instruments, in an unassuming, relaxed style. It’s called Straight From The Porch, and comes from Curt Baker and Greg Honeycutt, two fine players from southwestern Virginia, who play resonator slide guitar and flatpick guitar respectively.

Greg says that he and Curt have nothing against more modern string music, and follow it closely, in fact. He says that some of his favorite music comes from artists like Blue Highway, Kenny & Amanda Smith and Alison Krauss & Union Station.

“We love the more arranged and produced sound they get, and respect and admire their artistry. What we wanted to do with this CD, though, was record something more sparse and unornamented, that would really let the melodies shine through.

That’s where the title came from – we wanted it to sound like what you would hear when a couple of guys sit together on the porch to pick a few. That’s where this music came from, in earlier times, and we just wanted to recreate that sort of sound, as best we could.”

To help get that sound, they recorded primarily on older instruments, but not the high dollar ones now so prized by collectors. Curt and Greg instead used the Depression-era instruments more likely to be used by “regular folks,” the off-brand guitars sold through mail order catalogs like Sears and Montgomery Ward.

Much of the material will be familiar, though a few newer songs and a couple of originals are included as well. Greg and Curt brought in some well known pickers to help out, with both Mike Auldridge and Herschel Sizemore lending their skills to the recording. Mike joins Curt for a dobro duet, and Herschel joins the guys on an old timey cut of Big Sciota.

Both Curt and Greg have bluegrass backgrounds, and that influence shows throughout. Shannon Wheeler also guests on fiddle, and Lee Dunbar on banjo.

You can hear samples from all 15 tracks on CDBaby.