SHAD COBB & CHARLIE CUSHMAN, OUT OF THESE MOUNTAINS

SHAD COBB & CHARLIE CUSHMAN
OUT OF THESE MOUNTAINS

A Simple Life Magazine
No Number

Take two accomplished sidemen and make a CD with them and you’re going to get some great music. Both of these players are well known in music circles and have worked with the best. Here they give us a program of mostly old-time with a dash of bluegrass. Cobb, known primarily as a fiddler, also sings and plays some dandy clawhammer banjo. His over-dubbed fiddle fills in behind his strong vocals. On the fiddle tunes, the banjo is dubbed, resulting in very nice versions as in “New Five Cents.” Cushman’s guitar and bass playing are in the pocket and dead on. When he gets a chance, as on “My Home’s Across The Blue Ridge Mountains” and “Lonesome Road Blues,” he shows us some of that fine banjo picking that’s garnered him so much respect over the years.

This recording came about when these two gentlemen were asked to fill in for another band at a gig. The folks putting on the event were glad to see them toting a fiddle and banjo case. They were bowled over by the music they heard, and this recording is the result. There are no harmony vocals or surprising new material here. They mine the riches of the cusp of the two great traditions and entertain us along the way. This is a very pleasing recording with lots of nice touches such as banjo duets, Cushman’s fine fingerpicked guitar, and the heartfelt vocals from Cobb. If you like old-time and that older down-home bluegrass sound, look no further than this fine CD. (A Simple Life, P.O. Box 327, Meridian, TX 76665, www.asimplelifemagazine.com.)RCB