Some may know this, others may not, but my middle name is Duffey. Martin Duffey Varner. I like the name in principle more than how it rolls off the tongue because it’s always served as a reminder of one of the greatest performers, instrumentalists, vocalists, and dressers in bluegrass history. While Duffey died in 1996, the project, created by Akira Otsuka and Ronnie Freeland, began in 2003. Yet even with this immense delay due to performer scheduling limitations, this recording makes one feel like Duffey was alive and well and his influence hasn’t faltered in the last 20 years. For the most part this conscious effort to invoke Duffey’s idiosyncrasies works, but the album also serves as a reminder for how bluegrass has changed from the third generation to today’s greats.
After the enjoyable Lou Reid directed “Sad and Lonesome Day” Amanda Smith’s iteration of “If That’s the Way You Feel” is possibly the best I’ve heard her. Her husband does a beautiful high floating solo which smoothly transitions into the clear and succinct brightness of Steffey who fits right at home on this track.
“If I Were a Carpenter” has the Duffey bounce as well as the booming high tenor. The unlikely trio of Johnathan Edwards, Dede Wyland and Mike Auldridge builds a perfect stack which goes perfectly with the dobro fills. While I love Edward’s Duffey impersonation, I still can’t act like Dudley Connell doesn’t blow everybody out of the water on his couple tracks. “Lonesome River” brings back the iconic Connell-Rigsby duo doing one of the most intense tenor songs bluegrass has to offer. “He Was a Friend of Mine” is one of the best Duffey-Connell duets in my opinion, and Cowan does the tenor admirably. His 6-5 decent on the lyric “Dime” is necessary and he hits it with force. Unfortunately, Cowan’s 80s rock band shout works for tenor, but it sounds forced on the lead vocal driven “Some Old Day”. I’m sure others will disagree, but I would have much rather hear James King who is allotted to a quick two minute version of “Going to the Races” which doesn’t end up being memorable in the grand scheme of the album.
The same issue goes for the Tim O’Brien lead “Poor Ellen Smith” which does have a pretty smooth mandolin break by Wayne Benson who is playing Duffey’s old Gibson along with: David Grisman, Lou Reid, Marc MacGlashan and Akira Otsuka but besides that not much happens. It seems strange to me that Duffey and the Seldom Scene were very conscious of the war horse culture in bluegrass, yet this album succumbs to playing what seems like a bunch of rushed together trad songs that all the people in the studio all happened to know. Surprisingly, one of the instrumentals breaks this formula. As we know from Duffey and the Scene, they were not always strictly bluegrass and Duffey’s mandolin playing is the closest we will get to a rock or jazz guitarist and should be taken as its own entity. Sam Bush and Bela Fleck, with help from Kenny Smith and Todd Phillips attempt to do this on the Duffey original “Sunrise”. It’s an incredibly fun tune that lets some of the genres greatest loose on a tune that is more in line with their more current desires music wise than their more traditional pasts.
Fred Travers brings a beautiful vibrato to his voice to sing the Duffey original “Reason for Being” which also includes the legendary Wyatt Rice coming out of retirement to play a brilliantly paced and transformative solo which only he could do. Along with Tony Rice’s return on “He was a Friend of Mine” being a highwater mark for listeners, I’m sure many will be excited when John Starling performs a live version of the classic Country Gentlemen track “Bringing Mary Home”. A very telling moment of this album is when you hear the cheers at the beginning of the track; it shows the fan driven desire for this album to happen. Freeland unfortunately passed away before his brain child was released but Otsuka still lives on and I’m sure he never thought this project would be released, let alone be committed to by so many great artists that saw and knew the greatness of Duffey just like my parents who thought it was a good idea to name their child after a bluegrass artist.
