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The Cumberland
Trio
Back
Where We Began (2 CD set)
Written by Cindy Hill - CDReviews.com
Back Where
We Began is no ho-hum trip down The Cumberland Trio’s memory
lane; it’s a veritable showcase of American folk and country
music roots in the form of a two-hour plus live concert recording
s– lively and intriguing, educational and entertaining.
The two discs comprise an archive of the good,
the classic, and the downright perfect gems of American songwriting.
Every piece is played in the instrumentally tight signature style
of the ‘trio of four’ – Andy Garverick, Jerre
Haskew, Tom Kilpatrick, and bassist supreme Jim Shuptrine –
an ensemble that made it’s initial U.S. splash in the era
of the Kingston Trio and Brothers Four, and is now making a huge
comeback wave with radio airplay and acclaim around the world.
But even without The Cumberland Trio’s superb instrumental
skills and the accompaniment of amazingly talented multi-instrumentalist
Lou Wamp, Bob Wilkerson on electric bass and Don Cassell on mandolin,
this is a CD set you’d want for your personal or school
music library as a superb anthology of American composition.
The discs begin with a walk down memory lane, revisiting The Cumberland
Trio’s debut on ABC-TV’s Hootenany prime time Saturday
night show of the mid–'60s, a reminder of those magical
days when families gathered around tv sets for Lawrence Welk and
Ed Sullivan shows. This opening sets the tone, as the two discs
play like an old-time entertainment show, with conversation between
friends, tall tales, a short original comedy schtick, and guest
appearances punctuating the music. Back Where We Began pulls off
the live-show feel with pure panache; you might not want these
discs playing while you’re working or having a dinner party,
where the talking bits might be a distraction; but on a long car
ride or a quiet winter evening with the family, it makes for a
richer, warmer, and more personable live-music experience than
a studio CD could ever create.
One tale told on the first CD is when a tiny teenage girl with
a child’s guitar came to their live show one night and asked
the youthful Trio if she could sing them her song after their
Gatlinburg, Tennessee performance. The girl was Dolly Parton,
and the song was "Coat of Many Colors," done on Back
Where We Began in elegant fashion in tribute to Dolly, whose bubbly
personality can leave audiences forgetting her most extraordinary
talent, that of composing heartfelt roots ballads with strong
feminine and spiritual perspectives. Other lesser-known tunes
by some of our greatest songwriters include "Ramblin’
Boy," penned by Tom Paxton and sung here with lovely tight
harmonies; "Old Dogs," a scratchin’ and itchin’
tune that resounds with the men of mature years in the audience,
written by Shel Silverstein of "The Unicorn Song" and
"Boy Named Sue" fame; and Bill Staines’ folk festival
hand-clapping kids favorite, "All God’s Critters Got
a Place in the Choir." (The kids will also love "A Lion
Named Sam", which appears on the Trio’s other two releases,
and "My Rockabye", both penned by Jerre Haskew and his
beautifully talented wife and creative partner Barbara Haskew
– who makes a stage appearance as Sam in the DVD available
of this same concert.)
One of the great female voices and writers of sixties’ folk,
(Susan) Taylor Pie, shows up to sing bluesy rocking vocals to
her anthem "Blue Dog Lounge," puncuated by Lou Wamp's
two fabulous dobro breaks, and her pop folk classic "Time,"
which was #1 on the Billboard Pop Charts in 1968, both songs backed
by the Trio's tight harmonies.
The first song on the set is "John Henry," appropriate
as it was the first song the Trio ever sang together in 1963,
with new lyrics by Jerre Haskew and arrangement by Tom Kilpatrick
and Andy Garverick. The crafty and inventive "Sloop John
B" and "Margaritaville" medley follows up in a
unique bluegrass/reggae version with jazzy overtones from Lou
Wamp’s dobro. The skillful multi-instrumentalist Wamp also
dazzles with the fiddle, which dances around Andy Garverick’s
fluid double-time banjo pickin’ on "Pancho and Lefty."
More incredible banjo, mandolin and dobro licks punctuate a unique
the bluegrass gospel medly "I’ll Fly Away/I Saw the
Light/Somebody Touched Me," and cowboy harmony strains suffuse
the "Cool Water/Back in the Saddle/Happy Trails" track.
The group pays tribute to their late friend John Denver with "Take
Me Home Country Roads" and to the late great Harry Chapin
in the concert's finale with his ballad of hope and reunion, "Circles."
Two bonus studio tracks end the set, "Fiery Gizzard Blues"
and "My Rockabye," sung by Jerre and Barbara Haskew’s
very talented daughter Holly Haskew Tambling, in an auditory promise
for the future of more great American music to come out of this
growing on-stage roots-music community with a great combination
of imagination, talent and entertainment.
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