FOLK ROOTS - December 1998
When one of the nicest people you know makes one of the durn' nicest discs you've heard in a very long time, what can there be left to say? In fact, while the title creates the impression that this is early Sara, it turns out to be her first foray into recording since recently returning to the U.S. British fans will therefore, find the mixture very much as they know it. There's a good clutch of Appalachian songs, some rare mountain banjo, and a few items from this side of the pond. There are also several stories from her native New Hampshire. They are delightfully told and I would recommend anyone learning the craft of storytelling to cock an ear. I'd recommend up-and-coming singers to listen too, especially those who think singing is all show. Sara has that ability, so common in great women singers, of drawing out the emotion in a song simply by understating it. Sara is now married to an Ulsterman and visits to that province have resulted in several interesting additions to her repertoire. They are a pleasure to listen to and show yet another side to her versatile talent. There are several fine songs from north of the Mason Dixon line and a sung poem by the Indiana poet, James Whitcombe Riley. It is from this latter that the disc derives its title. But as always, it's down-home Appalachia, which emerges as Sara's real stamping ground. The Southern Appalachians are a long way culturally and geographically from New Hampshire, yet pieces like Down The Road and Goodbye My Lover demonstrate that she is one of the finest exponents of mountain song and banjo alive today. In these and other tracks she receives able support from various fellow Americans. They include Jeff Davis, well known in Britain from frequent visits here. I confess that the disc held one surprise, for I would never have guessed that the highly individual playing of Kyle Creed, Galax, Virginia, was the model for Sara's banjo style. It shows how much of herself Sara puts into everything she does.
Fred McCormick
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The Accoustic Scene - Dec 1998 Phoenix, Arizona
Sara Grey, candidly acoustic I was fortunate enough to get a seat at international touring artist Sara Grey's sold out concert on November 8th at Fiddlers Dream. I read all the press releases about her, praising her voice and her technical skills as a musician. I attended the concert armed with the above expectations. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised to discover that these reviewers didn't have a clue. Granted, she has a lovely voice and is a skilled musician, but to write about such is to trivialize Sara Grey. Her virtue is her absolute and unshakable confidence in and love of music in it's most essential form. No glitz, no hype, no drumroll, with only a chair, a banjo, a sincerely welcoming smile and the strongest persona I have ever seen, she captivated the room before she had spoken a word. Her performance is frequently accapella, occasionally accompanied simply by a solo banjo, but always of that absolute, basic Sara. There isn't a pretentious bone in the woman's body nor a pretentious chord in her repertoire. She has a sincerely inspiring approach to performing music. Her purpose is not to bask in the spotlight, but to give the audience a taste of the real essentials of music, a communication of human experiences and honest as the blood as it pulses through the body. Her music though performed simply, is elegant in it's expression. Our thanks to … Jesse Kieron Means for his accompaniment. I am looking forward to her return to the Valley, when ever that may be.
Maxine Jewett
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The Living Tradition Issue 31 - February/March 1999
One of my all-time favourite sounds in folk music is that of the 5-string banjo. One of my all-time favourite singers is Sara Grey. the American balladeer who graced our scene for a number of years before heading home recently. With the two put together, as here, the result is fifty-three minutes of delight for me, and for you dear reader, if you take my advice and get this album straightaway. Sara has always been a top class chooser of songs, a fact borne out by the excellent programme she offers in this album. Songs like "Another Man's Wedding", "The Frog's Wedding, "The Pinery Boys", "Fair Fanny Moore", "Going to Kansas (correctly described as a "jewel of a song"), and "Johnny Doyle" to name only a few, are in beautiful versions, sung and played with loving skill, and never a superfluous note. Joan Sprung, Irene Saletan, Ellen Christianson, Jeff Davis and Peter Sutherland handle back-up singing and music with equal skill. Sara also knows how to tell a tall tale. Several "Bert and I" type stories learned from her father are sprinkled between the songs with great effect. This album brings us an artiste in full bloom. She knows what her songs are about and she allows them to speak for themselves, singing without fuss or strain. With accompaniment or without, her voice has warmth and maturity, her playing is secure and confident. placed where it should be, at the service of the song. Sara Grey's choice of songs and her manner of singing will sound as fresh and true in a hundred years time as they do today because she allows their natural beauty to shine. I have all her recordings but one, and this is the best. Perfect. Thank you Sara.
