Donna Ulisse "Walk This Mountain Down" (Hadley Music Group)
Walk This Mountain Down feels like a trip Donna Ulisse might have made a time or two in her life.
That’s the title of Ulisse’s new CD, recently released on the Hadley Music Group label.
Donna Ulisse, you ask?
Granted, the monicker isn’t exactly a name to drop in bluegrass circles, but she could be a force to be reckoned with. Not that she hasn’t already left a few marks on the music industry. And, a bluegrass mark or two has been left on her, most notably by her marriage to Rick Stanley, cousin to Dr. Ralph Stanley. But she’s done plenty on her own, thank you, including working Nashville recording sessions with country artists and, for a time, doing a solo gig on the heels of a deal and album with Atlantic Records.
But, Walk this Mountain Down is a strong statement about Ulisse’s roots in the Clinch Mountains. And, make no mistake, it’s pure bluegrass, minus the token cover or two of a classic tune. These tunes are all Ulisse’s songs — mainly good story songs sung in great, heart-felt fashion. She wrote or co-wrote each of the 12 tracks.
The CD is heavily flavored with mountain scenes and mountain people and their lives, hard times and strong beliefs. I especially enjoyed “Levi Stone,” a song of tested faith. “I knew this man,” Ulisse writes in the liner notes. But Ulisse delivers this song with such conviction, the listener might have easily guessed that to be the case.
“Child of the Great Depression” reminds me of my own frugal mom, who lived through that era as a child. Others who have parents or older relatives who lived during The Great Depression will also appreciate and understand this wonderful song.
There is a lot of variety on Walk this Mountain Down. At times, it’s just high-energy bluegrass and at other points, Ulisse and her group of A-team backup musicians flirt with the blues and even a tiny bit of funk. But again, it all boils down to bluegrass.
In the hands of the wrongly guided producer, Walk This Mountain Down could have been one of those milk-toast, quasi bluegrass productions aimed more at the mainstream Nashville crowd than the parking lot picker crowd. But producer Keith Sewell kept his bluegrass tunnel vision steady on this one and out came a CD that bluegrassers should embrace.
Sewell also plays guitar and sings background vocals on the CD. Other musicians making contributions to Walk This Mountain Down are Andy Leftwich, Rob Ickes, Scott Vestal and Byron House. Claire Lynch makes a cameo doing background vocals on “Levi Stone.”
Bottom line, Walk This Mountain Down is a nice collection of new songs delivered with tender loving care and a great deal of skill.