Welcome to my Blog. I write primarily about bluegrass music and the bluegrass experience. I also review books I read as well as offering road notes and travel entries. Come in and look around to see whether there's anything here for you. Be sure to check the archives and the labels. Please leave comments. I try to respond to all of them.
About Me
Ted Lehmann
New Hampshire, United States
I am a retired English teacher/college professor who has a number of interests and enthusiasms, as suggested by the title of my blog. I have been married for 45 years to Irene and we have two adult children and four grandchildren. We love to travel, listen to and play bluegrass music, read, camp in our 21 foot travel trailer, watch television, argue about politics, and enjoy growing older together. All these enthusiasms and more find their way into this blog.
I don’t know whether A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn, the Last Great Battle of the American West by James Donovan is the definitive account of the Battle of Little Bighorn, often called Custer’s Last Stand, but it certainly is a well-researched piece of scholarly work written in a style that’s accessible to the casual general reader as well as the Western enthusiast or specialist. The book is buttressed by 125 pages of notes, bibliography, and an extensive index. For those needing to study further and to check out the original sources themselves, there’s plenty to study here. For general readers who want a detailed account of the campaign leading to the massacre of Colonel George Armstrong Custer along with about 210 of his men above the Little Bighorn River by a mass of Sioux and Cheyenne Indians estimated to be as many as 3500 warriors, this book fills the bill.
The battle represented the high tide of Indian resistance to the efforts of the Grant administration to force them to assimilate, take up farming, and live on reservations. Although counted as a victory for the combined Indian forces under (if that’s the correct word) the leadership of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, the Custer massacre generated a huge push back that led two years later to the massacre at Wounded Knee and the end of organized Indian resistance.
George Armstrong Custer came to West Point from his home in Rumley, Ohio and graduated last in his class in an accelerated program because of the Civil War. The only thing he excelled in at the military academy was horsemanship. He served with distinction in a number of cavalry battles during the Civil War, generating much publicity for himself and garnering sufficient enemies then, and later, to assure lack of support in his final battle. Custer was an attractive, dashing young officer with golden blond hair who became a darling of the war press. He was eventually promoted to Brigadier General during the war, but lowered to the rank of Captain when the war ended and the U.S. army was greatly reduced in size. He was assigned to duty on the plains at Fort Riley, Kansas where the U.S. was busy trying to subdue the Indian tribes. Donovan paints Custer as a difficult and vain man who nevertheless shows tremendous courage and intuitive genius in horse warfare. Custer’s enemies were probably more to be found in his own army than among the Indians where there was at least a modicum of mutual respect.
Perhaps the most useful elements of this book, for me, were the portraits of Indians and the picture of the lives of plains Indians as they fought valiantly to maintain something of their accustomed life against the tide of white population and greed for resources. The dishonesty of the Indian agents on the reservations, the duplicity of the politicians, and the constant pressure for expansion all functioned to doom them. The pictures that emerge of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, the lesser known, but very important Inkpaduta, and other Indian leaders are fascinating, giving a sense of the humanity, courage, and fear of loss pervading their futile resistance.
Two of Custer’s subordinates, Colonel Benteen and Colonel Reno were probably as least as responsible for the death of Custer as were the Indians. By refusing to follow orders or through sheer cowardice, the two officers missed relieving Custer’s beleaguered column in its hours of greatest distress, leaving the entire column of Custer’s 7th Cavalry to its demise. Later military inquiries managed to whitewash both officers’ behavior in favor of protecting the army from loss of prestige and reductions in budget. Much of the military cover up served to show me how little has changed during the ensuing 130 odd years. Donovan, nevertheless, manages to dig deeply enough into the original sources to provide a detailed chronology of the battle as well as rich portraits of the participants.
A Terrible Glory is an intriguing read, enjoyable and fast-paced. Perhaps filled with too many names at first, they eventually resolve themselves into personalities. Published in 2008 by Little, Brown and Co., The paper bound version was released in May. The book is available on line, from your local chain or independent bookstore. This book is well worth the time and energy.
