Jul 14
“Lefty’s Old Guitar” - J.D. Crowe & The New South (Rounder
Just as my 87-year old mother likes to conjure up exciting memories of going to the mail box to find that her new 78-of Roy Acuff or Bob Wills she’d ordered from Sears had arrived, I long for the days of LPs and all those photos and liner notes you could digest at your leisure while your new album had arrived.
CDs and their fine print all too often have me hunting up a magnifying glass, but even with the power of the “extra eyes,” I sometimes find the tiny letters too difficult to read. Thankfully and thoughtfully, the name of the liner notes’ author on “Lefty’s Old Guitar” was in a type size I could read without any help. Open the first page of the CD cover and there it is, at the bottom right corner on Page 2: “Eddie Stubbs.” When WSM’s kingpin of all things bluegrass and old country has something to say, I listen. Or in this case, read.
His worthiness Mr. Stubbs gives a brief synopsis of Crowe’s career, and mentions the banjo icon’s long waits between new projects. Stubbs reminds us, the Crowe fans who have plunked down our dollars for “Lefty’s Old Guitar,” that the wait is always worthwhile.
And so it is with this new Rounder release. Unlike the latest trend of pickers picking up and leaving this band to do a stint with another band, the current New South lineup has been together for a few years. And it shows in the band’s solid sounds , both instrumentally and vocally, with three part harmonies shared by Crow and his other vocalists — Rickey Wasson on guitar and mandolinist Dwight McCall.
Stubbs notes that Crowe has always served up an interesting mix of genres and tunes on his recordings. That tradition also holds up on this recording. The title cut, about the late and legendary Lefty Frizzell’s guitar hanging in the Country Music Hall of Fame, can’t miss for the legions of true country music fans who have crossed over to bluegrass rather than be fed a steady diet of what’s called country music on Top 40 radio these days.
Another nugget for country fans is Wasson’s soulful delivery of “In My Next Life,” one of those Merle Haggard tunes you probably have forgotten about until hearing this version.
Crowe and Company can still romp with the best of them as demonstrated by the opening cut “Mississippi River Raft.” It’s hard-driving bluegrass with Crowe’s signature banjo style providing the exclamation point.
In all, this is not one of those CDs you’re going to buy and listen to once. It’s chalk full of good material that’s well played and it will beckon repeated listenings for many years. Another Crowe classic? Perhaps.
– By Dan Tackett
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