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JUNE 22 CHATHAM COUNTY LINE
AMERICAN ROOTS: BLUEGRASS
Sunday, 4:30pm
Venetian Theater
Tickets: $40.00, $32.50, $25.00, $17.50
Dave Wilson, guitar, vocal; John Teer, mandolin, fiddle, vocal;
Chandler Holt, banjo, vocal; Greg Readling, 3/4 bass, pedal steel, vocal
Chatham County Line, hailing from North Carolina, fuses old-time, gather-'round-the-microphone bluegrass with a love for the progressive sounds of American-made music. Making its Caramoor debut, the quartet continued the Festival's tradition of presenting the best in American Roots: Bluegrass.
Introduce your family to Caramoor. Purchase Concert Al Fresco tickets and enjoy the performance from the picnic grounds.
Al Fresco Tickets: $9.00
THIS PROGRAM WILL BE ANNOUNCED FROM THE STAGE.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Chatham County Line ~ Banjo, fiddle, mandolin, guitar and bass certainly conjure certain musical images to mind, and in the past Chatham County Line had been content to play the part-a fun loving bluegrass band touring endlessly, summers full of festivals and hi-jinx. But with the release of their aptly titled fourth album IV, songwriter Dave Wilson and the band are ready to get down to business, "This record is about growing up and becoming a band."
For IV, the band is back with producer and Chapel Hill indie legend Chris Stamey after a one-album hiatus. "They have always stayed true to their traditional instrumentation," says Mr. Stamey, "but their albums have never been limited by that in any way. There has always been a progression. They've used bluegrass as a jumping off point, a vernacular through which to access all that is roots music, be that gospel, country, rock or pop. That's American music and they are an American band."
Chatham County Line was spawned at Raleigh, North Carolina's infamous Blue House on the corner of Hillsborough and Boylan, when Mr. Wilson met high-school friends Chandler Holt and John Teer. A long-standing crash pad for Raleigh bands like Corrosion of Conformity, the house had been the scene of sunrise jam sessions for years. Touring bands from Athens to D.C. knew about the house and its open door policy. The ancient wooden floors showed the scuffs and scars of a decade of loose jam sessions. But that year, the soft pine planks would take the brunt of an especially enthusiastic flatpicker’s stomp. That picker’s name? Dave Wilson.
Four albums later, IV marks a watermark in Chatham County Line's creative arc. "On this album I wrote a lot of the songs in a very different way from how I have written on other records," offers Mr. Wilson in reference to a loose jam session-style process. Mr. Wilson's basement served as a rehearsal space for him and Tift Merritt band members Zeke Hutchins and Jay Brown to experiment between CCL tours. "They’re not in CCL, but they’re good friends and they helped me develop some of my ideas for this album. I would play something and Zeke and Jay would give it a groove." A unique approach when writing songs for a band with no drummer, like CCL. "On many of the tunes the mandolin does the work of the drummer. And I like the idea of the listener being the drummer, whether it be stomping your foot or tapping on the steering wheel." It’s clear that morphing rhythm-based songs for the instruments in CCL is responsible for much of the album’s unique mood.
Songs like the slurring Stonesy romp "Let It Rock" and the speedy blues "I Got Worry" give IV a relaxed vibe not evident on CCL's more tightly strung previous albums. Here the tension lies solely with the searing intensity of "Birmingham Jail." John Teer's usually pitch-perfect high harmonies are broken into shards in the form of a blood curdling scream. The pop structures of "Chip of a Star" mark perhaps the band's greatest leap to date with their first "hook-based" tune and the addition of bouncy pedal steel from bassist Greg Readling. While rockers do abound on IV, it's really the album's ballads that act as showpieces. The flat-out gorgeous "One More Minute" features harmonies from Whiskeytowner Caitlin Cary. "Sweet Eviction" tells a tale of bitterness amidst a landscape of crawling, veiled gospel. Its differences and new feel aside, IV certainly doesn't divorce itself from what fans have come to know and love as Chatham County Line. "The Carolinian," a tight, traditional bluegrass workout might at first glance seem out of place. But Dave Wilson doesn't see it that way at all, "I just took the best songs and put them on the album. That’s it. End of story."
Fade to black.
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