Podunk Bluegrass Music Festival begins its fourteenth season on July 30th and runs until August 2nd at Martin Park in East Hartford, CT with a great lineup in a fine location. Let’s deal with the gorilla in the living room right at the start.Podunk is a great festival that people seem to avoid because they’re concerned about the urban location.Irene and I attended the festival last year and also, in January, went to one of the Community concerts that Promoter Roger Moss also offers.In both winter and summer we found East Hartford to be a pleasant, lower middle class urban community filled with enticing ethnic restaurants and giving off a throbbing vibe. We in no way felt intimidated by the location.Within Martin Park itself, we found the sense of the city had disappeared and the bluegrass community had established itself in both the camping and performance areas. Those not attending because of the location are depriving themselves of an opportunity to attend a superbly run event in an enjoyable and comfortable setting.And you don’t have to drive ten miles to pick up the piece of gear you forgot or go out for a fine Chinese or Peruvian dinner.East Hartford is within a three hour drive of perhaps 40 million people.Boston is 98.9 miles away, New York City-118, Albany, NY-115, and Manchester, NH – 132. That’s a pretty short drive for a lineup of this quality
Del McCoury.
The Del McCoury Band
When four of the most successful touring bands in bluegrass are featured at a single event, it’s really quite something.This year Podunk will headline (in alphabetical order) Dailey & Vincent, The Del McCoury Band, IIIrd Tyme Out, and Rhonda Vincent & the Rage.This year’s schedule, including times and workshop appearances can be found here.Main stage performances are:
The Podunk band competition deserves attention and attendance on Sunday.A look at the band web sites suggests that bands entered in the band competition are serious bands coming from a pretty wide geographical area.While I’m not familiar with any of these bands, they look (and their clips sound) like they represent a wide variety of approaches within the genre. Band competitions encourage pre-emerging bands to travel to perform and expose audiences to genuine surprises and quality music.
Rob McCoury
In addition to this stellar lineup characterized by a full range of bluegrass and contemporary acoustic music, Podunk features a very full workshop schedule. Workshops by festival participants and others will be held on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the Pavilion, a very pleasant venue located near the large camping area above the performance stage.Members of many of the bands performing at Podunk will be discussing their music and answering questions there.In a more unusual move, an Advanced Band Workshop will be held in the Garage Building on Saturday. Designed for members of bands hoping to move up into the higher levels of performance, these professionally oriented workshops focus on band issues as well as individual instrument improvement. A particular feature will be a series of three bass workshops conducted by Pete Kelly. The Podunk Bluegrass Kids Academy program will run from Friday afternoon through Sunday, when the Academy performs for the festival.It will be run by Tim St. Jean and Vickie Baker, who also run the very effective kids program at Strawberry Park.
Wayne Benson (IIIrd Tyme Out)
Martin Park is a spacious facility that has plenty of space for a large audience on a baseball field with the stage in deep center field.Behind the first base line and down the third base line is plenty of room for a good range of food vendors as well as craft and special interest vendors.Up a slight rise behind the ball field is a spacious swimming pool, which is open to campers, including their children. There are also hot showers in the pool dressing room. The camping area provides space for about 300 camper rigs and tents, so be sure to get camping reservations. There’s also a driving range on the premises.Bluegrass folks do play golf, don’t they?In short, although located in the heart of the city, Martin Park provides a nearly ideal venue for a full-service bluegrass festival. Put that together with the very high quality of the bands, and you have a most desirable event.
Steve Dilling (IIIrd Tyme Out)
Information about tickets can be found here. Tickets purchased before July 30th will receive a discount.Martin Park is located at 307 Burnside Avenue, E. Hartford, CT and can be found below:
Podunk Bluegrass Music Festival should be on your list of “must attend” festivals in the northeast.If you’re not from the region, the combination of several events in succeeding weeks with the beautiful history and usually warm, pleasant weather should be enough incentive to draw you here.Give it a try.
