CHRIS SHARP REVIEWS

Mississippi Chris Sharp

CD: Rare & Fine: Uncommon Tunes of Bill Monroe Artist: Mike Compton Label: Taterbug Music Artist Website: https://www. mikecompton.net/

Mike Compton has produced an uncommonly good CD, Rare & Fine. It has proved difficult to review because I must say the right things about this work. I cannot overstate the importance of this collection of tunes, all masterfully rendered for us to enjoy, all previously unrecorded tunes composed by Monroe and heard on cassette tapes and CDs compiled of field recordings of Monroe’s shows and from the seats in his bus as the Bluegrass Breakdown sped down the road to another show. My first listen transported me to the many times my young twenty-something self sat on the ground in front of the stage at Monroe’s feet in mid-week performances at Bean Blossom. Monroe reached deep into his repertoire for something his audience had not heard during previous sets. Even

Monroe can’t perform the same two or three sets of music when he plays two sets a day for nine days to the same folks.

I can remember that twenty-something Mike

Compton seated right there, staring up at the master. I remember me and a host of others seated right next to him, our mouths open, our jaws hanging slack as Monroe hammered the midweek crowds with music they’d likely never get to hear anywhere else. Rare & Fine is almost like Bill Monroe has reached beyond the grave to enthrall us once again. It definitely shows that Monroe’s music is still fresh and relevant as so many other things fade, wilt, and return to the Earth. I close my eyes and listen, transported right back to the foot of the Bean Blossom stage. I have wanted this in Bluegrass music. I have longed for it. I now have it in my hands. Some singles from Rare & Fine have already been released, and the entire CD is set for release in March. I haven’t heard anyone talk about the singles as I have been listening carefully to this CD preparing to write this review. Sometimes I have to make myself listen to a CD twice, but not this time. I must have listened fifty times, and I’m just getting started. Compton assembled a great cast of musicians who absolutely nailed Monroe’s music and the spirit. Jeremy Stephens on guitar, Russ Carson on banjo, Mike Bub on bass, and Laura Orshaw, Michael Cleveland, and Shad Cobb on fiddles. They did justice to the music. They honored the music. They made these uncommon tunes of Bill Monroe come alive.

It’s not possible for me to pick a favorite, as the favorites change with every close listen. This is a wonderful thing because it means that I am getting something different out of each listen. I suppose that means I’m growing as it grows on me, speaking to be a bit differently each time around. This is the way of good music. There are lots of blues here, underscoring the influence of the blues on Monroe. There are also several places where tunes presented here have solid references to other tunes Monroe composed and recorded. All artists get themes that suggest themselves in such a way that the theme keeps returning until the artist has accomplished whatever the ether demanded of them. We can hear this in musical phrases in Jemison Breakdown and Nanook of the North and their nod to Brown County Breakdown, Let’s Get Close Together’s nod to Tombstone Junction, and a slight nod to Big Mon on The Old Stage Coach.

The triple fiddles on Mississippi River Blues, California Forest Fire, Orange Blossom Breakdown, The Old Stage Coach, Trail of Tears, Up in the Front and Out in the Back, and Big Spring are to die for. The fiddling of Laura Orshaw, Michael Cleveland, and Shad Cobb reminds me of some great 50’s Monroe recordings, all tendered with some great reverb. The triple fiddles also bring back vivid memories of Kenny Baker, Joe Stuart, and Enoch Sullivan playing triple fiddles with Monroe at the Lochwood Festival in Chatham, Alabama, back in the ’70s (Oh My!). Laura Orshaw’s fiddling on Jemison Breakdown and Galley Nipper is sublimely rendered, making my soul soar. Jeremy Stephens’ guitar shines all the way through, but nowhere better than Let’s Get Close Together Blues, which gives us a double dose of the raw power of The Monroe Brothers. Russ Carson’s banjo attack, tone, and timbre on Galley Nipper and The Old Stage Coach are just perfect, and his banjo work on Trail of Tears is beyond perfect. Certainly, more notes could have been played by many, but not a note here is out of place, time, or the spirit of the music. It’s as if the assembled musicians wanted to sound like a band rather than use this recording as a showcase for hot picking. How refreshing! I spoke to Compton about the CD. He said he had received some feedback on the tempo of some of the tunes, suggestions that perhaps some were too slow. “These tunes are as they came from the hands of Monroe. That’s where they belong.” I find the pace of the CD just perfect. The music breathes. It leaves us some space to insert ourselves, to contemplate the mood that washes over us as we listen. Orange Blossom Breakdown is The lasting and permanent importance of Bill Monroe and his contributions to American music cannot be overstated. But, and it’s a big but: lots of Bluegrass fans seem to prefer the idea of Monroe at the expense of his music. This was a mystery until I thought about my first encounter with the man and his music. Compton says it best in the liner notes, which speak for me and so many others: I don’t remember really when or where I first heard Bill Monroe, but I do remember it being quite a jolt. The primal sound of his style made me a bit uncomfortable, having grown up with more polished recordings, but I couldn’t stop listening to him.

