The Grascals - Dance Til Your Stockings are Hot And Ravelin'

The Grascals - Dance Til Your Stockings are Hot And Ravelin'
2011, BluGrascal Records

The Grascals have been busy the past few years.  Awards, a new independent record label and non-stop touring haven't stopped the band from releasing two albums in short order.  The most recent, an EP entitled Dance Til Your Stockings Are Hot And Ravelin' (June 7, 2011), is a tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Andy Griffith Show.  With sponsorship from Mayberry's Finest, a food company, there is a certain hyper-commerciality to the disc encompassed in the inclusion of the corporate jingle for the food company on the CD.  Putting that aside, however, Dance Til Your Stockings Are Hot And Ravelin' features some of the finest bluegrass work of the year thus far.

Dance Til Your Stockings Are Hot And Ravelin' opens with "Dooley", the mid-tempo tale of a moonshiner with a talent for not getting caught.  The rendition offered here is tight and well-played, with distinctive vocal harmonies.  "Boil Them Cabbage Down" features some of the best picking of 2011.  "Stay All Night (Stay A Little Longer)" is a bluegrass party tune, and The Grascals capture that spirit here perfectly.  The harmonies, once again, are exquisite, and the instrumentation is top notch.  The band shows off their instrumental prowess to full effect on "Ol' Joe Clark".  You'll find it impossible to sit still through this number as The Grascals play through like a finely tuned machine. 

"Leaning On The Everlasting Arms" is an old southern style hymn, incorporating bluegrass instrumentation and a touch of high lonesome sound in the vocals.  The Grascals deliver this tune with an inspired grace.  "Mayberry's Finest Theme", based on the original Andy Griffith Show theme, is the jingle for the food company of the same name.  It's a cute number that speaks more to the show than your typical jingle, but fits in with the company's theme.  "Boy, Giraffes Are Selfish", played to the same tune, is an original Grascals tune written on a request based on a line from one of the more famous episodes of The Andy Griffith Show.  It's an entertaining number, brief, but featuring some instrumental variations from "The Mayberry's Finest Theme" that keep it interesting.

The Grascals continue to find ways to increase their listenership with unusual business partnerships and their down-home brand of fiery bluegrass music.  Some may decry the corporate influences on what is an essentially Indie recording, but it's hard to argue with the music on Dance Til Your Stockings Are Hot And Ravelin'.  It's seemed like The Grascals have been working to find their footing on their last couple of efforts; consider it found.  This time out the Grascals are so tight you couldn't pry them apart.

Rating: 4.5 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more about The Grascals at www.grascals.com or www.myspace.com/thegrascals.  Dance Til Your Stockings are Hot And Ravelin' drops on June 7, 2011.  You can pre-order the album from Amazon.com as a CD, or you can purchase the Download, which is already available.  The EP is also available via iTunes.

The Grascals – The Grascals & Friends – Country Classics With A Bluegrass Spin

The Grascals – The Grascals & Friends – Country Classics With A Bluegrass Spin
2011, BluGrascal Records/The Cracker Barrel

The Grascals had quite the year in 2010, releasing the wildly successful The Famous Lefty Flynn’s and earning 10 SPBGMA Award nominations.  This after winning Bluegrass Band Of The Year in February of 2010.  Rather than sit back and celebrate, The Grascals charge forth into 2011 with a dynamic new album entitled The Grascals & Friends – Country Classics With A Bluegrass Spin.  Available only through Cracker Barrel Restaurants, The Grascals & Friends unites the band with some great musical names such as Dolly Parton, Dierks Bentley, Tom T. Hall, Charlie Daniels, Brad Paisley and Hank Williams, Jr. 

The Grascals & Friends opens with a great cover of “Tiger By The Tail”, featuring Brad Paisley.  Offered with strong energy and superb musicianship, this is the perfect opener.  Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” is up next, featuring Dierks Bentley.  The song is well performed and attempts to capture Cash’s mystique.  In this the song is not entirely successful, but on its own it’s a fine listen.  Dolly Parton sits in on “The Pain Of Lovin’ You” and “I Am Strong”.  “The Pain Of Loving You” is overly reserved but solidly performed.  “I Am Strong” isn’t convincing, but musically is all a Grascals fan would expect.  “Louisiana Saturday Night” has a down home feel and celebrates the simple life.  The arrangement is full of gorgeous harmonies and has an entrancing quality that will grab you.