We decided to drive up to Brandon, VT to spend Saturday at the Basin Bluegrass Festival and to see our friends from Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road. We'd be told that this was a very nice festival with lots of good regional bands, jamming, and a friendly atmosphere, and we found it to be exactly as advertised. Despite the late afternoon thunder storm, which blew hard and closed the festivities down for an hour or so, the event provided a good opportunity for us to visit with friends, hear some bands we hadn't heard before, and renew acquaintances with some others. Only one element threw a sour note into the mix, and that was the sound. More about that later.
Located just south of Brandon, Vt up a narrow country lane that turns into a dirt road soon after turning off Rt 7, the major north-south road in western, Vt, we drove onto the festival grounds to find RV rigs and tents of all kinds spread across the grounds in tight formation. The stage was conveniently set more or less in the middle, with three large shade/rain tents and a large vending area. An extensive range of food and craft vendors surrounded the area providing plenty of diversion. We wandered through the campping area until we found Mike and Mary Robinson, whose bluegrass ministry and Sunday Gospel Jam are a fixture at any number of festivals in both New England and Florida. Mike is also an able emcee, who keeps the festivities moving along.
Mike Robinson
Mary Robinson
As we enjoyed our chat with Mike and Mary, the mellow sounds of Smokey Greene found their way into the Robinson RV so we wandered over to spend a little time listening to Smokey and his small band deliver his special combination of classic country and novelty songs so well known and like by people up and down the east coast. Smokey, well into his seventies, delivers a reliable performance. Accompanied on Saturday by his son Scott on bass and Chad Darou on resonator guitar, Smokey presented his usual reliable performance with a special bow to his venerable guitar, Ben A. Martin.
Smokey Greene
Scott Greene
Chad Darou
Cabin Fever is based in Norwich, NY where they also host an annual bluegrass festival of their own. The band provides melodic covers of familiar and not so well-known tunes and features an able group of musicians. Mike Tirella has a resonant baritone voice and Brian Jiguerre, a long-time fixture in regional bluegrass, provides the high lonesome tenor. Their rendition of the Chris Kristofferson song "Darby's Castle" was particularly effective as was their very strong gospel acapella quartet. Harry Ralph plays a very sweet fiddle and Bill Lewis fills out the band on bass.
Mike Tirella
Brian Jiguerre
Harry Ralph
Bill Lewis
Blue Horizon - Nova Scotia
Blue Horizon is a young, enthusiastic, energetic, and entertaining band from Amherst, Nova Scotia. For us, they were the surprise band of the festival. They stood out for their strong instrumentals and solid singing. Several samples of their work can be found on their MySpace page. A significant body of their performance is material the band itself has composed, always a welcome gift at festivals where many cover bands play familiar songs all too frequently. This band is original and delightful. If you see this band in the lineup of your favorite festival, don't stay in your camp site jamming or visiting, come down and here a very solid, original band.
Jessie Haley
Mary Frances Haley
Larry Rushton
Michael Allain
Joe Doucette
The Pine Hill Ramblers
The Pine Hill Ramblers come from Massachusetts and New Hampshire and are well known throughout New England. Their sound is gentle and enthusiastic, reflecting the nature of the delightful people in the band. They play a pleasing mixture of lesser known covers and their own compositions. Their rendition of the late Bill Harrell's "Cold November Rain" was particularly touching, as Harrell died only a couple of weeks ago. Banjo player Doug Downey has contributed a number of songs to the group. Claudia Landell, playing bass and singing both lead and harmony vocals, is a standout. Her yodelling deserves special notice, especially since so many singers try in vain to manage a good yodel. Ben Silver and Larry Simonson are the founding members and provide solid leadership. They all can be found around the grounds in jams when not on stage or at their merchandise table.
Ben Silver
Larry Simonson
Claudia Landell
Doug Downey
Richie Chaisson
Blistered Fingers
Blistered Fingers performed two sets and provided the completely inadequate sound for the festival. Throughout the day, it was clear that the four small speakers, more appropriate for an indoor event, were creating a serious problem for the bands, who appeared to have to fight the sound system all day long. The mix was uneven, sometimes over emphasizing instrumentals to the detriment of sound and at other times boosting vocals to a level that made the lyrics difficult or impossible to understand. The space that needed to be reached forced the sound man to push the speakers way beyond their capacity. While it is conventional for bands to thank the sound man for providing first rate reproduction, in this case the gratitude was either unwarranted or unspoken.
Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road
Lorraine Jordan & The Carolina Road Band were the headliners for Basin. Carolina Road can always be counted on to give a strong and professional performance. My reaction when I see them, particularly at small festivals like this one, often is "here come the grown ups!" The full sound they create, along with their well-crafted sets featuring every member of the band assure that fans will get a strong and enthusiastic performance. When Mike Robinson asked how many people had never seen Carolina Road before, a majority of the audience raised their hands. By the end of their first set, they were captured and called the band back for a well-deserved encore. This band performs too infrequently in this part of the country, so many New Englanders have not had the opportunity to hear them play. Promoters in the region will strengthen their lineups and please their fans by remedying this oversight.
Lorraine Jordan
Jerry Butler
Ben Greene
Josh Goforth
John Wade
Ben Greene & John Wade
Lorraine, Josh, & Jerry
Acoustic Blue can be counted on to cut a tailored and neat look and provide equally tailored and smooth bluegrass music. Offering well honed covers as well as original compositions by Cory Zinc and Shaun Batho, this band's sound and demeanor hearken back to earlier bluegrass days while keeping their sound in the traditional groove with a contemporary lean to it. Their current CD is a solid piece of work, and they have a new one in the works.
Bear Acker
Shaun Batho
Bear Acker & Mike VanAlstyne
Cory Zinc & Shaun Batho
Big Spike
Big Spike was back in form from the somewhat depleted band we saw twice last summer. It was particularly nice to see Neil Rossi returned to form after the losses and health issues of last year. The band was in good form.
Pete Langdell
Neil Rossi
Bill Gaston
Freeman Corey
Michael Santosusson
We were disappointed to miss James Reams & the Barnstormers, who only appeared on Friday. Otherwise, we found the Basin Bluegrass Festival to be a friendly and satisfying festival, despite the disappointing sound. The festival features some of New England and nearby New York's better bands and provides a well-rounded experience for festival attendees.
On November 25, 2000 Mandy Adkins lost her battle with cancer. By all accounts she was a lovely young woman, vivacious and enthusiastic, who loved bluegrass music, which her parents had been associated with as promoters of The Bluegrass Classic for many years. To help fill the unfillable void created by their daughter’s death, Darrel and Phyllis Adkins renamed their event Musicians Against Childhood Cancer, creating a tax free charitable event dedicated to helping battle cancer by supporting St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. To date, the MACC has contributed over $480,000 to St. Jude’s and to the YMCA. In the process, they have created an enduring and popular bluegrass festival held at the Hoover Y Camp just south of Columbus, Ohio. Bluegrass bands contribute their services for this four day all star event that offers the best in traditional and contemporary bluegrass music.
Darrel Adkins
Phyllis Adkins
The MACC Stage
On Wednesday, July 22, 2009 Adkins Productions will kick off the annual four day Musicians Against Childhood Cancer (The MACC) at Hoover Y- Park. The event will run through Saturday, July 25th. Four day advance tickets (until July 14th) are $95.00. Afterwards, tickets are $105.00. There are various combination tickets. Prices for these can be found here. Children ages 11 – 15 are admitted at half price. Children 10 and under are free. The Hoover Y Park provides plenty of room for camping. Camping is $5.00 per day and campers must be ticketed. The gates open for camping on Sunday, July 19. The ticket gate will be open from 8:00 AM until 11:00 PM daily. Advance and Daily tickets may be ordered by phone (740.548.4199), or by mail with a check or money order in a stamped, self addressed envelope from Musicians Against Childhood Cancer, 14343 B’s and K Rd., Galena, OH 43021, through Ticketmaster or at Bluegrass Musicians Supply in Columbus. Donations to St. Jude’s may also be sent to the Galena address. Additional information about nearby motels, camping, and directions may be found here. Remember, tickets to The MACC are 90% tax deductible.