Primal. Powerful. Durable. Raw. Just like Compton, many of us started with the polished but learned to prefer the primal for the foundation it gives. Better than anyone else, Compton captures the rhythmic and sonic qualities of the mandolin. Sure, there are notes, and lots of people give us plenty of notes, but few give us that percussiveness that Monroe did. The best examples of this to my ear is on Jemison Breakdown, Let’s Get Close Together Blues, and particularly Galley Nipper, with its close micing that gives us those uh-uh-uh sounds of the wood and the attack of the pick, the sounds of a fine instrument in experienced hands, giving us what it was created for. These tunes all have melodies. Keeping close to the melody surely does not hurt the tune.

I have longed for this music. My heart has yearned for it. I am so glad it’s here. If one insists on having me pick favorites, they might be Galley Nipper, Jemison Breakdown, The Old Stage Coach, Trail of Tears, and Let’s Get Together Blues. The truth of the matter is that my favorite happens to be the one playing right now. Any recording that can give one this experience is a real bargain. This recording is very likely to be the next big thing in Bluegrass. We had the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Circle Album in the ’70s, which brought many of us into the fold. Then in 2000, we had the Oh Brother! soundtrack, which captured whole new generations (Compton was also a part of that project). Far more recently, we have the phenomenal success of Billy Strings, who introduced a new generation to the sounds and styles of Doc Watson. Now, with Rare & Fine, we have the very thing that could and should bring about a renaissance of Monroe’s fabulous musical creativeness, power, and style, showing us all that despite a serious handicap, Monroe isn’t quite through with us. Rumor has it that there are enough unrecorded Monroe tunes to make another CD. I can hardly wait. Thanks to my lifelong friend Mike Compton (whose birthday is today!) and Taterbug Music for producing this CD and the assembled musicians who all made it come alive. If it were mine, I would wish it was done just like this. I stand and salute with a swelling heart as Bill Monroe looks down and smiles.

The Rare & Fine release date is March 4.

Don’t wait!

Book: Mandolin Man: The Bluegrass Life of Roland White Author: Bob Black Publisher: University of Illinois Press Publication Date: June 7, 2022

The University of Illinois Press and their Music in American Life series are on a roll for Bluegrass fans in 2022. We’re only two months into the new year, and so far, I have read and reviewed two books about Bluegrass music. The first was Mark Hembree’s On the Bus with Bill Monroe, and now, former Bluegrass Boy banjoist Bob Black’s Mandolin Man: The Bluegrass Life of Roland White.

Bob Black has spared no effort in interviews, discography, anecdotes, photos, the history of Roland White’s tenure in many bands, and a glossary of Bluegrass icons and venues mentioned in the book. Any student of Bluegrass music, particularly those new to the music they would make their own, will benefit from studying this book. It is a lesson in the glory of perseverance and persistence, both White’s as an artist and Black’s as an author.

