May 28
Mashville Brigade delivers smash hits from the past
Mashville Brigade “Bluegrass Smash Hits Vol. 1″ (Rural Rhythm)The Mashville Brigade has bridged a huge, seemingly uncrossable gap with its first recording, Bluegrass Smash Hits, Volume 1, on the Rural Rhythm Records label. It was released late last month.
I sense in today’s bluegrass marketing arena, many CDs are marketed either to the traditional crowd or to the newgrass sector of fans who are somewhat turned off by the Monroe die-hards out there. And never the twain shall meet?
But the twain do meet in an uproarious and enthusiastic manner with every one of the generous 16 tracks compiled by The Mashville Brigade on this debut CD. The band’s delivery is almost a celebration of the greatness these songs truly hold in the history of bluegrass.
The title, Bluegrass Smash Hits, is not misleading. The extensive liner notes, authored by Desneige Bourret, mention that the roots of some of the songs go back a century or more. Quite frankly, since I lean a bit to the newgrass side of things these days after listening to bluegrass almost all my life, I’ll admit: I hadn’t heard some of these songs in many a year.
Before delving into the tracks, let’s first have a look at the band and its performance reputation, described as “Nashville’s new full-throttle acoustic all-star jam.”
Members of the group are Ashby Frank on mandolin, Randy Barnes on bass, Aaron McDaris on banjo, Jim Van Cleve on fiddle and Darrell Webb handling guitar and most of the lead vocals.
Sure, many of those names are probably familiar — they all perform with national touring acts, including the Grascals, Special Consensus and Mountain Heart. Performing as the Mashville Brigade is a side project that’s rooted in Nashville’s bluegrass Mecca, the Station Inn, where the group gathers to perform weekly when they aren’t on the road with their main bands.
Each of these pickers has gained a reputation as being part of bluegrass’s new wave — and a monstrous wave it is with talent spilling into the aisles. Don’t kid yourself, these super pickers let it all hang out on Bluegrass Smash Hits.
I listened to three cuts before getting into the liner notes and was a bit astounded at the way the project was recorded. The band convened on familiar turf — The Station Inn’s stage — , gathered around microphones and played to the only other person around, the recording engineer. Every song was recorded live and the project was wrapped up with no overdubs or any other studio tricks. It’s a raw production of some extremely polished talent.
It’s difficult to pick a favorite or two off the CD. Every song brought back a memory or two.”Bury Me Beneath the Willow,” for example, was a song I remember my mom singing 50 years ago. “Take This Hammer” carried me back to the 1960s, when I caught the Osborne Brothers live several times and that particular tune was a staple of their show. Then,there’s “Little Maggie,” “Banks of the Ohio,” “Going Across the Sea” and just a bunch of other good songs from bluegrass’s past. They’re all performed with a new energy that gives these old songs a fresh feel.
The Mashville Brigade doing a blistering version of “Little Maggie” at the Station Inn.
Ashby Frank of Special Consensus turns in a strong mix of traditional and not-so-traditional licks on mandolin, a feat mirrored by McDaris, who’s “day job”is picking banjo with The Grascals. Van Cleve, who can go way over the top performing with Mountain Heart, gets a more traditional bluegrass feel with his fiddle chops on this collection. Webb, one of the founders of Wildfire and now with Rhonda Vincent’s Rage, gives a great traditional feel with his vocals on the many classics on this CD. Webb also manages to sneak in a few stellar guitar licks and he’s rock-solid on the rhythm guitar portion of his contribution.
This one’s going to have a tough time leaving my CD player. I’m really intrigued by that “Volume 1″on the CD’s cover. Volume 2″ simply can’t arrive soon enough.
(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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[…] Good news! Posted by ashby In Recording 28May 08 Well, good review anyway! Check out the review of the new Mashville Brigade CD on the Bluegrass Journal.com! […]