Roy Harris
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Sing Out Vol 43 No 3 - Winter 1999
On Sara Grey's latest release she presents five unaccompanied songs in a row. In the earlier days of folk music recordings that would not have been worth mentioning, but by today's standards it's a kind of breakthrough. Another tip of the hat to Andrew Clahoun and Wtaerbug Records for adding even more depth to the label by including this delightful mix of traditional songs led by a truly bright light in the world of traditional singers. Sara's subtle vibrato and impeccable taste shine throughout this 20 track collecton of New England stories and ballads from the United States and Ireland. As artistic director, Pete Sutherland combines the right musicians with the right instrumentation to create a simple yet powerful presentation of great old songs. After one of four short "down east" stories from the tradition of Sara's dad, the opening song is "A Tale From The Airly Days," a poem by Indiana poet, James Whitcombe Riley set to music by Carl Jones. The poem is a perfect introduction to this collection for its celebration of old times and old songs and features Sara's voice and crisp bano playing. What follows are the five unaccompanied songs mentioned earlier all of which feature Sara's solo voice with the exception of "The Frog's Wedding." This old children song brings together a quartet of female voices including Joan Sprung, Ellen Christianson and Irene Saletan. This chorus is featured on several songs throughout the recording. Traditional songs savior Jeff Davis joins Sara on several cuts with fine mandocello, guitar and fiddle support and Sutherland himself adds harmony to some chorus songs. Sara Grey's selections for this recording are both obscure and familiar. The short liner notes make it clear that she is a traditional singer with knowledge of the old songs and respect for the older singers. Add to that Pete Sutherland's artistic touch for putting everything in the proper order and you have what is required for a delightful and coherent collection of traditional songs and stories.
MW
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Rock n’ Reel Summer 1999
Since her own 'airly days' (in New Hampshire), Sara has 'country-hopped' more times than you could count on the strings of a banjo in her professional career of over thirty years. She's unquestionably one of the finest interpreters of American traditional songs and banjo tunes, having been steeped in the tradition from her formative days in North Carolina, but she is also well versed in the ballads of Scotland and Ireland; she has an incredible knack for unearthing rare gems which can sound at once familiar and unfamiliar.
For much of the album, Sara sings unaccompanied. Her sweet, fresh and forthright delivery (with its appealing yet unobtrusive vibrato) is compelling enough to keep you listening, and always conveys her absolute understanding of what she's singing about. Just as Sara's singing radiates warmth and confidence, her clawhammer banjo playing is full of the necessary lift, wholly assured but never complacent.
Jeff Davis adds some well judged guitar, fiddle or mandocello to six tracks, and other singers provide vocal harmonies when (and only when) a 'chorus' is called for. For good measure, Sara also relates four pithy li'l 'Down-East' stories learned from her father, which are charming and fun. The collection has many quietly impressive highlights, but I particularly liked 'A Tale Of The Airly Days' (Sara's creed), 'William Hall', and the sequence consisting of 'Goodbye My Lover', 'Disheartened Ranger', 'Going To Kansas' and the jauntily beautiful 'Loch Maree', the latter emotive without a trace of false sentimentality.
Well, I thought Sara's last album, four long years back on Harbourtown, was excellent, but somehow this new one's even better. Don't miss out - it really is that good. Great to have you back, Sara!
David Kidman
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Old Time Herald Fall 1999
Sara Grey is a great performer and singer of traditional old-time songs. Her clawhammer banjo playing is intricate and dean, and Sara's clear, strong singing compels the listener to get Involved with the songs. The touch of vibrato in her voice is just right. Much of this CD, eight of the twenty cuts, is a cappella singing and the instrumentation is sparse. The quality of the recording is excellent, the liner notes credit her sources and show who is singing or playing on each cut. The repertoire is a collection of songs from all over the U.S.
After listening to an old Folk Legacy album from 1970 entitled Sara Grey, I was struck by the fact that Sara's voice and conviction really has not changed over the years. Even back then, Sara was an unwavering proponent of traditional music-singing ballads and playing clawhammer banjo and old-time tunes. An Internet search revealed some references to a Sara Grey, as a Scottish singer, who was touring the U.S. in 1995. Same person? She sure didn't sound Scottish and a good number of the cuts on Back in the Airly Days are in fact stories from her father with a definite wry, dry New England style of delivery. How and why did she wind up in Scotland, if this was the same person? If it was, what has she been up to for 30 years?
Sara grew up in New Hampshire but has lived in North Carolina, Ohio, Montana, New York, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wales, Scotland, and England. As a youngster in North Carolina, she developed a love for old-time songs and banjo music. About 30 years ago, Sara moved to the British Isles for good, although she retains her US. citizenship. She has recorded numerous albums for Fellside, Greenwich Village, Harbourtown in the UK, and now, with Waterbug, the first that Sara has recorded in the US. since the 1970 Folk Legacy album.