Like many other converts to Bluegrass, at first, I found the hard, raw edge of Bill Monroe a bit shrill, which says nothing about Bill Monroe and a lot about tastes. Ripe olives, oysters on the halfshell, lutefisk (that halfrotten fermented fish that Norwegians love), and haggis (that Scottish dish the FDA says can’t even be imported into the USA) are not typically items placed on a toddler’s menu. One has to grow into those more mature flavors. That may not be the case for everyone, but it is for many of us. Unlike the mature flavor that is Bill Monroe, the Kentucky Colonels and The New Kentucky Colonels, featuring Roland and Clarence White, were palatable to me right off the bat: my first Bluegrass love, as it were. On a two-week honeymoon in January 0f 1980, that became less and less about a new marriage and more and more about being broke and hanging out in Nashville among many Bluegrass pals. My new bride, Debbie, and I, too broke for hotels by then, spent the last couple of nights at the shared house of my friend and former Bluegrass Boy Bob Fowler and one of my first Bluegrass idols Roland White. Though I daresay it was not so for my new bride, it was a high point for me. Still, she was a good sport about it. She is still a good sport after forty-two years of marriage. It was my first time being face-to-face with one of my earliest Bluegrass heroes and influences. I was smitten. Roland was gracious, which could serve as a good second subtitle for this book.

Roland White’s contributions to Bluegrass music cannot be overstated. To try and list them here would be to pay short shrift to what Black has so superbly done in his book. In the reading, it became apparent that nothing short of a book-length project could do justice to Roland White. Bob Black has given us that justice. He has done so admirably. The book is very readable. Sometimes it seems a bit redundant, but it is more a matter of format than anything else. Sometimes

things need to be said more than once. Listen closely to The Kentucky Colonels, Country Gazette, The Nashville Bluegrass Band, and The Roland White Band. Then listen again. Repeat. Read the book’s glossary. Repeat. Read White’s discography. Repeat. Watch old Andy Griffith shows that feature The Country Boys. Repeat. Repeat. Read the book. Repeat. Redundancy has its place place [grin]. In fact, a lot of what we like about music is its stellar moments interspersing its redundancy. Black makes a great, successful effort to point out Roland White’s sincerity in encouraging new players, helping them find their voice in a musical style many see as limiting. It’s a debate that rages in the bluegrass world. The only limits are those placed there by others or those we place for ourselves as we come face to face with our musical limitations. Aside from having pleased our ears with his music for so many years, White’s greatest legacy may be to have watered and nurtured tender shoots in an often thorny and rocky ground. Black rightfully points out White’s unceasing interest in the sound of the music and what he can contribute to that sound. The result is often a synergy and cohesiveness seldom found on a recording of hotshots in a hot band. Something anchors the music while still allowing for experimentation within its structure. Something grounds it to the earth. That something was frequently Roland White.

The body of work Roland White has blessed us with is immense. It was my first study, and it’s still studied. Black gives things we no doubt would have missed along the way, which is true for the veteran and far more for the novice.

Bob Black is a top-shelf banjoist himself, having worked on some of my favorite recordings, particularly those he did with the great fiddler, Kenny Baker. Black has another book out, Come Hither to Go Yonder: Playing Bluegrass with Bill Monroe, also available from The University of Illinois Press. I haven’t read it yet, but I think it’ll be next on my list. Having seen more than one pre-release book, I find that they typically contain boilerplate language warning reviewers of the dangers of using quotes from the pre-release in their hands. Well, I found a quote I have to use here, ignoring the publisher’s warning about changes in final editions. Black graced us with a great Bill Monroe quote that is not likely to change. This Monroeism came from a story White told Black about a left-over lunch found in a paper sack aboard Monroe’s bus, aka The Bluegrass Breakdown. When questioned about the unrefrigerated old food found in a greasy paper sack, Monroe replied, “You can’t hurt ham.”

I laughed out loud. Thank you, Bob Black, for your contributions to Bluegrass music and the gift of knowledge in this book. Hard work pays dividends to more than just the one doing all the work. All I had to do was read the book to tap into that big dividend. It was so enjoyable, and it was not work at all.

I think I’ll spin up The New Kentucky Colonels Live in Sweden and cut me off a big slice of country ham. It can’t hurt.