I am thrilled to announce that by the time you will read my next article, I will be flying back to my home that I miss very much. While I have enjoyed my college experience at Clark University, I can not wait for Festival Season back in California. There, I will be playing a few reunion gigs with OMGG which consists of the talented Schwartz brothers and the amazing Aj Lee. Make sure to see us at the Freight & Salvage and Vern’s Stage at the Father’s Day Festival. I am also going to be the teacher’s assistant for the one and only Mike Compton. I can’t wait to learn from his, and I assume all of his students are looking forward to it too.
For the last year I could not hear anything about bluegrass without a mention of the Earls of Leicester. So I finally listened to the album, and I think it did what it tried to accomplish, but that doesn’t mean it was that great in my humble opinion. I get the whole Flatt & Scruggs thing, but I feel there was a lot left to be desired on the album.
The first track, “Big Black Train” is a great intro. The vocal and instrument response to kick off the album was a nice touch and it was a great opportunity to highlight one of the best parts of the album: Shawn Camp. Until this album, I had no idea that Shawn Camp was Lester Flatt reincarnated. He sings lead on every track besides the instrumental “Shuckin’ the corn”, and his vocals to not get old. What I loved most about his vocals on the record, was how it sounded that he was enjoying himself. I imagine Camp being a die hard Flatt and Scruggs fan who tried so hard to sound like Lester just like I tried so hard to sound like Tony Rice, and finally he gets his chance. He gets a call from no other than the legend Jerry Douglas who tells him to be Lester Flatt, and Camp knew that he could not disappoint. I have never had the opportunity, but I assume playing with some of your heroes like Tim O’ Brien and Jerry Douglas while paying tribute to one of the bluegrass gods, is one of the best situations for a bluegrass musician. One of the songs that shows off Camp the best is the always enjoyable “I’ll go Stepping to”. Camp destroys the goofy phrasing of the song and makes it one of the most enjoyable moments on the album. What makes his lyrics even better is the killer tenor O’ Brien puts on it and the killer Scruggs style banjo background. My favorite song on the album “Some old Day” has a similar formula for greatness. Again, O’Brien brings the killer harmonies, which drive any version of the song but especially this one. Camp, and O’ Brien’s vocals are the best part of the album, and pay great tribute to one of the best duet’s in bluegrass history.
The instrumentation leaves a lot to be desired. By favorite breaks from this album came from O’ Brien, which is not promising for a bluegrass band. Douglas sounded to conservative and formulaic. Cushman does a good job on the Scruggs back up, but his breaks are never special. And Johnny Warren’s fiddle style has never done anything for me. He sounds too sloppy while trying to play the same notes on the same scale over and over. The strangely disappointing thing about this album that makes sense in retrospect is that Barry Bales should not be playing bass on this album. Since the album was supposed to be Flatt and Scruggs songs it is obvious that songs like ‘Dig a Hole in the Meadow”, “You’re not a Drop in the Bucket” and “Dim Lights, Thick Smoke” would be on the album, but those songs oppose Barry Bale’s bass style. These songs are supposed to be swingy and have the ebat drag behind it, but instead Bale’s on or pushing the beat style is highlighted in a negative way. Each on of these songs sound confused because of the way the song is being played, and the way the song was played by Flatt & Scruggs, which should have more merit than they gave it when deciding who should play bass.
Besides this one flaw, the album succeeds in being very similar to Flatt & Scruggs in a lot of positive ways, but when the bass doesn’t sound good, the whole album can sound off kilter, which is what I got out of my listen to this album.
