Darrell Webb Live at Bellamys

Well, I had the lead sentence all planned out for my review of Darrell Webb’s new CD a couple of weeks ago.

It was going to read: Ladies and gentlemen, how about a nice hand for Darrell Webb and The Rage. After all, this CD was recorded live utilizing Rhonda Vincent’s fine band, including the boss lady on mandolin and harmony vocals. Hunter Berry was there on fiddle, Mickey Harris on bass and Kenny Ingram on five-string.

But when I found out last week that Webb was leaving The Rage after only one year with the highly traveled band, it took a bit of the wind out of what I thought was going to be a clever intro.

Darrell Webb, incidentally, is changing tour buses, climbing off Vincent’s Martha White coach and hopping on a rig that carries Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper.

But, I swerve from my purpose, which is delivering some comments about the new CD, Darrell Webb: Live at Bellamys. Allow me start here: This is high-energy, high-lonesome, traditional grass. It kicks off with a rousing version of “Rough Edges” that puts Ingram’s banjo dead center and Webb’s voice in the clouds.

By the time Webb reaches the final song of his set — an energized cover of “Little Maggie” — you’d think his voice might be showing just a touch of wear and tear from all those high-lonesome stretches. On the contrary, he’s more powerful on the set closer than any other tune on the CD.

It’s not the last tune on the CD. “Little Maggie” drew an encore, and Webb returns to the stage, first to give an emotional tribute to his late father, and then closing with his dad’s favorite hymn, “When the Savior Reached Down for Me.” By the time the song is over, the entire crowd sounds a lot like a Sunday morning church congregation, joining in at Webb’s invitation.

I really enjoyed the “live’ feel of this CD, from Track 1 to the closing gospel number. It was recorded at a place called Bellamys in Surgoinsville, Tenn. From Rhonda Vincent’s introduction of Webb to the closing hymn, the CD simply puts the listener right in the front row. You can even sense the emotion when Webb talks about his late father.

The recording takes a sidestep or two from its hard-driving bluegrass path. For one, Webb tickles the crowd’s ribs with some pretty decent impersonations of country artists John Anderson and Willie Nelson and then gives his take on country star turned bluegrasser, Marty Raybon.

On the next cut, Raybon, himself, joins Darrell Webb and The Rage on stage for a duet of the Merle Haggard classic, “Workin’ Man Blues.”(Is there any Haggard song that isn’t a classic?) Lest we all sometimes forget how well Rhonda Vincent knows her way around the mandolin, she serves a couple of reminders on her solos on this song.

Fiddler extraordinaire Bobby Hicks also takes the stage, playing some twin fiddles with Berry on the Jimmy Martin/Paul Williams song, “Mr. Engineer.”

Hicks, Berry and others on stage at Bellamys on this night also shine instrumentally on a swinging version of “Sweet Georgia Brown.”

Although I felt there really was not a “filler” track on Webb’s CD, for me, the old Joe and Rose Lee Maphis honky tonk staple, “Dim Lights, Thick Smoke,” took top billing for me.

Darrell Webb’s been around for quite some time, emerging as a founding member of Wildfire before joining Vincent’s group. He has a strong, traditional bluegrass voice and is also a talented multi-instrumentalist. On Live at Bellamys, he sound’s like the old pro that he really is.

Rest assured, “Live at Bellamys” is no stopping place.