In addition to this stellar lineup, The MACC has become known for putting together unusual combinations of members from different bands to perform. Because The MACC brings so many performers together for such a great cause, bands come and spend time on the Hoover Y campus, happy to make themselves available for the justly acclaimed on-stage jams. This year the following “Classic Performances” are scheduled, but no-one knows for sure who will turn up on stage during these late evening events.
Ronnie Bowman & Chris Stapleton
Dale Ann Bradley – Kim Fox – Deanie Richardson – Steve Gulley – Joel Fox and Jim Reed
Dudley Connell – Don Rigsby – Junior Sisk – Aubrey Haynie – Charlie Cushman – Randy Kohrs and Randy Barnes
A tribute to Tony Rice featuring Tony Rice & Friends - Josh Williams – Aubrey Hayne – Rob Ickes – Randy Barnes
Bo McCarty & Sammy Shelor
Steve Gulley & Ronnie Bowman
Bands appearing at The MACC perform one hour long set. The Classic Performances are scheduled last in the evening and often offer delightful surprises that keep fans in their seats late into the evening.
MACC Children's Band
Finally, a feature of The MACC is the appearance of The MACC Children’s Band. Consisting of young people who have been practicing all week, the children’s band opens on Saturday morning. Last year, they also appeared as a part of the evening’s Classic Performance. Many of these young people are accomplished bluegrass musicians while others are beginners. Anyone seeing them perform, though, will be reassured that the future on bluegrass music is in good hands.
A two disk CD called Celebration of Life has been produced by Adkins Productions in Association with Skaggs Family Records that includes 37 live performances by136 musicians and captures the spirit of this event. The CD won the IBMA 2006 Album of the Year award. It can be purchased from Skaggs Family Records, at the festival, or from the merchandise tables of many of the artists appearing at The MACC.
Hoover Y Park is a lovely 70 acre site located in Lockbourne, Ohio, just south of Columbus. It is a nearly ideal facility on which to hold a bluegrass festival, offering broad expanses of open fields, lots of available shade, hot shower and clean toilet facilities, and some electric and water hookups for RVs. For The MACC the site is augmented with one of the most elaborate stages to be found short of a rock festival, with a sound system to match it, spearheaded by people who know what bluegrass instruments are meant to sound like. Plenty of vendors provide a variety of food as well as instruments and supplies. The festival site is convenient to millions of bluegrass fans in the Midwest. It is located less than 400 miles away from Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Nashville, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Roanoke, VA, and Greensboro, NC. The site is 418 miles from Washington, D.C. and 715 miles from Keene, NH.
Dancing Pad
Vendors
Steve Dilling Checking In
Carl Jackson
In these days of short money and difficult circumstances, many bluegrass fans have had to choose between events. The MACC ranks at or near the very top of large festivals for its lineup and facilities. It’s one of those not be missed events for people who like their bluegrass straight up with a dash of cutting edge added for flavor. Promoters Darrel and Phyllis Adkins are experienced bluegrass people who establish relatively few rules and then make sure they are observed. The festival is truly family friendly, while large. If I had to choose a single bluegrass festival to attend this year, Musicians Against Childhood Cancer might be the one.
The genesis of the Farewell Drifters lies at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, KY where Joshua Britt, who plays mandolin and does most of the emcee work on stage first met banjo picker Trevor Brandt and combined with brother Clayton Britt to form a band, cobbling together the eclectic sound that has come to characterize their music.They furnished their apartment in Bowling Green with sofas placed on the street for disposal.When they were unable to get gigs in town, they started holding house concerts, using the sofas for seating. Their first album, Sweet Summer Breeze, is the result, and a happy result it is.Their sound is a synthesis of bluegrass, folk, and, for want of another term, Americana.This band, typical of many of today’s young bluegrass bands, was not nurtured at the feet of their grandparents in a lonely, rural cabin where music was the only source of entertainment. Rather it was nurtured in high school and college.Influences include Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Mark Knopfler, John Fogerty, Jerry Garcia, J.D. Crowe,John Hartford, the Beach Boys, Tim O’Brien, David Grisman, Tony Rice, James Taylor, Clarence White, and so-on.With this broad a range of influences, it’s easy to imagine the range of vision that’s included in their album.Nevertheless, they have coalesced around a sound that can be driving, melodic, and warm without ever becoming too sweet.Their musicianship has continued to grow and the band is becoming as much a pleasure to see on the festival stage as it is to hear in this debut recording.
