Tricopolis Records-CD Reviews-October 1999

Smokey Mountain Home
I Know My Way To You By Heart
Nine Pound Hammer
Quicksand
Muddy Waters
Kentucky Girl
You Won’t Ever Forget Me
Red Haired Boy
Someone Took My Place With You
Cabin Of Love
Uphill Climb
In The Gravel Yard

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Gather some of the best pickers in Southern California, add to this a pleasant baritone voice and great material. Mix well and serve it up hot and enjoy. Mike Nadolson is a mainstay of the Southern California bluegrass scene. He is the lead guitarist and singer in the band Silverado and is often seen backing up friends in need of a steady rhythm and hot lead. Throughout the history of Bluegrass, the high lonesome voice has always been considered key to the fundamental sound, but if you go back, Lester Flatt, Carter Stanley, Larry Sparks, Charlie Waller and John Starling belie that idea by singing down in the real man range. Many of us have tried to sing higher than we should, trying to get up there, Mike Nadolson doesn’t bother and has chosen a group of songs that present his voice at its best. Also interesting, usually your hotrod guitarist, which Mike surely is, will tend to load up on the hot lick tunes and downplay the vocals. He fits in guitar leads where they work best, in this case, only half the tunes.

Aiding Nadolson in this endeavor is the producer and instrumental monster Dennis Caplinger playing banjo, fiddle and bass on all tracks. Dennis is as well known for his excellent taste, as the ability to play every hot lick known to humanity and some known only to extra-terrestrials. The first tune “Smokey Mountain Home” cooks right along, but Nadolson’s voice has a laidback quality that offsets the actual speed of the piece. One of my favorite songs on this recording is “You Won’t Ever Forget Me” Nadolson doesn’t a soulful reading of this great old country song. On the classic “Someone Took My Place With You” Mike gets that mournful Lester Flatt feeling down pat.

On the title tune “Quicksand” Mike and company flat tear it up. There’s tasting picking by resonator guitar ace David Dias of Silverado. The mandolin chores are handled by some of SoCal’s best: John Moore of Bluegrass Etc, Kenny Blackwell of the Laurel Canyon Ramblers and Bob Applebaum. The singing is also bolstered by more Silverado vets Dean Knight and Dave Richardson. Singer/songwriter Walden Dahl also puts in an appearance singing tenor.

This is a great recording that can be enjoyed for the hot picking and the great singing. My original copy of this CD was stolen by a friend in Hawaii who refuses to return it. Enjoy.

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Fox Tower Bluegrass Band Tower Grass

Stone Cross Music SCM-1002-CD

By: David Ogershok
Tricopolis Staff Writer
October 13, 1999

Playing time: 39 : 50

The Old Town
Live With The Fiddle
Between 7 And 8
Picture Of Hometown
Georgia On My Mind
Cecilia
Corcaigh
Daddy Is Gone
Don’t Waste Time
White River Dreams

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Which of the following are not German? Bratwurst. Sauerkraut. Bluegrass. Schnitzel. Ok. it’s a trick question. The Fox Tower Bluegrass Band plays bluegrass even though by definition its got to be non-traditional. No, they aren’t going to fool you into thinking they’re from Appalachia. They have accents and thick ones too. But hey - They’re German! And even I can’t sound like Del McCoury. Here’s the important part: Don’t let that stand in your way of hearing a fine band that embraces the American tradition yet adds flavors of their own culture. Sort of like Dusseldorf mustard on Southern Barbecue.

The first cut, The Old Town, lets you know immediately that they’ve got the chops to handle themselves with assurance and imagination. Within seconds we’re handed minor key melodic banjo, and swaggeringly self confident diminished chords. The immediate impression is that these guys can not only play but they’re having fun doing it..

One of the most interesting aspects of hearing music (of any kind) played by those without preset stylistic limitations is finding those elements that traditionalists would never include. The timing of the tune Between 7 And 8 is a good example. Alternating between 7/8 and 4/4 (I think), it throws down a gauntlet as if to say, “Try to tap your foot to this, I dare you!” Corcaigh, a very complex melody by Andy Glandt, adds pennywhistle and bodhran to the standard instrumentation with perfect effect since it has a strong Irish feel anyway.

While most of the selections are originals, one of the real showpieces of the CD is Georgia On My Mind. It’s over seven minutes long and starts slowly with a jazz/pop feel eventually mutating to a full-blown breakdown giving everyone a chance to show off.

Personnel include Martin Wesholleck on guitar, Andy Glandt on banjo, Andreas Waldmann on bass and Georg Bahr doing double duty on mandolin and fiddle. Everyone sings at one time or another.

Some ultra-traditionalists have a tendency to quote Mark Twain when they hear a foreign bluegrass band. Twain said, “The remarkable thing about a dog walking on its hind legs is not how well he does it, but simply that he does it at all”. Don’t be tempted to feel that way about The Fox Tower Bluegrass Band. They’re accomplished, creative, gutsy, and just plain good on their own merits.

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East Virginia "Back Home In East Virginia"

Copper Creek Records CCD-0168

By: Dale Desmuke
Tricopolis Staff Writer
October 10th. 1999

Playing time: 40:39

Emily
Back Home In East Virginia
Rappahanock
Never Get To Hold You In My Arms Anymore
First Last Call Before Lonesome
Darling, That I Do
Over The Hills Far Away
Wearing It Out
Let Me Whisper
Oscar The Angel
A Million Years In Glory
One-Eyed Dog

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Absolutely great original material, first-class picking and a band sound that is state-of-the-art, that’s East Virginia. I was stationed in the Navy, in Norfolk, in the early ‘70’s when East Virginia was in it’s first go-round. They were the hot group back then. I could’ve seen and heard them as often as I wanted. I could have bought one of their several excellent albums, but I was into southern rock and country and not interested in Bluegrass music. Thankfully, we all get a second chance.

