In the same month — just two weeks apart — Michigan bluegrass stars Billy Strings and Lindsay Lou released albums that already stand as modern milestones of the genre. Local Spins reviews both.
Instant Bluegrass Classics: ‘Bluegrass Women,’ ‘So Much for Goodbyes’
SCROLL DOWN FOR TRACKS FROM BOTH ALBUMS, LINDSAY LOU TOUR DETAILS
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It would surprise almost no one if both Billy Strings and Lindsay Lou land nods for best bluegrass album of the year when Grammy Award nominations get announced in mid-November.
The Michigan-bred stars — in their own inimitable way — have once again turned the eyes and ears of the bluegrass world toward the Great Lakes State with fresh recordings that honor the genre’s storied traditions while also showcasing the next generation of virtuoso musicians.
Even though it’s situated several hundred miles from the origins of the genre in the Appalachian Mountains, Michigan has become a hotbed for bluegrass in recent years, thanks mostly to the superstar ascension of Billy Strings, but long bubbling to the surface thanks to artists such as Greensky Bluegrass, Lindsay Lou & The Flatbellys, Full Cord and others — not to mention the impact of the state’s longest-running music festival, the Charlotte Bluegrass Festival that started way back in 1973.
Amid that backdrop, Billy Strings’ poignant homage to his late mother, “So Much For Goodbyes,” and Lindsay Lou’s star-studded tribute to female bluegrass pioneers, “Bluegrass Women,” rank as the latest, essential-listening milestones of the genre.
Billy Strings: Performing at the Ionia Freak Fair in August. (Photo/Anna Sink)
As Billy puts it, he “wasn’t trying to make some big, spectacular psychedelic journey or some big jamgrass thing” and didn’t intend to “change any boundaries or push anything forward or anything like that.” Instead, the record is an honest reflection of “some big-time life stuff, losing my mom (Debra),” represented in 16 tracks deftly produced by the legendary T-Bone Burnett.
“I think it’s the most mature effort on my part,” he told Local Spins. “I feel like it was just a more honest and a vulnerable kind of record in every way, not just like emotionally, but sonically.”
What emerged from these January sessions at Nashville’s Sound Emporium is a brilliantly penned, acoustically centered, nostalgic journey back to his home state and the Ionia County environs where he grew up. The trip begins with “I’m One of Those” where Billy tries “to bring back old memories” and wonders if he’ll “wave to all the ghosts that wander back across this road I’m strolling down,” a track that leans heavily on the mournful fiddle playing of Alex Hargreaves.
Billy himself acknowledges that he’s “a Michigan boy through and through,” with
“Mill Town Flood” written about his hometown of Muir, “Bluewater Breakdown” inspired by Highway M-21 and “Live to Tell” reflecting “a cold house” up in northern Michigan. “It’s starting to come out in my writing,” he conceded.
And while he might not have aimed for a “big, spectacular psychedelic journey,” those trademark Billy escapades show up in riveting, dreamy fashion on tracks such as the painfully reflective “Burn the Other End” and jazz-flavored “Lucid Daydream.”
Naturally, Billy’s remarkable guitar work winds its way tastefully through every track, from the tenderness of “Carry Us Home” and “Live to Tell,” to the quintessential bluegrass picking on “Bluewater Breakdown” and one of the album’s standout songs, “Lay Me Down,” an instant classic recalling iconic ditties such as “I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow” from “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” (a soundtrack produced by, yes, T-Bone Burnett).
The collection ends in stirring fashion with the harmony-drenched, bluegrass gospel of “Wrestling an Angel” (“Wrestling an angel is like fighting a friend”) and the gorgeously melancholy instrumental, “Debra’s Waltz.”
LISTEN: Billy Strings, “Lay Me Down”
THE BILLY STRINGS TO LINDSAY LOU SEGUE
Of course, Billy’s bandmates (Hargreaves, banjoist Billy Failing, bassist Royal Masat and mandolinist Jarrod Walker) complement the mood of each track, with a bevy of impressive guest stars on board, including pedal steel player Paul Franklin, guitarist Bryan Sutton and singers Alison Krauss, Dan Tyminski, Jack White, Del McCoury and longtime pal Lindsay Lou — which makes the perfect segue to her own landmark recording, released just two weeks before “So Much for Goodbyes.”
The motivation for “Bluegrass Women” came out of Lindsay Lou’s concern that “few women or almost no women are visible or counted among the original, the first generation pioneers of this music and the second generation pioneers of this music.”
Consequently, Lindsay Lou chose groundbreaking standards written by the likes of Ola Belle Reed, Elizabeth Cotton, Hazel Dickens, Ricky Skaggs’ mom and Ralph Stanley’s wife, and then brought in acclaimed female stars of the current bluegrass scene to create a truly unique and stunning historical showcase.
The vocal harmonies and instrumental prowess of Molly Tuttle, Courtney Hartman, Alison Brown, Sierra Hull, Hasee Ciaccio, Sally Van Meter, Laurie Lewis, Aoife O’Donovan, Tatiana Hargreaves, Sarah Jarosz and others enhance Lindsay Lou’s own ethereal vocals on everything from “Like A River” and “High on a Mountain” to “Freight Train” and “Your Lone Journey,” which closes out the 10-track affair produced by Shani Gandhi.
Lindsay Lou: Touring Michigan starting this week. (Photo/Anna Sink)
“It just felt like a really, really cool thing to see where women’s place in the music has always been,” Lindsay Lou told Local Spins, “and get to feature a lot of these amazing pickers and women in the scene today to bring all the songs to life.”
The album not only brings these seminal songs to life, but adds a refreshing new energy to these compositions and resurrects important female-driven contributions to the bluegrass scene to ensure they’re not forgotten.
Lindsay Lou is mounting a special Michigan tour behind the new album featuring an all-female, five-piece band starting Thursday (Oct. 1) at Traverse City’s Milliken Auditorium, Friday (Oct. 2) at The Acorn in Three Oaks, Saturday (Oct. 3) at The Big Room in Grand Rapids and Sunday (Oct. 4) at The Ark in Arbor. Get tickets and details here.)
“Home is where the heart is,” Lindsay Lou says of her Michigan roots.
That inviolable, enduring Michigan connection that weaves its magic through “So Much for Goodbyes” and “Bluegrass Women” puts the state at the forefront of the burgeoning bluegrass scene — and helps ensure the lasting power of an important American genre.
LISTEN: Lindsay Lou, “All I Ever Loved Was You” (Written by Dorothy Skaggs)
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