Almost all the songs on Sweet Summer Breeze were written by group member mandolinist Joshua Britt and guitarist Zach Bevill. As befits a group of young men just out of college, the content involves young love both lost and found as well as the search for self and some sort of identity.At the same time, the works are neither self-indulgent nor treacly, maintaining some edginess while looking both inward and around at the real world.Their approach to singing and composing is essentially optimistic.
The opening song “Windy City Rails” written and sung by Zach Bevill opens with a serious musical nod to Paul Simon while setting the tone and sound for this band.
And the spaces in the crowd, makes me want to cry out loud,
Who are you?
Now the face here in the crowd, makes me want to shout out loud,
Hey, Hey this is me.
No one looks me in the eye, it’s just the way we live our lives.
The song introduces some of the themes elaborated on in the entire album – seeking without finding, experiencing the here and now, walking through life confidentially and taking what life has to offer.The band sound, featuring acoustic instruments typical of a bluegrass band (mandolin, banjo, two guitars, and bass) has plenty of drive, but never loses its melodic center.The song invites a listener to enter into the CD and find out what else is there. CD buyers won’t be disappointed as they discover the breadth and range of this excellent band.
“Wheels,” is a more contemplative song about using wheels to take people away to a newer and better world written by Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons. Wheels can also be the conveyance to another world.As such, it serves as a somewhat obscure gospel song.Clayton Britt, Joshua’s brother, an able flat picker, contributes a very nice guitar solo on this number, as he does on many others.
We’re not afraid to ride, We’re not afraid to die,
So, come on wheels, take me home today,
Come on wheels, take this boy away.
The wheels can be the daily conveyances of life, or a chariot to another world.
Joshua Britt
“Sweet Summer Breeze” the title track of the album, opens with a bright and sunny banjo solo by Trevor Brandt in a song written by Joshua Britt.Brandt’s strong melodic roll underlies the entire song as he ably combines melodic and Scruggs style banjo.
As I look around I see every life's the same,
We all put on our disguise, cut our hair and make our claims,
Sit behind our desk and hide behind our shell,
But in every person’s mind, we’re running free somewhere else,
The sweet summer breeze transports the singer to the places of dreams and fulfillment.There’s longing in the song, but no desperation as compromise is part of life, not a contradiction of it. The breeze takes us where it will and provides a conveyance to freedom.
Every bluegrass album must have a murder song that tells a good, moral story.Written in a haunting minor key, The Death of Jesse McVille fulfills the requirement and more.
Too late, too late, too late cried I,
Your back is turned, your heart is made of stone,
The flash of a gun, a lesson learned, the city never felt so alone.
Clayton Britt’s guitar solo captures the desperation and the fear underlying the mood of such songs.The instrumental interludes provide a sense of chaos without ever giving in to undisciplined play. Jesse, of course, isn’t really bad.Rather, he’s the victim of early abandonment by an absent father and poverty.Jesse isn’t responsible. The grammatical nonsense is almost as much a crime as Jesse’s murders, but the song is so good, the misuse of language is worth overlooking.Anyway, Jesse ends up paying the price.
Zach Bevill
The loss of love and our hope of keeping it alive are at the center of “Holding On” written and sung by Zach Bevill. Just as we want to hold on to our early loves, so we foolishly seek to hold on to our youth, which is forever fleeting.The message that “Nothing in this world will last forever” is one that most of only learn after having lost much in this life.“Love Comes Easy” suggests the ways that love grows between two people:
Moss don’t grow on a rolling stone,
Sun don’t shine in the rain,
Love comes easy when it’s meant to be,
I only want to see you again.