In 1981 East Virginia called it quits, as a unit. Fast forward to 1997 and the band had been through some changes, families, education and life in general. Well they are back and in really fine form. If you like traditional bluegrass, a lead singer with more than a touch of Merle Haggard in his soul and some hard-driving picking, do yourself a favor and grab this CD.

Songwriting, Art McDonough the bass player, wrote six of the twelve pieces on this recording and I’m not sure which is my favorite. They are all tasty. Ron Barnes plays most of the instruments and builds mandolins. He provided excellent banjo and lead guitar work. Joe McDonough slides all over that resonator guitar and sings excellent high tenor. Harold Smith is rock solid on the mandolin rhythm and strong on the Monroe lead licks. Dave Ratcliff is lead and rhythm guitarist and doing a great job but where he shines is vocals. Many bands will share the lead vocals to the detriment of the overall sound. Ratcliff is the lead singer and, as I mentioned before, I hear touches of Merle Haggard plus George Jones and maybe John Starling, he is one soulful country singer, worth the price of admission all by his lonesome. Mix in Joe McDonough on tenor and I swear I sometimes I hear Starling and Duffy. And that is a sincere compliment.

The lead-off song, “Emily”, is one of those bouncy-feeling bluegrass heartbreak songs. I don’t know how they do it. Listen to “First Last Call Before Lonesome”, mournful, bluesy, George Jonesy, oh yeah. At the other end of the spectrum is “One-Eyed Dog”, a showpiece from notched-up, blue yodel territory, that the band just rips. If I were them, I’d save this one for the encore, it would bring the house down. “Over The Hills Far Away “ has a soulful Stanley Brothers feel with a stone Monroe mandolin kicker. The pairing of Art McDonough’s songs and Dave Ratcliff is great but the grouping of the whole band is outstanding.

This is what country music would be if it had any, I guess I should say, nerve. I have been singling out the guys but East Virginia is a band. The only guest on this recording is the great Rickie Simpkins on fiddle. The band is so good I almost forgot to mention him.

Art didn’t write all the material. Harold contributed “Rappahanock” and Ron kicked in “Wearing It Out,” both great instrumentals. One of the other outside songs “Oscar The Angel,” a Don Schlitz song, proves that a good band doesn’t let its ego override good taste. With all of those great songs by Art McDonough, they found this jewel and you just have to hear it. A song about a crazy old street preacher, or was he crazy?

On first listen, I enjoyed “Back Home In East Virginia.” On the second listen, I loved it. It won’t come off the player for a while, too many good vibrations.

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Byron Berline Band "One-Eyed Jack"

No Label BBCD-002

By: David Richardson
Tricopolis Staff Writer
October 14th. 1999

Playing time: approx. 45 minutes

Free Wheelin’
Busy “B”
No Hard Times
One-Eyed Jack
Mr. Tambourine Man
Sweet Georgia Brown
Cimarron, Roll On
Goin’ Fishin’
My Window Faces the South
My Sweet Love Ain’t Around
Train 45

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Byron Berline had been a mainstay of the Southern California bluegrass scene for years with the band Berline, Crary, and Hickman, before moving to the Midwest. However, I first heard Byron play in the late ‘60’s on Pickin’ and Fiddlin’ by the Dillards. I was favorably impressed by the tunes he chose for that particular album along with the wealth of written information about each fiddle tune. His ability to play clean triplets on the fiddle grabbed my ear. He made these Irish-laced maneuvers sound so easy, and they helped present a distinctive style of fiddle playing that would become his own.

In One-Eyed Jack, Byron has assembled a capable group of bluegrass musicians, including John Hickman on banjo. There are other non-bluegrass instruments on this album, namely drums and piano. However, to the purist considering this album, these additions do not seem to get in the way of the drive of the CD. You almost forget that they’re there.

This is not, by any means, just a fiddle tune album. What you get in One-Eyed Jack is a well balanced set of instrumental and vocal material ranging from straight bluegrass to western swing to jazz swing as in “Sweet Georgia Brown.” Byron plays fiddle and mandolin throughout the album and does a fine job on all. I especially liked “Busy ‘B’”, a Byron original that really moves! I also liked the bluegrass treatment of the Bob Dylan tune, “Mr. Tambourine Man.” It has a rolling feel (complete with tambourine!) which is subtly mixed into the back-beat. John Hickman, as always, does a great job on banjo in all of the selections. He must have been a banjo teacher when he lived in LA since I hear so many local pickers using many of the same licks that I hear on One-Eyed Jack!!

The only odd thing about One-Eyed Jack is the lack of information on the CD and the insert card. The tunes are not written on the CD itself, nor are the playing times to be found anywhere. A radio DJ might be reluctant to play this album because of these oversights. It is also not possible to know who is singing lead on any of the songs since it is not listed near any of the song titles.

Despite these minor discrepancies, if you like bluegrass with a “western” feel, buy this album. If you have a CD player in your car, play One-Eyed Jack on the interstate, and you’ll see the time fly!!

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