The Truffle Valley Boys Sing And Play Authentic Bluegrass

The members of this Italian band are devoted scholars of bluegrass music’s way-back, deep-catalog pages, and they do an excellent job of bringing some largely forgotten tunes back to the forefront while remaining faithful to the music’s raw and unadorned immediacy.

The Truffle Valley Boys prefer to record much in the same way that most of these tracks were first laid down way back when: with everybody gathered around a single microphone in the middle of the room. They record directly into a replica 1950s Gates tube preamp and a 1958 Revox C36 tape machine.

But the Truffle Valley Boys, who are masters of their instruments, don’t just rote-replicate these mostly forgotten gems; they inhabit them and imbue them with contemporary energy while devoutly preserving their raw and unadulterated minimalism. They describe their process as “authentic low fidelity.”

The band—Matt Ringressi on mandolin, guitar and vocals; Germano Ciavone on banjo and vocals; Denny Rocchio on resonator guitar and banjo; and Emanuele Valente on double bass—sometimes makes necessary adaptations. On the honky tonk number “Green Light In My Heart,” originally recorded by Don Epperson and his Kentuckians, Rocchio used his Dobro to substitute for the complex pedal steel guitar parts on the Epperson recording.

Similarly, the band unearths an old Buck Owens tune called “High As A Mountain.” But for their blueprint they used a version recorded in the 1960s by Monroe Fields and Carl Sauceman’s Green Valley Boys. As with many others, the track shines with lovely old-timey harmonies and founding member Ringressi’s spirited fiddle playing.

Other treats include a reprise of the heartbroken “I Was Blind to Your Love,” written and recorded in 1954 by Corbet “Cuddles” Newsome and his Flat Mountain Boys. “I Promise You” was originally composed and recorded in 1956  by “Hobo” Jack Adkins backed by the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers. There’s also “I’ll Never Forget,” a previously unreleased song by Bobby Osborne rescued from the archives.

The Truffle Mountain Boys’ fine endeavors remind us that beneath the historic musical channel markers of founding fathers like Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs and Jimmy Martin, there’s a rather vast reservoir of lesser-known but often little-less-talented artists. 

Thanks to this gifted and inspired band, at least a few of them are getting a well-deserved second hearing.