While “Holding On” suggests the difficulty of keeping anything forever, “Love Comes Easy” yearns for long term romance and lifetime commitment. The two songs create a tension just as the two urges exist in real life, creating a unity that shows them well when placed beside each other in the CD.This shows the craft of recording design now being lost in the torrent of individual downloads.A strength of this CD lies in the structure of song order combined with the very solid range of tempos, keys, and moods.“You Can Have Her” by Bill Cook continues the arc of varieties of love. A hard driving bluegrass song drawn from sixties country music and recorded earlier originally by Waylon Jennings, but given a driving bluegrass interpretation here.“Lovely Linda” completes the song cycle.
The broken promise, the hardest to keep
Lets you close your eyes, but won’t let you sleep
Lets you roam, but it won’t let you ride,
Like a dream, it leaves you unsatisfied.
As the song ends with the line And goes back to believin’ that there’s love in her eyes, the guitar strikes three harmonic notes that capture the sense of self delusion capable in lost love. The four song series on the varieties of love is more powerful than any of the individual songs in isolation.
Clayton Britt
“Birmingham” is a road trip song with a twist.
It’s a long road from here to Birmingham
And I don’t know when I’ll be seeing you again,
But you know I’m doin’ everything I can,
Got my thumb up in the air,
I know I’m gonna make it there,
I’m golden into sunny Alabam.
The singer’s old car is broken down, but that’s just a small glitch in his quest to get to his love.He considers a range of options but keeps on hitch hikin’. This is a sunny, conventional bluegrass song that does a nice job showcasing Joshua’s singing and the band’s instrumental work. “Expecting Rain” uses rain as a metaphor for the troubles we encounter through life as the singer decides that home provides the shelter he needs as he ages.The song offers a quiet interlude and a slower, more thoughtful pace.
Trevor Brandt
As a history major at Western Kentucky University, Joshua Britt had access to a large collection of Civil War era letters.“Dark Charley,” my favorite song in this collection, grew from a letter written in the 1920’s by an elderly woman recalling her love affair with one of her father’s slaves before the war.The song has terrific drive and a very interesting use of syncopation to capture the urgency of the girl’s fear for her lover as she sings “Don’t…Look….Back….Dark Charlie, even for the love of me.” She urges him to run away to safety rather than risk disfigurement or death for their love.This story song is perhaps the strongest in a strong album, and I understand the Farewell Drifters have begun regularly including it in live performances, too.
Dean Marold
Just like many of the songs in this collection, “Loaded” is filled with the anxiety, fear, hope, and confidence of facing maturity and eventual aging – the concerns of self-aware young people on the cusp of accepting responsibility for adulthood.Fear of losing love and the fulfillment of it mix in equal parts to create a sense of optimism for the future.Sung as a flashback, this song is still forward looking.
My head is loaded,
sometimes it feels like it's with gun powder,
How’s it feel when your mind’s growing older?
Must not feel like anything at all.
The lyrics of this song sound much like the youthful cries of much contemporary music, but they’re combined with a clear bluegrass instrumental sensibility that forms a pleasing synthesis – new themes in traditional forms. Joshua Britt, in addition to his chores as song writer and singer, plays a very competent and lively mandolin.
“Tavern Light Blues” is a typical bluegrass honky-tonk song with a little country/Texas swing flavor to it.
Maybe you’re grievin, ‘cause this time I’m leavin’
This time is just too much,
Saw you down at the bar, gettin’ in his car
Honey baby that enough?
Blind love fools you, even though the evidence is there. Life is tough and learning is hard.This good song shows Colorado bassist Dean Marold off particularly well from his solid kick-off to a strong break in the middle of the song.Song shows the band’s versatility very well in a light and pleasant format.
Written from the point of view of an old man watching a youngster living his life and offering him good advice, “Distant Traveler’s Son” exhibits a lot of the maturity this band possesses. While composed of young men fully a part of our youth culture, their songs and performances still show respect for tradition and experience.
Look away, don’t cast your gaze across old men like me,
You’ll worry yourself sick before the age of twenty-three.
