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When I Get Back To Georgia
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Track Information
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1. Lorena Go Home
(2:03)
(Charlie Moore - Henry Dockery)
Ralph's Radio Music |
2.
Don't Make Me Go To Bed (3:58)
(Hugh
Cross)
APRS |
3.
The Day You Passed Me By (2:28)
(Tom
Holt)
Tulipland Publishing |
4.
Carolina Jane (2:43)
(Aubrey
Holt)
Lemco Music Publishing |
5.
Atlanta Is Burning (3:12)
(Aubrey
Holt)
Lemco Music Publishing |
6.
It's Just The Rain (2:58)
(Tom
Holt)
Tulipland Publishing |
7.
White Spanish Moss (3:20)
(Aubrey Holt)
Tulipland Publishing |
8.
Somebody's Brother (2:53)
(Anita
Holt)
Tulipland Publishing |
9.
Rambler's Call (2:30)
(Aubrey
Holt)
Tulipland Publishing |
10.
Still Missin' You (2:52)
(Tony
Holt)
Tulipland Publishing |
11.
The Rose Will Bloom Again (2:30)
(Aubrey
Holt)
Tulipland Publishing |
12.
When I Get Back To Georgia (3:18)
(Aubrey
Holt)
Tulipland Publishing |
When
I Get Back To Georgia is something very special.
In the best traditions of bluegrass, it is an album which
looks both to the past and to the future - but in this
case, the backward look is not only musical, but personal
as well.
The Wildwood Valley Boys is a band born from the Boys From
Indiana, both literally and musically. For those
listeners unfamiliar with them, the Boys were one of the
best and certainly best-loved bluegrass bands to emerge
from the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana belt in the 1970s.
Built around the brilliant songwriting of Aubrey Holt and
the powerful trio singing of Aubrey, Jerry Holt and their
uncle, Harley Gabbard (later joined by a third Holt
brother, Tom), the Boys were known for their dynamic,
entertaining shows, as well as for some of the fine
pickers who spent time working for the band, including
original members Noah Crase (banjo) and Paul
"Moon" Mullins (fiddle) as well as Wynn Osborne
and Glen Duncan. Though their discography is
lengthy, only the band's final album was released on CD (Touchin'
Home Rebel 1695), and it appeared that a sizable body of
wonderful singing and outstanding songs were destined for
obscurity, or at least would survive only among the
curators of vinyl LPs.
Fortunately, that prospect is no longer the only one, for
the Wildwood Valley Boys are intent on both preserving and
building upon the legacy of the Boys From Indiana.
That should come as no surprise given their origin: Tony
Holt is Aubrey's son, Jeff Holt's father is Jerry Holt,
and Harlan Gabbard is as you might suspect by now, the son
of Harley Gabbard. Ask any of them, and they will
tell you that they are the Boys From Indiana's foremost
fans, and this album is a reflection of that love and
influence.
Still, When I Get Back To Georgia is much more than
a "tribute album," just as the Wildwood Valley
Boys are anything but a "tribute band" in the
mold of Beatlemania or any other re-creation of a
once-living act. Though their sound owes a heavy
debt to the Boys, it isn't identical; Tony, Jeff, and
Harlan have distinct voices of their own. and Gerald
Evans, Jr. and Glen Inman (themselves former members of
Paul Mullins' Traditional Grass) and new comer Wes
Vanderpool each make their own contributions. The album is
not a rehash of old material; in fact, only three of The
Boys From Indiana's previously-recorded numbers
("Atlanta Is Burning," "Carolina Jane,
" Rambler's Call") appear here - in versions
that stand up quite nicely beside the originals.
Likewise, the new songs from Aubrey and Tom are powerful
evidence that, whatever the reasons for the Boys' final
breakup were, a drying up of the creative well was not
among them, and the appearance of Tony's haunting country
ballad, "Still Missin' You," is a sign that a
gift for writing as well as for singing has been passed
from father to son.
Like the work of their fathers, what the Wildwood Valley
Boys offer here is both powerful and distinctive.
You won't find a lot of complicated chord progressions in
these songs, nor a lot of fancy picking. Rather, When
I Get Back To Georgia reminds us that a good, simple
song delivered by talented well-practiced singers has the
power to move us as much as any work of art can. The
songs deal with sorrow and tragedy (and, more rarely, joy)
in the ways that great country and bluegrass songs always
have; the singing is smooth and precise, and yet - as with
the Boys From Indiana, or the Osborne Brothers, to name
only two obvious influences - it is full of feeling,
laying out each story as honestly and directly as possible
so that the richness of the vocal blend is tempered by the
spare, uncluttered simplicity of the lyrics.
The combination of vocal polish and emotional rawness you
will find here is on that has been all too rare on the
bluegrass scene since the heyday of the earlier act, and
at a time when many other bluegrass acts have stretched
beyond the genre to incorporate sounds and influences from
other styles of music, it's refreshing to hear artists
whose roots run so deep, who make their music from a
simple conviction that the most meaningful approach is to
give us the song straight and true. For those of us
who were Boys From Indiana fans, and for those of use who
have watched the Wildwood Valley Boys hone their skills at
small festivals and venues around their native soil for
the past few years, the appearance of When I Get Back
To Georgia is cause for celebration; for those
who are new to the Wildwood Valley Boys, this album will
be an exciting introduction to some great new talents who,
in the best bluegrass way, claim their origins as easily
as they look to the future. Like the Wildwood Valley Boys'
singing, that's just the way it should be.
-
John Weisberger, February 1999
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The
Musicians
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Tony
Holt
---------- Vocals & Guitar
Jeff Holt ------------ Vocals
Harlan Gabbard --- Vocals, Dobro &
Mandolin
Gerald Evans Jr. -- Fiddle,
Mandolin
Glen Inman -------- Bass
Wes Vanderpool - Banjo |
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