Livin' Reeltime, Thinkin' Old-time

Friday night was the long-awaited house concert of the Reeltime Travelers at Larson Lodge in the outskirts of Durham. I enjoyed myself immensely. I want to give a big thank you to the Travelers for traveling all the way from Johnson City, TN for the show, and especially to Lex Larson and his family for opening their home to us house concert-enthusiasts!

I'd never seen the Travelers before, but I've been devouring their CDs for the past couple of months since my buddy gave me a couple of burned copies (read on, RIAA, I'll explain this amazing phenomenon later). They play a wonderful mix of old-time classics and amazing originals.

I got a chance to talk with all the members of the band (God bless house concerts!), and they were all very personal and out-going. You can tell they take their jobs as musicians seriously, and imbue it with a great passion. All the men (Thomas Sneed, Roy Andrade, and Brandon Story) are also trained musicologists (as far as I can tell from their bios and onstage banter) and work to keep the old-time music alive. I'm less familiar with the ladies' backgrounds, except that Heidi was a music teacher in a Johnson City public school.

Martha Scanlan (farthest left in the pic) is quickly becoming one of my favorite singer-songwriters. Her songs Hallelujah and Little Bird of Heaven both won awards in this past year's Chris Austin songwriting contest at Merlefest. She's got a mix of Gillian Welch and Nanci Griffith in her sound, and it mixes well with the old-time sensibilities of the rest of the band. You've probably heard Hallelujah on WDVX. It's got a beautiful harmony on the chorus, and is (kind of) about the love of an old truck. "Well, it's about lots of other things too," Martha told me. It's a beautiful song.

Heidi Andrade (farthest right in the pic) is one of the best old-time fiddlers I've ever seen. A few of the straight-up fiddle tunes they do are originals of hers, and are brilliant! I'm hoping to mimic some of her style in my own fiddling. She's also an accomplished dancer, and clogged to several songs.

Roy Andrade plays the banjo in an old-time style instead of the Earl Scruggs rolling style. (I've also heard this called the "Bluegrass banjo style.") I was amazed at the range he had without using the Scruggs style. He somehow has both a classic old-time sound (to my newly-trained ear anyway) yet keeps a new and unique style. I was very impressed!

Thomas Sneed plays mandolin and lead and backup vocals and kept the show flowing smoothly by being the mouthpiece on stage. He was sort of the comic foil, and told lots of jokes and amusing stories about tracking down old-time songs and musicians in the hills around Johnson City. He really gave the band a lot of its personality. (Also, he evidently collects "vintage" tennis shoes off the Internet, so give him a ring before you throw out those old sneakers! Hah!)

Brandon Story, the bass player, was as quiet onstage as he was a solid player. His bass lines were unobtrusive, but most importantly, with all the intricate solos and improvisations, kept the beat steady and strong. When he did speak, he had a dry humor that was very funny. Evidently he's also attending school at ETSU in Johnson City and working on a PhD in music (or musicology, not sure which).

All in all, it was a wonderful show! I will definitely go see them again, and I will definitely try to get back to the Larson Lodge. You can get on the Forty Acres house concert mailing list by going to their website.

I took a few pictures, but unfortunately most of them were bad. Remind me to wear a less busy shirt next time, and good grief! Look at this picture! It's so hard to get an "action" shot of the band starting up, but somehow I managed to get a shot that doesn't show anyone's face. I think you can see one of Heidi's eyes, but that's it! Too funny... Oh well, gettin' better all the time...