Jazz Articles

Sonny Landreth: Grant Street

by C. Michael Bailey
February 12, 2005

Sonny Landreth Grant Street Sugar Hill Records 2005 “A [man] had commenced plunking a guitar beside me while I slept...as he played, he pressed a knife on the strings of the guitar in a manner popularized by Hawaiian guitarists who used steel bars. The effect was unforgettable. His song, too, struck me instantly... “Goin' where the Southern cross' the Dog..." ~W.C. Handy, early 20th Century, Tutwiler Train Station, Tutwiler, Mississippi.

BlueRidge: Side by Side

by C. Michael Bailey
February 4, 2004

The sacred and profane interface seamlessly in bluegrass music as they do in the blues. It could be argued that the only qualitative differences between bluegrass and the blues are cultural ones, African-American versus Western European. But the thematic common denominators are the same: love, loss, God, Saturday night, and Sunday morning.

BlueRidge is a South Carolina-based standard bluegrass quintet lead by master mandolinist Alan Bibey. The band is a heady mixture of old and new. Equally inspired ...

The Del McCoury Band: It

by C. Michael Bailey
October 12, 2003

Del McCoury is a rock star.

Bluegrass, like jazz, exists on the periphery of popular music. It possesses all of the elements that make popular music popular, melody, harmony, rhythm, beat, time, and content. Why, then, is bluegrass a fringe indulgence? I suspect that it is because this pure acoustic music never sold out to its electric counterparts. American country music, of which bluegrass is considered the country bumpkin cousin, has fractured in the past twenty years, opting for the ...

Doc Watson: Trouble in Mind

by C. Michael Bailey
October 10, 2003

Culled from ten Vanguard and Sugar Hill recordings, Trouble in Mind is an exquisite assemblage of white rural blues by its greatest living practitioner, Arthel "Doc" Watson, the now 80-year-old flat picking savant from Deep Gap, North Carolina. Watson exists today as the only extant proponent of that link between African-American and Caucasian rural music. He is equal parts John Hurt and Jimmie Rogers, Blind Blake and Merle Travis. Doc Watson is like Ray Charles in the respect that neither ...

The Gibson Brothers: Bona Fide

by C. Michael Bailey
October 9, 2003

The Gibson Brothers are not Nickel Creek. Their music is not cutting edge, andit need not be. Leigh and Eric Gibson are keepers of the flame, playing a traditional brand of bluegrass very well. Both are able singers capable of effecting the "high lonesome" tenor pioneered by Big Mon.

Their songs here, all original save for a single Tom T. Hall cover, are red-hot bluegrass pieces with rippling banjos and mandolins. The brothers lyrics deal with the ...

Mike Marshall & Chris Thile: Into the Cauldron

by C. Michael Bailey
May 18, 2003

While this recording has Mike Marshall’s name on it--and he was an instrumental member of David Grisman’s quartet--the presence of Chris Thile makes Into the Cauldron somewhat of an event. And what an event it is. Recordings like this smack of a single element—virtuosity. Here are two mandolin masters showing off in a duet style using vehicles ranging from Bach’s Goldberg Variations to Charlie Parker’s “Scrapple From the Apple." The quality of the playing makes it sound alien or divinely ...

Sonny Landreth: The Road We're On

by C. Michael Bailey
December 26, 2002

. . .Falling out of solution, perfectly.

The title of innovator is one not to be overused, and in all of the history of music there have only been a handful. When restricting the discussion to the technical performance aspects of guitar, three true innovators come to mind. Jimi Hendrix shot the electric guitar into the stratosphere with his blues pyrotechnics on songs such as “Machine Gun" and “Voodoo Chile (A Slight return)." Eddie Van Halen came along to initiate ...

James McMurtry: Saint Mary Of The Woods

by Glenn Astarita
September 8, 2002

Texas singer/songwriter James McMurtry imparts a high degree of literary insight to (perhaps inadvertently) parallel his famous dad, novelist Larry McMurtry. In any event, the vocalist’s penchant for intertwining his wry wit with cleverly articulated, Southern fried lyricism provides a distinct edge throughout. One component of the artist’s appeal resides within his understated delivery amid his ensemble’s non-intrusive but effective brand of Texas style country-rock. Essentially, McMurtry is an insightful storyteller who utilizes rests between verses. He lets you soak ...

Doc Watson and Frosty Morn: 'Round The Table Again

by C. Michael Bailey
August 22, 2002

“Please make welcome, a national treasure, Doc Watson..."

With that fitting introduction, Doc Watson, with his late son Merle’s band Frosty Morn, begin their appearance at the Wilkes Community College, Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Wilkes Community College is the home of the annual Merlefest, a traditional American music festival sponsored in honor of Merle Watson, which was inaugurated in 1988. The music contained herein proves that talent and sincerity great enough will abolish genre definitions.

Arthel Watson was born March 3, ...

Nickel Creek: This Side

by C. Michael Bailey
August 17, 2002

Bluegrass wunderkinder return with a much different take on bluegrass.

Nickel Creek’s newest release, This Side, is a definite extension of their self-titled first recording and Chris Thile’s and Sean Watkin’s most recent recordings ( Not All Who Wander Are Lost and Let It Fall, respectively). This Side boasts plenty of the trio’s trademark acoustic magic with some electric guitars, strings, and Beatlesque melodies and harmonies thrown in.

If Nickel Creek was characterized by the sweetness of “The Lighthouse’s Tale," ...