|
|
|
|
|
In the Gray
The late nights, early mornings and boundless energy of Chatham County Line
By Ryan Heinsius
Published on 03/18/2010
|
[ view additional photos ]
Sharp-dressed men: Raleigh, N.C., neo-string band Chatham County Line (from left): banjo player Chandler Holt, fiddler-mandolinist John Teer, guitarist-vocalist Dave Wilson and standup bassist Greg Readling. Photo courtesy of Chatham County Line.
|
|
There is a nearly infinite set of mysteries inherent in the idea of America. As a philosophical and symbolic touchstone the frontier mentality has been exported the world over, spawning foreign bureaus of American culture in nearly every backwater on earth.
But everything comes from somewhere. The hearty pioneer spirit was imported by millions of intrepid immigrants who crossed oceans and vast expanses of land to make a stab at a better life. The roots of American music mirror this journey.
For generations, artists have actively practiced the complex alchemy of musical evolution, and among the vanguard of modern bands that straddle the hazy line between old and new is the North Carolina four-piece Chatham County Line—an acoustic string band that has managed to successfully marry western traditional sounds with newer influences to create a mix that tips a cap to both sides of the very broad roots spectrum.
“I think the way America took all the influences of the immigrants and where they came from and blended it into our own kind of music didn’t happen as much overseas, so they really look to our history of country and folk music—even rock and jazz—and they are just really receptive to how it’s been put together,” says Dave Wilson, CCL’s guitarist, vocalist and primary songwriter.
Wilson and company have seen the global enthusiasm for American roots music up close and personal, having recently returned from a spate of shows in Norway while attending the prestigious Spellemann Awards ceremony, which is essentially the Grammys/Oscars of Scandinavia (they lost to Martin Scorsese).
But, Chatham County Line—Wilson, mandolinist John Teer, banjo player Chandler Holt and standup bassist Greg Readling—are making great strides on their home soil with their distinct version of roots Americana. Formed in 1999, the members of CCL coalesced at a Raleigh, N.C., musical landmark of sorts called the Blue House, a pickin’-party hotbed that has been host to thousands of all-night benders and jam sessions over many years (other past notorious residents include the metal band Corrosion of Conformity). Wilson, a former electric guitarist for folk-country singer-songwriter Tift Merritt, became a regular at the Blue House and attracted the attention of his future CCL band mates.
“We saw each other doing what we were doing and they liked the songs I was writing; I liked the way they played, so we just started hanging out, drinking beer and playing songs together,” says Wilson. “You know, one thing leads to another and all the sudden you’re playing a gig at some Pizza Hut or something and you’ve got the ‘Bluegrass Fake Book’ out and you’re playing verbatim the old songs and just cutting your teeth really.”
But eventually the chemistry of the new band proved to be the right spark to draw Wilson and company into their project full time. “There were just too many gigs to do both of those things at the same time,” he says. “I had to kind of tell Tift—she was in a break between records—and I was like, ‘I’ve got to commit to this ‘cause it’s what I want to do.’ It’s my passion and not just supporting someone, even though I believe in what she’s doing. It’s kind of a steamroller; a snowball effect. One thing leads to another and people start coming out and then you go overseas. I mean, I would want to do nothing else with my life, but I feel kind of blessed every day that I get to do this.”
And with album number five, Wildwood, set for release July 13 of this year, it seems like the leap of faith has been well worth it. The band’s 2008 set, IV, was a slight departure from the bluegrass leanings of their earlier days and highlighted the many varying influences that exist within the band. Drums, electric guitar and pedal steel all tastefully augment CCL’s strictly acoustic, live-around-one-mic kind of live setup and expose a highly perceptive appreciation for the history of American music. Wildwood takes that journey a bit further incorporating an even wider variety of sounds and styles, much of which was provided by drummer and current Tift Merritt sideman Zeke Hutchins, a close friend of Wilson and CCL.