“The Year That Clayton Delaney Died” features legend Tom T. Hall and is a solid old school story song.  “White Lightning” sounds a bit like Chuck Berry done bluegrass style.  The song features Darryl Worley and the amazing fiddle work of Jeremy Abshire. The inimitable Charlie Daniels sits in on “The Devil Went Down To Georgia”.  The song loses a bit of fire in the translation, but is solid all around.  “Mr. Bojangles” is performed with an air of quiet reverence.  Joe Nichols sits in amidst a sweet arrangement focused on bringing out the simple beauty of the melody.  Hank Williams Jr. stops by for “Born To Boogie/All My Rowdy Friends” in perhaps the highest energy outing on the album.  The arrangement offered here steps back from the almost rock n roll feel of the original, but loses nothing in the translation.  “Cracker Barrel Swing” shows off The Gracals’ instrumental chops in a relaxed, laid-back setting while throwing a nod to the album’s sponsor/distributor.  Grascals And Friends closes with a bonus track of “I Am Strong” that fails to make up ground on the previously offered version.

Grascals And Friends mostly delivers on the promise of the dynamic pairings it offers.  The Grascals are uncanny in their ability to craft arrangements that sometimes seem more natural than the original song versions.  It seems likely that the run of awards will continue for The Grascals.  And if the food from The Cracker Barrel isn’t reason enough for you to stop by, Grascals And Friends certainly is.

Rating: 3.5 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more about The Grascals at http://www.grascals.com/ or www.myspace.com/thegrascals.  The Grascals & Friends drops on January 10, 2011, and will be available through Cracker Barrel restaurants.  A portion of the proceeds from The Grascals & Friends will be donated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospitals.

The Grascals - The Famous Lefty Flynn's

The Grascals - The Famous Lefty Flynn's
2010, Rounder Records

Six time International Bluegrass Music Association Award winners The Grascals return with their fourth album, The Famous Lefty Flynn’s, mixing sounds traditional and modern in one of the most dynamic bluegrass albums of the year. With their roots firmly established in Nashville, The Grascals caught the ear of Dolly Parton early on, becoming her opening act and house band for a couple of years. The original quartet has grown to six members over the years, filling out a sound that is considered one of the most dynamic in Bluegrass music today.

The Famous Lefty Flynn's opens with "Last Train To Clarksville", an anti-war song written during the Vietnam war and made famous by the Monkees in 1966. The Grascals maintain the pop sensibility of the original while injecting a bit of Bill Monroe along with gorgeous vocal harmonies. "Son Of A Sawmill Man" is a barrel-ride of a song; a head-long musical rush you won't want to miss. It's highly entertaining, and Terry Eldredge shows off a great voice in the process, while the vocal harmonies are heavenly. "Satan And Grandma" is an amazing tune, coming out of a modern mix of gospel and bluegrass. "Satan And Grandma" is an ode to a matriarch who fought for her family and continually guided them toward the light.

"Everytime" is the song of a restless heart that is never happy where he is and always looking forward to the next place he'll be. "Out Comes The Sun" is a counter-intuitive love song, celebrating the times his baby is away, and extolling her ability to steal the light out of the day. The Grascals go instrumental on "Blue Rock Slide", showing off outstanding fiddle work supported by guitar and banjo work that while make the musicians in the crowd sick with envy. "The Famous Lefty Flynn" is a fabulous story song that pitches myth against reality in a story about treasure lost and treasure found.

"My Baby's Waiting On The Other Side" is blazing fast, full of amazing vocal harmonies and tremendous instrumental interplay. The song features the hottest fiddle work on the CD, and Terry Eldredge is absolutely on fire on the guitar. The Grascals' cover of Steve Earle's "My Old Friend The Blues" is solid, although perhaps not as inspired as the one by The Proclaimers a number of years back (and nowhere near the original). The Grascals put in a couple of solid if unremarkable turns on "Up This Hill And Down" and "I'm Blue I'm Lonesome" before launching into the pretty and heartfelt "Give Me Jesus". Something has happened to the energy level on the last four songs of the album, as if the band needed to pick four more songs to fill out the album and had to cull their previous cast-offs to make up space. The last four songs are all solid, just not up to the level of what came before.

The Grascals are exciting to listen to. As instrumentalists the band achieves moments of chemistry that are awe-inspiring. The final third of the album is certainly a letdown from the first eight songs, but on the whole this is a solid-to-plus album that's definitely worth spending some time on. The Grascals have the push of a big label and access to enough radio outlets that The Famous Lefty Flynn's is likely to be commercially successful, but in their best moments, The Grascals find the sort of sublime musicality that makes commercial success an afterthought.
Rating: 3.5 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more about The Grascals at http://www.grascals.com/ or www.myspace.com/thegrascals. The Famous Lefty Flynn's is available as a CD or Download from Amazon.com. Digital copies are alsso available from iTunes.