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Bob Powers Nearly a quarter-century ago, summers meant several trips to Frontier Ranch, which then featured an array of major country stars from the first of June until Labor Day. At the time, we lived about 50 miles from the entertainment Mecca in central Ohio, a hop and a skip from Ohio's capital city of Columbus.
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In those years, Betty and I saw an array of top C&W talent, ranging from Loretta Lynn to Lynn Anderson, Jerry Lee Lewis to Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters. (Yes, Irlene the drummer was cute as can be). Many of the artists took time after their sets to sit down and sign autographs and respond to fans' questions and statements of devotion.
Some of the bigger names drew crowds into the thousands, while some of the up-and-coming youngsters (the Mandrells qualified for that designation) would perform before less than a thousand devoted country fans.
While seeing these icons satisfied my craving to get close to some talented entertainers, the biggest event of the summer was the Bluegrass Festival, which pulled in thousands in a two-day weekend run. The big names of bluegrass appeared, including Bill Monroe, Jim & Jesse, and dozens more.
These weekends also drew scads of bluegrass performers, not officially booked and relegated to gathering around the back of a dusty pickup truck to join fellow musicians or raw newcomers. Occasionally, the amateur music at the edge of Frontier Ranch's rolling fields might outperform those who were being paid serious bucks on the official stage.
Those were good days. In recent years, Frontier Ranch has been used infrequently for various groups or organizations that wished to have an outdoor meeting in a pleasing, non-threatening atmosphere.
But one thing hasn't altered. Yep, the Bluegrass Festival continues to exert its magic spell on admirers of the mandolin, banjo, fiddles, and the string bass.
The crowds still come, the bands often play better than normal, since an enthusiastic audience can make a musician strive for perfection.
This brings me to the music of Breakaway, a quartet that's been around for a dozen years, for years performing in their home state of Vermont, playing relentlessly in the Northeast.
The group's new album, "Hold With Hope" (Gadfly Records), could be the disc that propels this group from popularity in one section of the U.S. to finally reach out to audiences around the nation.
The level of musicianship on display in "Hold With Hope" will doubtlessly impress fans of bluegrass as well as casual listeners who stroll into earshot and go home singing Breakaway's praises.
The new album contains both familiar standards of the bluegrass genre, interspersed with four fresh and bright originals by banjo player/singer Scott Hopkins or bass player/singer Peter Riley.
Breakaway has more than paid its dues. It's time for the entire country to get a taste for this superb group. Check out "Hold with Hope" and fall victim to the pure charms of a wonderful musical genre.
Harry's Little Brother
Just about everyone who was tuned in to the pop scene of the 1970s has fond memories of folksinger Harry Chapin. The easy-going singer had a huge hit with his song, "Cats in the Cradle." He became one of the big attractions on both the folk and pop music circuits. You couldn't help but enjoy his mellow voice and his on-the-mark choice of material. All music fans felt a real sense of loss when Chapin--still in his 30s--died in an auto accident in 1981.
At the time, Harry's younger brother Tom was host of a children's TV program that ran for years on Saturday mornings. Tall and slender with a pleasant if undistinguished singing voice, Chapin was seen by many thousands of children every week. The adults, unless they happened to walk through the living room while the show was on, were blissfully ignorant of Tom.
The year following Harry Chapin's death, brother Tom saw the release of his album, called "In the City of Mercy." Gadfly Records, whose catalog is devoted almost entirely to folk music, has just reissued Tom's album. It contains nine folk/rock, pop/rock and soft rock originals, plus Tom's version of brother Harry's best known tune, "Cat's in the Cradle."
While there's nothing wrong with this album, one can only wonder why the good folks who run Gadfly thought a 19-year-old collection would somehow attract an audience that apparently wasn't much interested in 1982. Tom Chapin sings in a pleasant voice, writes pleasant music, and never offends. I wouldn't call his work boring, but it comes dangerously close.
For Adults Only?
There are times when record company executives make questionable decisions. In the case of the new CD by the Joris Teepe Quintet, one can make a good argument that Postcard Records has almost assured that the album will gather dust in record store bins everywhere."For Adults Only"--that seems like an ill-advised title, contains 71 minutes of pleasant, hard-driving jazz recorded at Smalls, a popular jazz club in New York City. Joris Teepe, an accomplished performer on acoustic jazz, has put together a pleasing set of tunes, both familiar and sprinkled with originals. The crowd sounds enthusiastic.
Teepe's band includes Chris Potter on alto, soprano and tenor saxes, Don Braden on soprano and tenor, David Hazeltine at the piano, and Bruce Cox on drums.
The program opens with an impressive reading of "Chelsea Bridge," the perennial by Billy Strayhorn, and there's a fine interpretation of Paul Simon's "I Do It For Your Love."
Otherwise, the group projects a bit too boppish attitude for my tastes, creating some harsh sounds that irritate rather than delight. But "For Adults Only" (that's a dumb title) is jazz that's simply OK, but will not create a desire for another album in the same mode
COMING NEXT: It's been four decades since the release of two strings albums by supreme trumpet master Wild Bill Davison. In my new column, I'll review the reissue of "Pretty Wild" and "With Strings Attached," two albums combined on a single CD.
