Reviews
What others think of the bluegrass around - CDs, shows, concerts, DVDs.
Randy Waller - Randy Waller
Lendel Records - LR5401
Bluegrass music has always rested on a foundation that combines the old and new, but seldom with the kind of twist embodied in the debut of Randy Waller. On the one hand, as the son of the Country Gentlemen's legendary Charlie Waller, he is an artist bearing one of the most beloved names in bluegrass history. On the other, he is a new bluegrass talent, a man who has found his own way in the world of music before returning to bluegrass. And giving the circle of tradition yet another turn, the result- Randy Waller (Lendel Records) embodies a fresh approach that nevertheless resembles the innovation that lifted his father's band into the International Bluegrass Music Associations Hall of Honor in the first place.
Born in Washington, DC in 1959, Randy grew up surrounded by the music of the Country Gentlemen. 'Those musicians were like family to me," he says of giants like Eddie Adcock, Jimmy Gaudreau, Bill Yates, Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Douglas and Doyle Lawson. Spending the school year on a farm with his father's sister in Tennessee, he traveled the roads with his dad in the summers, soaking up groundbreaking music and learning the rigors of life in a traveling bluegrass band. When he finished his schooling, he chose to make his living outside of bluegrass, developing a solo career that found him opening for major country acts, fronting regional country and country-rock bands and teaching guitar in Richmond. Virginia - an experience that immersed him in the musical world of his generational peers.
Yet in the end, Randy Wailer came back to his bluegrass family. "Daddy's Old Guitar," the emotional center of Randy Waller; tells the story: how Charlie Wailer fulfilled on Christmas Day of 2002 the promise he'd made to his son in 1963 by giving him his 1937 D28 herringbone guitar. "I figured I'd better get out there and start playing it." Randy says with a smile, "so I started playing with him and the Country Gentlemen in 2003." Within months, fans moved by his stunning solo performance of "The Old Rugged Cross" were asking for recordings, and the idea for the CD was born.
To make Randy Waller, the singer/guitarist/songwriter turned first to members of his Country Gentlemen "family," bringing Jimmy Gaudreau in to play mandolin and mandola and Eddie and Martha Adcock to provide harmonies and recruiting Mike Moore, a friend from his teenaged years, to play bass. Award-winning banjo man Sammy Shelor (Lonesome River Band) and fiddler Aubrey Haynie came on board at the recommendation of recording engineer Tim Austin; "they were a godsend," Randy says.
Anchored by 'Daddy's Old Guitar" and "Old Rugged Cross," the disc provides irrefutable evidence of the explosive combination of family legacy and individual experience, as Waller sets his own compositions alongside those of powerful writers like Carl Jackson and songs like 'This Ol' Cowboy" (Marshall Tucker Band) and "Give It Up Or Let Me Go" (Bonnie Raitt) that bring the transformative genius of the Country Gentlemen (who translated rock songs like "Fox On The Run" into bluegrass classics) into the 21st century.
"My dad told me about the first time he heard me play the guitar when I was a kid; he was in the bathroom shaving, and all of a sudden he heard me play that Lester Flatt G run. He says he cut himself, it surprised him so much," Randy Waller says with a laugh. So be advised: stay away from sharp objects the first time you give Randy Waller a spin. If you havent heard him yet, I guarantee you, too, are going to be surprised.
Jon Weisberger, Nashville, TN, March, 2004
- This Ol' Cowboy
- Love's Tombstone
- The Ballad of Curtis Loew
- The Vision
- Daddy's Old Guitar
- Give It Up Or Let Me Go
- Little REd SHoes
- Old Rugged Cross
- Should've Took That Train
- Daddys Need To Grow Up too
- Blue, Blue morning
- Who's Sad And Lonely Now
- A Sad Song Don't Care Whose Heart It Breaks
- Rough And Ready
Alison Krauss & Union station - LIVE CD
Review of the first ever Live album by Alison Krauss & Union Station, written by West Australia's Troy Cook
Hardrive in Bluegrass Now Magazine
Melbourne band Hardrive's award-winning album Henry Lawson's Blues is reviewed in the top US Bluegrass magazine, Bluegrass Now!
We need reviewers
Want to review CDs, books, etc? We're looking for people to write short, honest reviews of bluegrass-related materials for Bluegrass Australia