“It’s 2010 and you can’t really go through the world with blinders on and pretend that all these instruments out there that make incredible noise do not exist,” says Wilson, “but I have no problem with bands that adhere to the bluegrass stance and do it, and you can have a very lucrative career doing that. But we just felt as a band we had so many influences inside of us that could not be ignored, and when it came down to it, those are the songs being written and so the songs we write, we’re just trying to get them down on tape and they can sound the most like the songs sound.
“You support the song with the instrumentation. The very first record; the very first reason we got together was ‘cause I had bought a mandolin and I was writing these real rustic-style songs and so the bluegrass instrumentation was the natural thing to backup those songs. And just progressed through the years to use that formula but the songs just started to change as I’ve grown and gotten older and heard more music or progressed as a songwriter or learned a new chord or whatever it is. It’s just a natural progression.”
Wilson, who speaks with the characteristic heavy Southern drawl of a native North Carolinian, picked up on bluegrass relatively late in the game through an alternative method common to many young musicians raised on good-old, red-blooded American rock radio.
“It was early college and the guy I bought weed from was big into the Dead and it was really just the Jerry Garcia and the Old and in the Way connection,” he says. “I heard Old and in the Way and I was like, ‘Where have I been sheltered?’ There was no Internet back in the day. I was in high school and I listened to the radio—you’re listening to what you hear on the radio. I’m buying, like, U2 albums, and I play guitar so I’m buying all these Jimi Hendrix records and listening to the Doors—all the classic high-school-guy traps, I was falling in all of them. It wasn’t till I came to college and you start to meet more people, and it’s kind of like what file sharing or the Internet does for kids today.”
After being hooked by the short-lived, early ’70s Garcia bluegrass supergroup, Wilson’s tastes shifted to more nontraditional traditionalists whose styles still echo throughout a significant chunk of American music.
“When I heard (bluegrass), it really touched me. It makes so much sense and it’s so natural and there’s no gimmicks at all to it. And things lead down certain paths and I found out about John Hartford and listening to people like the Band and the Jayhawks,” Wilson says. “You start finding out about newer music that pays its respects to the past but paves its own way. I don’t know where I would be if I listened to bluegrass when I was younger. I might hate it now. It was a point in my life when I was really open and passionate and I got really excited about it when I heard it. Just as a songwriter it made so much sense to tell that kind of story.”
And as the primary source of songs for CCL, Wilson’s evolution has been obvious over the course of the band’s albums. On IV, his breadth of subject matter ranges from sentimental love songs (“The Carolinian”) to a haunting ballad called “Birmingham Jail” that chronicles the infamous 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. But, as Wilson confesses, the home turf of the four members of Chatham County Line is on the stage, spreading the band’s powerful, rootsy energy in an honest setting that is true to his songwriting.
“I think the main thing with us is that the live show is still done in that very classic style. You can’t come and see us do that and say that we’re doing anything but paying the utmost respect to the genre,” says Wilson. “We’re just using that platform as a point to express ourselves in different ways. And even if we have drums on the record or electric guitars or whatever we’re still going to do the live show the way it is and travel the same way. It’s a format that works very well and people really enjoy the show and they like to see what we do and enjoy the energy and everything.
“I think we’ve seen the effects of what we’ve done already. We’re starting to see a larger audience come out and our fanbase grow from the records we’ve made. In what we do it really takes the passion of music listeners to make something happen, so we’re just going to keep playing shows, we’re going to keep making records.”
See Chatham County Line at the Orpheum Theater, 15 W. Aspen, Wed, March 24. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the show is at 7 p.m. Tickets are $12 and it is all ages. The show is the third in the four-part March Madness bluegrass series put on by Flagstaff Friends of Traditional Music and Orpheum Presents (the final show will be Greensky Bluegrass Sat, March 27). For more info, see www.chathamcountyline.com or call 556-1580.
To see recent Flag Live cover story features, click here.
Additional photos for this story:
Photo courtesy of Chatham County Line.
|
Photo courtesy of Chatham County Line.
|
Photo courtesy of Chatham County Line.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
