Adcock, Gaudreau, Waller & Gray - The Country Gentlemen Reunion Band (RadioTherapy Records)

It’s nothing short of amazing that the landmark bluegrass band, The Country Gentlemen, has been around for half a century. It’s equally difficult to fathom the huge impact the group has had on bluegrass as we know it today.

From the outset, the Gents didn’t mirror the Deep South roots of Bill Monroe, the Stanley Brothers or Flatt and Scruggs. They were cut from a different mold.

A bit of insight into the famous band’s past and an exclamation point on the group’s indelible stamp on an American form of music are both offered on a new CD, “Adcock, Gaudreau, Waller and Gray: The Country Gentlemen Reunion Band.”

The group includes two original members — banjo picker and guitarist Eddie Adcock and bass player Tom Gray. Joining them are Jimmy Gaudreau on mandolin and Randy Waller on guitar. Gaudreau was the Gentlemen’s second mandolin player who replaced John Duffey and Waller is the son of the late Charlie Waller, perhaps the Gentlemen’s perfect Gent.

Eddie Adcock and his wife/musical partner Martha are listed as both producers and executive producers. The CD is on the RadioTherapy Records label.

This CD will offer great memories and pleasure to longtime fans of the Gentlemen, and I’d bet it will be embraced by the new crop of bluegrassers. It has an incredibly strong song lineup and some pretty darn good picking to boot.

Adock, ever the crochity old warrior, shows age has treated him like fine wine with his prowess on banjo. He comes across smooth and strong throughout the tracks, but never more so than on the old classic, “Sweet Georgia Brown.” Yep, Eddie can still cook. Gaudreau takes his turn in the spotlight with an original instrumental, “El Doggo,” which also includes fine supporting licks from Adcock and Waller.

I wouldn’t dare to be the judge to determine “bluegrass” or “non-bluegrass.” All I care to say is this: My ears are pleased and I smile a lot when listening to this CD.

I caught The Gentlemen at a festival only months before Charlie Waller died. It was my first live exposure to this group, and I’ll have to say, as frail as Charlie Waller seemed on stage that day, it was easy to see that entertaining the crowd in front of him was priority No. 1. Failing health had to take a back seat for the two, 45-minute sets he did. A year later, after Charlie Waller’s passing, I caught Randy Waller’s reincarnation of the group. Perhaps that first impression I got a year earlier left a strong mark on my memory, but I wasn’t impressed.

Fast foward a few years to this new CD, and I offer an olive branch to Randy Waller, whose vocals are to be commended on the reunion project. They, indeed, are Gentlemen-like.

The CD’s 13 songs obviously were carefully chosen to reflect the true flavor of the Gentlemen. There’s the off-the-wall stuff, like “El Doggo;” a bit of country, including Merle Haggard’s “White Line Fever;” and just a bunch of tunes that simply sound like old friends.

Martha Adcock sums the entire aura around the Gentlemen of yesterday and this newest version on the CD in her very eloquent liner notes:

“‘It’s good, but it ain’t bluegrass’ is what they said 50 years ago …but folks who know bluegrass music know that the ‘Classic’ Country Gentlemen are a big reason why bluegrass sounds the way it does today.”

I wouldn’t dare to be the judge to determine “bluegrass” or “non-bluegrass.” All I care to say is this: My ears are pleased and I smile a lot when listening to this CD.

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