Carry Me Back To The Bluegrass
Much of the old-timey charm of Big Country Bluegrass is their flair for dusting off and re-enlivening some largely forgotten gems of yesteryear.
The title track of the band’s sixth album for Rebel Records (and first in six years) was first written and recorded by Dave Evans back in the 1970s. “Midnight Storm” is an intriguing Stanley Brothers oldie.
The spiteful “I’m A Stranger In My Own Hometown” was penned by Dixie and Tom T. Hall some time back, while the heart-string-pulling gospel ode “My Heart Can See” was composed by Jimmie Davis and Dottie Rambo.
You could call founders Tommy and Theresa Sellers the heart of this band and frontman Eddie Gill its soul. Gill has a robust, yet high-register voice that works perfectly with this retro material.
Some of these songs are shot through with down-home humor, like “Remember Who You Are,” about a bootlegger who takes glowing pride in his product. Others – the poignant “Planting Potatoes With Pappy,” “Springtime In The Mountains,” “Thinking of Home,” and “When There’s Nothing But the Crickets Left to Sing” (first recorded by Bill Grant and Delia Bell back in the 1970s) — are rife with rustic nostalgia. “Hack’s Breakdown” is a stalwart instrumental.
