FIVE MILE MOUNTAIN ROAD

FIVE MILE MOUNTAIN ROAD

Patuxent Music
CD-315

Five Mile Mountain Road is a four-piece old-time band from Franklin County, Virginia.  The core of the band and its old-time sound consists of Billy Hurt on fiddle and Seth Boyd on banjo.  Solid support comes from Steven Dowdy on bass (formerly of the Bluegrass Brothers) and multi-instrumentalist Brennan Ernst on guitar (who also currently plays banjo for Karl Shiflett). All four band members contribute to the vocals; lead vocals are performed by Billy Hurt (“Lily Dale”), Steven Dowdy (“Five Mile Mountain Road”), and Seth Boyd (“Milwaukee Blues”). Guest Danny Knicely adds nice guitar work on several tracks.

This album emphasizes instrumental work, with nine of the fourteen tracks driven by the fiddle and banjo in the old-time style (even though Boyd plays three-finger banjo style on some tracks). Instrumental tracks include well-known old-time titles such as “Miss McCleod’s Reel,” “Durang’s Hornpipe,” and “Billy In The Lowground.” Five Mile Mountain Road has captured a sound reminiscent of older country music when country, old-time, and bluegrass were not considered separate music genres. (Patuxent Music, P.O. Box 572, Rockville, MD 20848, www.pxrec.com.)TK