CD Review: Appalachian Picking Society - Various Artists

by Rick Landers

In churches, on porches of hand-hewn cabins, and at festive outdoor gatherings, people join together to sit and listen, dance, and play old time music carried to America on ships harboring poor Scottish and Irish immigrants and the sons and daughters of Africa. Surrounded and lifted up by the storied past or the harmonics of hand-me-down fiddles, banjos, mandolins, hammered dulcimers and guitars, each hardtack generation has been inspired and nurtured by the melodic expression of an ancient mountain region – Appalachia.

This is the musical tradition offered in a most elegant way on Appalachian Picking Society where virtuoso musicians gather for a spell to weave unique tapestries of their own while holding dear the integrity of the traditional arrangements. And in reverence to the spirits of the past, the pickers and note benders unlatch cases housing vintage instruments that are listed alongside each song title of the compilation CD. Vintage Gibson, Guild and Martin guitars, old banjos and mandolins, along with a 150-year-old fiddle called “Old Red” help keep the artists firmly planted in the Blue Ridge tradition.

“Lorena” begins as a simple arrangement for a lone hammered dulcimer, but the fleshy soft picking of a ’42 Gibson J-45 by guitarist and Grammy winning producer, Steve Buckingham, steps in to round out the tune by adding depth without burdening complexity. The tune is brief and seamlessly transitions to “Annabelle June” with Bela Fleck kicking the can down the road a piece playing his 1937 Gibson Style 75 Mastertone banjo. The music here is oftentimes spare before it breaks wide open, yet always remains decidedly deep in its conviction.

The ground swells on “Shady Grove” a traditional tune arranged by guitarist Byron Sutton, with guitar (1942 Martin D-18); mandolin, banjo, fiddle (1880 Johann Carr Pasold) and upright bass (1933 Jager) all sweetly blended. The guitar, mandolin and banjo perk the tune with naiveté, with the swirl of a lazy fiddle sweeping around the lot of them while the bass gives the piece a nice soft underbelly.

Just after some pretty dulcimer interludes and a Chris Thile tune, humorously named “Four Dead Guys Waltz” that ends with a single harmonic pluck, the low dobro drone on “Down in the Willow” cuts a slow Scottish path with a bit of off-handed guitar plucking by Dan Tyminski on his 1930 Martin D-18.

“Susan’s Gone” begins primitively with a handmade banjo and a 1955 Kay bass made of plywood, then brightly shifts gears with an old fiddle (circa 1900) twisting around corners. There’s more than a hint of fine playing on a boomer of a 1948 Gibson Southern Jumbo that helps carry the piece easily along.

Next up, the Appalachian Pickers Society gives us “When Silence Was Golden” with a slow waltz mix of dulcimer, pump organ (1880 Estey) and viola (1940’s Gibson) that pick notes as if they’re reaching for mountain berries, with purpose yet with a gentle touch and twist of the wrist.

“Gypsy Camp” is the longest cut on the album and begins dressed in a soupy Shenandoah fog, but soon bristles brightly with some spunk and drive by guitarist Tim O’Brien (1943 Gibson J-45). The whine of violin (1922 Carlo Micelli), and pluck of a 1998 OME Jubilee open back banjo jump on the bandwagon with a breezy quickstep of their own. This track’s a toe tapper and head nodder, a hearty affirmation of the resolute rhythms of the hill country’s style and grit.

A delicate tune, “McGuire’s Landing” mixes and matches the magic of Pete Huttlinger’s guitar work with the resophonic guitar licks of Rob Ickes, the viola of Andrea Zonn and the quiet sweeps of producer Steve Buckingham’s dulcimer. The same group merges into the following number, “Flowers of Edinburgh” that offers up more portions of reso-guitar slide and evokes the wintered desolation of the Scottish Highlands, a region not unlike some of the more stark hills of the Appalachians.

“Star of the Country Down” has a traditional Christmas quality about it with touching hammered dulcimer plucking by Alisa Jones Wall coupled with Ron Hall’s autoharp, a nice bit of fill from Greg Davis’s ’56 Martin D-18 and a vintage 1950 harmonium played by Tim Laurer. One can only imagine the troubled times when the poorest children of Appalachia had only home spun songs like this as joyful holiday gifts to lift their spirits.

The album takes flight with the spark from “Overbellow Reel” that catches all the fun found in traditional mountain music. Even without a six-string guitar in the lot, the musicians push the tune along with some turgid little banjo licks (1900 Lyon & Healy fretless), fiddle spits (1850 German – “Old Red”), mando fits (1903 Gilchrist F-5) and an old flatback German upright bass (circa 1860) that gives the tune some extra bounce.

The last selection on the Appalachian Picking Society set honors all that precedes it with a pleasant solo, “Hick’s Farewell”, by Andrea Zonn, lovingly played on a late 1700s Italian violin. The tune is short and sweet, snuffed out almost as soon as it arrives. Yet it is a fitting finale for this wonderful palette of instrumentals played by some exceptionally skilled musicians. They are, indeed, keepers of mountain traditions who love to dig into the past, as well as offer up refined contemporary sundries of their own, with little interest in drawn out fare-the-wells.

CD Title: The Appalachian Picking Society

Label: Windham Hill

Release Date: 2004

Track Listing

1. Lorena (.33)
2. Annabelle June (3:35)
3. Shady Grove (4:43)
4. Interlude (:57)
5. Four Dead Guys Waltz (2:06)
6. Interlude (1:24)
7. Down in the Willow (3:21)
8. Susan’s Gone (3:47)
9. When Silence Was Golden (3:05)
10. Interlude (.37)
11. Gypsy Camp/Art Stamper (5:37)
12. McGuire’s Landing (3:46)
13. Flowers of Edinburgh (4:43)
14. Star of Country Down (4:17)
15. Interlude (:14)
16. Overbellow Reel (3:21)
17. Hick’s Farewell (:43)

---