Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn - Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn
present their eponymous debut album as a duo, after many years of prominence as
banjo players and composers in their own eclectic avenues. Béla
Fleck and Abigail Washburn is a front porch banjo and vocal album of
new music, Appalachian murder ballads, gospel, chamber and blues; the
culmination of a yearlong tour as a duo in 2013, following the birth of their
son, Juno. Béla, an icon and innovator of jazz, classical and world, with
more multi-category GRAMMY wins than any other artist (15 total), and Abigail,
a formidable talent with triumphs in songwriting, theater, performance, and
even Chinese diplomacy by way of banjo, turn out to be quite a fortuitous
pairing with a deep, distinct and satisfying outcome. The culmination is an
album like no other. The record reveals their astounding chemistry as
collaborators, as the two seamlessly stitch together singular banjo sounds
(through an assortment of seven banjos spanning the recording) in service to
the stories that their songs tell, with no studio gimmickry needed. According
to Béla, “finding a way to make every song have its own unique stamp, yet the
whole project having a big cohesive sound – with only two people,” was at the
core of their joint vision. Demonstrating seemingly unlimited rhythmic, tonal
and melodic capabilities, Fleck and Washburn confirm the banjo’s versatility as
the perfect backdrop to the rich lyrical component that Fleck and Washburn
offer, “Sometimes when you add other instruments, you take away from the
banjo’s being able to show all its colors, which are actually quite beautiful.”
Thanks to this album, the musicians’ palette has never been more vivid or pure.
The Del McCoury Band - “Del epitomizes the bluegrass musician from the
previous era, and also this one,” says acclaimed resonator guitarist Jerry
Douglas, a member of Alison Krauss + Union Station and producer of several of
McCoury’s 90s albums. “You can finally make a living playing bluegrass, and a
large part of it is because of Del McCoury; he became like the new Bill Monroe.
For him to have come along this far is testament to his will to stick it
out-but at the same time, when he saw that he was going to be able to do it, he
started really, really enjoying it, and that’s when he started making the best
music of his career.” That description certainly applies to Celebrating 50
Years of Del McCoury, a stunning collection that encapsulates a 50 year legacy
of brilliant, heartfelt music with more than 30 new recordings of songs from
his first 40 years of performing and an additional dozen and a half of the Del
McCoury Band’s most essential tracks from the last decade. From classics that
he first sang back in the late 1950s to “Nothin’ Special” and “Never Grow Up
Boy” from the Grammy-winning, The Company We Keep, Celebrating 50 Years of Del
McCoury is a sweeping view of Del’s musical journey that confounds the
conventional wisdom that says remakes are necessarily inferior to first
recordings-and the point is driven by home with By Request, a fourteen track
“executive summary” of the set that includes a dozen new versions of McCoury
classics chosen because they were the songs that the band hears the crowd
yelling for the most night after night. For though the re-recorded songs have
been staples of the McCoury repertoire for years, Del’s insistence on devoting
much of each show to taking requests from his extensive catalog has kept them
fresh-and the result is a perfect combination of old and new. Perhaps surprisingly,
but fittingly for a still lively legend, the new recordings were done in just a
few days. “We went through the songs pretty quickly,” says Ronnie. “Take after
take, it was just great. Dad sounds better than ever on here. Part of it is
because he’s been doing these songs forever, and part of it is because he
always had some kind of allergy going when we went in to record, and this time
he didn’t. We had a list of songs that the three of us made, with fifteen or
twenty songs from each of the decades and the albums that he made before he
started owning his own recordings, and he would just pick some things to record
on each session-and then we just went in and knocked them out. So they all have
a real live feel to them.”
Malcolm Holcombe - Acclaimed singer-songwriter Malcolm Holcombe, whose “heartfelt
baritone” (NPR) delivers “haunted country, acoustic blues and rugged folk”
(Rolling Stone), will release his 14th studio album, Another Black Hole (Gypsy
Eyes Music), February 12, 2016. Produced by Grammy-winning producer and
engineer Ray Kennedy and Brian Brinkerhoff, Another Black Hole features
Holcombe’s rasping vocals and bright, percussive guitar accentuating his
insightful lyrics. “It is Malcolm’s perception of the world that make his songs
hit you like a gunpowder blast. His gruff and tough delivery is a primordial
power full of grit, spit and anthropomorphic expression,” says Kennedy. Recorded
at Room & Board Studios in Nashville, TN, and the 10-song set features
longtime musical compatriots including Jared Tyler (dobro, baritone guitar,
banjo, mandolin and harmony vocals), Dave Roe (upright and electric bass), Ken
Coomer (drums and percussion), Tony Joe White (electric guitar), Future Man
(percussion) and Drea Merritt (vocal harmony). Born and raised in the Blue
Ridge mountains of North Carolina, Holcombe is highly regarded and recognized
by contemporaries in Americana music including Emmylou Harris, Wilco, Steve
Earle. An “emotionally captivating” (Isthmus), performer, Holcombe has shared
the stage with Merle Haggard, Richard Thompson, John Hammond, Leon Russell,
Wilco and Shelby Lynne.
Black Mountain Bluegrass Boys - The Black Mountain Bluegrass Boys are among West Virginia’s
longest-running bluegrass bands. The group first organized in 1968 around the
foursome of Richard Hefner (banjo/tenor vocal), his brother Bill Hefner
(guitar/mandolin/baritone vocal), their late uncle Glenn “Dude” Irvine
(mandolin) and the late Harley Carpenter (guitar/lead vocal). They took their
name from Black Mountain in their native Pocahontas County. For five years the
group worked a weekly radio show on WVAR, in Richwood. They also made regular
appearances at local events and regional bluegrass festivals. They recorded
their first album in January 1971, “Pure Old Bluegrass”, and in the mid-1970s
they followed up with a pair of albums: “Million Lonely Days” and “Talk of the
County.” More recent albums include “Black Mountain Bluegrass Boys 1968-1973,”
“Live at Midnight,” “Live at The Opera House,” and “Live at Greenbrier Valley
Theatre.” As with many bluegrass bands, the Black Mountain Bluegrass Boys
have had changes in personnel over the years. Richard Hefner remains as the
lone original member. Hefner’s traditional bluegrass banjo playing and tenor vocals
have contributed both continuity and much of the “high lonesome” sound for
which the band has become so well-known. He has displayed his banjo skills many
times as a victor in contests and at the Vandalia Festival. Chris Nickell from
Monroe County, contributes driving lead and rhythm guitar work as well as lead
vocals. Rick Carpenter—son of founding member Harley Carpenter—picks a fine
mandolin and sings lead and baritone vocals. Bass player Mike Smith, of
Culloden, has worked with such notables as Larry Sparks, Dave Evans, and the
Goins Brothers.