#ed snodderly

I first became aware of the songwriting prowess of Ed Snodderly through the recordings of his long time friend and former band mate Missy Raines, who is fond of his works for very good reason. So it was a delight that Ed invited Missy out to accompany him on bass and voice. They rendered the ragtime feeling “Diamond Stream” and the quirky, minor-key “Black Crow” with its delicious lyrics. “Farther Than Your Eye Can See” floated like milkweed in the air. And they wrapped with the rollicking “Pearlie Mae.” I hope Ed gets more of his due as one of our great folk writers and artists.

Then we got a double dose of certified old-time from guys who are far from old. Twenty-year-old Corbin Hayslett came out with his frailing hand flying on the banjo as he sang and played a speedy “John Henry.” This winner of the Orthophonic Joy contest is coming into his own as a musician and entertainer; his stage banter (“jokes are cheap in Virginia, he said) was sharp beyond his years. I also adored his flatpicking and singing, so reminiscent of the great Norman Blake, on “Wreck of the C&O.” He offered a soft and lyrical banjo instrumental he’d learned from Mike Seeger and a turbo-charged “Darling Cora” to close. That fed like a diamond stream into the Blue Ridge Entertainers, the new duo of Coleman Akin and Kris Truelson, who threw it back so far I could easily imagine the rasp of 78 RPM shellac behind them as they sang. “Birmingham Jail” was a magnificent waltz with classic brother harmonies that swooped and danced around in perfect union. The song “I’m Saved” was a charming slice of early novelty country gospel in which all the key words were spelled. It was S-W-E-E-T. 

Marty Raybon came less in bluegrass posture than I anticipated, but that was just as well because his old Shenandoah hits sounded great in unplugged, three-man format. Marty’s brother Tim played lead guitar and Mike Rogers played bass (the only electric instrument of the night) and when all three voices joined together on the rollicking “Church On Cumberland Road” the contemporary harmonies sounded all the more uplifting for all the older-school moods set to that point. Bluegrass and country music fans know about Marty’s voice. It’s sticky like a tobacco leaf and strong like whiskey, but it’s good for ya! He led the way on “Ghost In This House” and “Sunday In The South” and wrapped the set up with the bluegrass kicker “Down The Road,” taken nice and fast with great swing. What was it they used to say on WSM? “Too country and proud of it”? That’s how the set made us feel.

When the artists gathered for the Nashville Jam, the entire group was smaller than some bands we’ve had recently. But that made it easy for Jim Lauderdale to orchestrate a tight, bluesy “Sitting On Top of the World” which is always a self-fulfilling prophecy. It was all acoustic, but it was electrifying.

Show closer Marty Raybon, hailed as one of the finest voices in country music, enjoyed big success with the band Shenandoah in the 1990s and in bluegrass ever since. You may have heard him recently in Miranda Lambert’s new song “Another Sunday In The South” where she not only sings of her love for Raybon’s former band but includes his vocal in the track. But don’t let that obscure the half dozen superb records he’s released on his own since 2001, including The Back Forty last year to mark four decades in country music.  

I caught up with Marty over a sputtering cell phone connection from somewhere in Kentucky, where he was gearing up for one of his steady stream of shows. He told me in his rapid-fire, Florida-reared drawl about growing up with a fiddle-playing, bluegrass-loving dad and an early band that included his brothers. Their favorite influences were the great brother bands (NOT to be confused with bro-country, people), chiefly the bridge-building Osborne Brothers. Raybon went to Nashville to seek his dream but wound up realizing it in nearby Muscle Shoals. Some pals had a bar band down there and when they lost their lead singer they asked Marty if he’d like the job for unspectacular but steady money. Raybon recalls that was his “too much week at the end of the money” phase, so he said yes. When the band got cooking, Marty says the legendary Rick Hall (FAME studio) chartered a bus and personally invited everybody at CBS Records in Nashville to come see this band sing. They took the name Shenandoah and took their contemporary sound to the world, where it hit big.

A couple years after Shenandoah broke up in the late 90s, Raybon’s brother Tim coaxed him back to bluegrass, leading to the aptly named Full Circle album, which is where I first tapped into Marty Raybon’s rich, slightly sandy and deeply emotional voice. He’s in that rarified group with singers like Russell Moore, Gene Watson or Vern Gosdin. If you love country singing, you ought to be on the edge of your seat come Wednesday night.

Also on the bill is veteran folk singer and songwriter Ed Snodderly, who absolutely knocked us out during his first appearance on Roots. I’d heard of him widely because of his famous lyrics etched at the top of the Country Music Hall of Fame’s rotunda fountain and because of his relationship with my bass and folk-jazz crossover heroine Missy Raines. They were in a great band together and she records his songs, and they always startle me with their beautiful quirks. Then when Ed played the show, I noted that his fingerstyle guitar had shades of Doc Watson and that “before the set was over he played on dobro and banjo too. And what a gift with words he has, both spoken and sung. Snodderly told lovely, engaging stories and sang lines that layered the poetic over the plainspoken.” All this and he fiddled on camera in O Brother, Where Art Thou? So you want credentials? I’ll show you credentials. 

Young man banjo fan Corbin Hayslett experienced some literal Orthophonic Joy after winning a hotly contested prize set up by the R&RR team. Folks were invited to submit a performance video, and by winning Hayslett lands himself a song on that album in some pretty heady company for college-age guy. But it’s not the first contest this “modern minstrel” has won. For some years now he’s been recognized as a premiere performer and educator who is deeply devoted to the traditional music of his region. This could also be said for The Blue Ridge Entertainers, the old-time string duo from Johnson City, TN that rounds out this nicely old-school Roots. Coleman Akin (guitar, fiddle, vocal) and Kris Truelsen (mandolin, guitar, vocal) hooked up in 2013 and fast gained recognition for their energetic and rooted sound. They say to expect specifically East Tennessee fiddle and banjo songs but also blues, jug band and ragtime from across the South.

So I forecast plenty of joy, Orthophonic, stereophonic and generally phonic. Join us in person or through your cutting edge web-o-phonic player.