Watch the way a woman turns, her eyes move left to right,
Let her sweet breath warm your bed at night.
This song is a fitting closer for this debut album of The Farewell Drifters whose work shows them well deserving to be picked up by a good label, thus getting the opportunity to enjoy the support a major independent label can provide.This recording features the members of the band that is currently touring and includes no guest appearances, which is a nice touch in these days of augmented and electronically over-produced recordings.
Joshua Britt, Dean Marold, Zach Bevil
The Farewell Drifters have been touring and their CD has received good play on satellite radio.Joshua Britt and Zach Bevill recently recorded an in studio special with Kyle Cantrell at XM/Sirius radio. Kyle Cantrell has informed me it will air for the first time on Thursday, July 9th at 9:00 AM on XM 14 or Sirius 65.Usually there are several additional airings. Listen for them and check out the Sirius/XM web site. Meanwhile, their CD can be purchased directly from their store as well as a three song preview of their next CD.Clips may be heard on their web site, MySpace page, on iTunes, or other on-line sources. Let me put in a plug for purchasing this entire album either as downloads or directly from the band as a CD.Supporting bands by direct purchase from their web site or from their merchandise table at their appearances is a good way to assure their being able to continue to record and tour.If you haven’t heard this band, give them a listen.They represent much of what’s good in today’s best young bands.
About twenty years ago Pillars on the Earth, a long and very readable historical novel by Ken Follett detailing the building of the first Gothic cathedral in England in the context of a huge and enticing cast of characters that kept readers involved and enthralled. It established Follett, who had previously been best known as a writer of thriller fiction, as a master of the historical novel. Located in a typical market town that Follett called, Kingsbridge, the book has been hugely popular. Now, twenty years later Follett has published a sequel called World Without End, I’m tempted to call it "Book Without End" because this is a very long and quite involved book filled with much more sex and a good deal less history than I remember from its predecessor. Nevertheless, memory is not reliable and World Without End is a readable page turner, just right for those looking for a good pot boiler beach book.
The novel follows the lives of Merthin, his brother Ralph, Caris, and her friend Gwenda through the period 1327 – 1361 as they encounter the problems and opportunities offered by the late middle-ages and the early dawning of the Renaissance. Forward thinking merchants and clerics battle the forces of the nobility and the church, which represent the most conservative impulses in a conservative society. The four children watch an attack upon Sir Thomas Langley by disguised knights. With the aid of Ralph, Langley is saved despite a grave injury and swears Merthin and Caris to secrecy as he hides something beneath a tree in the woods. This incident will haunt the lives of all five as the novel progresses. Over arching the entire plot is the devastation brought upon England (and all Europe) by the great plague as Merthin becomes a master builder, Caris a nurse/nun, Ralph a knight and then an Earl, and Gwenda a peasant woman. Their lives and loves become the center of the plot. Follett is a master of the quick turn of events, which serve to keep the story fast paced and interesting despite its length.
Ken Follett has written a long, blustery, involving, and seemingly evocative novel of fourteenth century England. It’s filled with action, many characters, a complex plot, and lots of lubricious sex. It’s also filled with colloquial English phrases that risk breaking the deal between reader and author by evoking contemporary life just when he should be reaching deepest into the heart and mind of the willing suspender of disbelief. Particularly irritating is the feminist sensibility of the nun Caris, whose on again off again romance with Merthin is the center of the book. The use of anachronistic contemporary language and slang shows a sloppiness that 1000 page books and too little editing can allow.
World Without End by Ken Follett is published in hard cover by Dutton and is available at your local independent book store, chair store, or on line in print or as a recorded book. It’s a fun read, just light enough for long summer afternoons. For me, perhaps the biggest problem, having read it in hard cover, is that it weighs a lot. These old hands don’t manage such a weighty tome as easily as they once did.
Donovan paints Custer as a difficult and vain man who nevertheless shows tremendous courage and intuitive genius in horse warfare. Custer’s enemies were probably more to be found in his own army than among the Indians where there was at least a modicum of mutual respect.
