MOTHER’S BOYS

MOTHER’S BOYS
HOME AMONG THE HILLS

Hen Cackle Records
HC510-CD

Mother’s Boys is four veterans of roots music from California: Peter Feldmann, Rick Cunha, Dave Dawson, and David Jackson. The subtitle of their new CD is: A Musical Tribute To The Carter Family. They are joined by guests Moira Smiley, Fred Sokolow, Aubrey Richmond, Susie Glaze, and Laurie Lewis.

There are 15 Carter Family songs on the recording, which begins with A.P. Carter’s “You’ve Been A Friend To Me” that features three-part harmony with guitar, autoharp, bass, and mandolin. Cunha sings lead, as he also does on “My Clinch Mountain Home” that features Lewis on fiddle, harmony, and yodel. Dawson, the autoharp player, sings lead on “Carter’s Blues,” with Richmond singing a high harmony. Jackson plays accordion in addition to bass. Feldmann is lead vocals on “My Home Among the Hills,” on which Cunha adds slide guitar. Smiley sings harmony on “Little Moses.” Glaze sings lead on “Single Girl, Married Girl,” with Smiley on harmony. Richmond fiddles on “I’m Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes” and “My Dixie Darling.” Fred Sokolow plays banjo on “Stern Old Bachelor.” Glaze and Smiley also add their harmony voices to the final cut, “Keep On The Sunny Side.” Also included are “Foggy Mountain Top,” “Jimmy Brown, The Newsboy,” which starts with a bass solo, “Coal Miner’s Blues,” “Oh, Take Me Back,” and “Sweet Heaven In My View.”

These are all fairly traditional arrangements of songs which live on in the bluegrass, old-time, and broader folk communities and make for good listening. (Hen Cackle Records, P.O. Box 814, Los Olivos, CA 93441, www.hencacklerecords.com.)SAG