JIM LAUDERDALE & ROLAND WHITE

JIM LAUDERDALE & ROLAND WHITE

YepRoc Records
YEP-2597

This recording gives us an insight into two-time Grammy award-winning singer/songwriter Lauderdale’s arrival in Nashville almost forty years ago and first meeting Roland White (the Kentucky Colonels and Country Gazette). They assembled in the summer of 1979 in the basement of Earl Scruggs’ home and created this collection, the first of Lauderdale’s career. The bluegrass labels weren’t especially excited about it, so the recording got misplaced until it was discovered recently by Roland’s wife in a box, still unmixed and unmastered.

We’re treated to a dozen selections, including Reno & Smiley’s “Stone Must Be The Wall Built Around Your Heart,” Alton Delmore’s “Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar,” and several other classics such as Clyde Moody’s “Six White Horses” and “I Might Take You Back Again” from the Kentucky Colonels’ LeRoy Mack. Lauderdale’s “Forgive And Forget” is the first track, but his “Regrets And Mistakes” really stand out as a refreshing original. It spells out a broken life of one looking for home. Plus, Roland and Jim’s voices blend nicely in the duet style. The tracks also include Gordon Lightfoot’s “(That’s What You Get) For Loving Me,” as well as Donovan’s “Try And Catch The Wind.”

On hand to back the two artists are Gene Wooten (resonator guitar), Johnny Warren (fiddle), Stan Brown (banjo), Terry Smith (bass), and Marty Stuart on lead guitar. Roland handles the mandolin duties, and Jim turns in some nice rhythm guitar work. The sound quality is amazingly fine, considering the age of the original tape. Look for the new companion country recording by Lauderdale, Time Flies, released simultaneously on the same label. (www.yeproc.com)BW