"Stomp" CDs Coming Soon!

You know what they say about thoughts turning into action, right? I’ve been thinking the last couple weeks about the possibility of getting in touch with The Dawg about having some “Stomp” cds made. For those of you who don’t know what on earth I’m referring to, the “Stomp” cd was a project David Long and I did back in 2006 for Grisman’s Acoustic Disc label. Low and behold I got an email from Craig Miller (Mr. All Things Acoustic Disc) saying that they were doing away with physical product and had about 30 “Stomps” in their inventory and would I like to transfer them to my inventory. Hell yes. The price and time were right and I jumped on ‘em.

David Long is still one of the strongest traditional influenced bluegrass mandolin players around. I don’t see him much any more but I do hear from him occasionally, mostly by text. Apparently David is holed up writing a lot of songs these days, working in a restaurant in Pittsburg and playing a few gigs. We used to see quite a bit of each other having started working the road together in about 2003. I don’t know what David would have to say about it but for me that era was a very learning and sometimes trying time. We were working at playing mandolins, mandolas, octave mandolins, guitars, learning how to sing, looking for material, writing material, trying to book gigs ourselves for a while, you name it. And then we both had relationship difficulties going on in the midst of it, I had two baby kids and was trying to learn how to do all that (which I didn’t do so well at but we’re all through it). We drove all over the country in various cars, a lot of it in my red ‘89 Cadillac Sedan DeVille I bought from Pat Enright, got caught in blizzard, showed up for a couple gigs where nobody knew we were coming, opened for Del McCoury once, did the first trip I ever did to Australia (booked by Mr. Gilchrist) back in 2006 (or was it 2005?). Basically we had a pretty good thing going before it all busted up. I remember the last gig we did at the Barking Legs Theater in Chattanooga. David and I hadn’t seen each other but off and on for a while and during the show he played a lot of cool stuff I hadn’t heard him do before. When I commented on how much I liked the new ‘licks’ he said something about getting tired of just playing the same old thing all the time. We haven’t worked since. Maybe it was my guitar playing. Hahahaha. I’ve never been a great guitar player because I don’t do it much but I like to do it some. I remember us playing someplace up in the northeast one night and I said jokingly that I appreciated the audience patience, that this was my first time to play the guitar. Some guy in the back said, “I sure sounds like it”. I guess I asked for it.

I do miss the energy we had, the creativity, the freedom. We were both in a weird place in our respective lives and there was any number of triumphs and disappointments along the way, but it felt real and one of the most musically rewarding things I’ve been involved in. To paraphrase the fantastic Tammy Rogers of the Steeldrivers, “ there was/is more ‘me’ in that music than pretty much anything I’ve ever done”. There have only been a few creative outlets for me that felt like something new was happening and this was certainly one that took me to a sound and to material that I hadn’t been doing before. It wasn’t so bluegrass oriented, though we did play a bunch of Monroe’s tunes. I discovered the work of Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate from a friend in St. Louis, Missouri, old-time mandolin maestro Curtis Buchanan. After that the Ali Farka album was on heavy rotation every morning on the road. We made a mantra out of “Allah Uya”. I still get mesmerized by it to this day. There is a world of music we listened to. On the “Stomp” cd alone there is material that came from David and me, Deford Bailey, Bill Monroe, The Delmore Brothers, Big Bill Broonzey, The New Gospel Keys, The Mississippi Mudsteppers, Roosevelt Graves and Brother, and others. So it was a new strain of stuff working its way into my blood and onto the set lists. I can safely say that this time was a turning point for me because it led the way to a goodly bit of the material that I like today. The material feels real, rooted, enduring.

David and I were about to head off on the Australian trip when the opportunity to record the project came up. We were in a rush to get it done and only had a couple weeks between doing the recording and leaving for Oz so it felt a little unsettled, but we pulled it off. I had spoken to the Dawg about doing the album the previous year while we were at Mandolin Symposium and he said we should do it so David and I planned on it. I checked back in with Dawg a few months before we were to go to Australia and I realized that he didn’t have any recollection of our conversation, which was a little awkward at first though we worked it out without too much hemming and hawing. Dawg did foot the bill for the recording, did the engineering, provided instruments, let us hang at his house, so he did more than his fair share to see the project got done. Now he’s coming to the rescue again with a limited supply of “Stomp” discs. After this there will likely be no more. Who knows? I’m not sure what we’ll do.

If you think the recording is something you might like I’d love for you to have one. It’s loaded with bluegrass, old-time country, a few originals and country blues. Maybe you will hear something that sets you off to exploring something new. I can tell you for a fact there’s no harm can come of it.

Life is good. MC