Sara sets the tone for the CD with "Dry Stone Walls," one of her father's stories. These stories are great-told with wit and irony. The title cut "A Tale of the Airly Days" has the words of James Whitcombe Riley's poem from an 1860s collection called Riley's Farm Rhymes. Multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Carl Jones set the words to music. Sara's clawhammer banjo
accompaniment is perfect and her singing is clear with a slight touch of vibrato, that makes it interesting, and gives it a storyteller's edge. "Another Man's Wedding," becomes more somber with a song about a woman who marries - not to her true lover. A more cheerful song about an-other wedding, "The Frog's Wedding, IS a "Froggy Went A-Courting" variation. "Gosford's Pair Desmene," finishing the set, is about two lovers who pledge their love to each other.
Next is a shift of mood with an a cappella work song from Wisconsin, called the "Pinery Boys," with the melody of the A-part of a Great Lakes song, "The Bigler's Crew." "WIlliam Hall," (also known as "Cold Drops of Rain'" on Jeff Warner & Jeff Davis' album, Days Of Forty Nine on Minstrel) is a broken token song with irregular phrasing and rhyme patterns.
After another of her father's stories, "The Bass Viol," Sara plays clawhammer banjo on the "A & F Reel," a neat medal-sounding tune from Carl Jones. Jeff Davis doubled the melody on mandocello. His guitar-playing is present on the next cut, "Fair Fanny Moore," a song collected in Oklahoma. After another New England story, "Republicans and Democrats," Sara sings and plays "Goodbye My Lover I'm Gone," one of the really great cuts on this CD. Two banjos and Ellen Christenson's vocals give this song just the right touch.
"Disheartened Ranger" is the first-person warning from a Texas Ranger who is quitting his job, tired of being overworked and underpaid. His admonition is "to guard your own ranches, and mind the Comanches, for surely they'll scalp you in less than a year." The blame, he says, is on the politicians of the Texas legislature, who won't appropriate the money for food, decent pay, or uniforms for the Rangers. Jeff Davis' sparse fiddle doubles the melody of Sara's voice. Continuing in the vein of the problems on the Western frontier, "Going to Kansas" is one of those great songs collected from Everett Pitt of New Jersey. Apparently the song has minstrel show roots, but the melody and the dialect have vanished over the years. It can be heard on the recording of Pitt's songs on Marimac called Up Agin' the Mountain, originally recorded in the 1940s by Anne Lutz. Jeff's fiddling and Pete Sutherland's singing bring out the eerie quality of towns abandoned as people moved westward.
"Loch Maree" is one of the songs Sara learned in Scotland. She calls it a sentimental song be-cause she's been there, knows and loves that area. The next cut goes back to the area of Beech Mountain, NC, an a cappella ballad, "Johnny Doyle," about a girl who is wronged. The next song is from the singing of Mrs. Pearl Borusky of Antigo, Wisconsin, "I'll Sell My Hat, I'll Sell My Coat," is a version of the Irish "Shule Aroon." The melody is the "Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier" song. The song has shown up in our Revolutionary and Civil Wars and seems to be very widespread. "Cranberry Song" is from further north in Wisconsin, way UP by Black River Falls. It's a pleasant song about how everyone works together during the cranberry harvest season. "Texans in Maine" is another story from her father and the CD ends with a very lively version of "Down the Road," probably the only tune that approaches an old-time barn dance tune on the whole CD Jeff plays guitar, Sara is on the banjo, everyone else sings. It sounds like what might have happened at a rural barn dance from long ago, the singing and playing and dancing of good friends
Pat Walke
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Folk On-Line
December 1999
Back in the days when I lived in Germany (late 70s) I remember hearing some unedited tapes from Hedy West's grandmother as Hedy began the arduous task of trimming them for inclusion in an LP based on the old lady's sayings and songs. I immediately thought of those times when this CD from Sara arrived because she too features some verses, tales tunes and songs from her own airly days.
There are some absolutely typical Sara Grey performances here -unaccompanied, banjo solos and short tales aided by some wonderfully unpretentious and effective accompaniments. There are hints of songs and tunes you'll find recognisable yet 'new' as Sara presents versions from all sorts of sources and applies what used to be called 'the folk process' by stamping her own style and approach upon them. Although American material is obviously in the majority she also gives us some material from our own islands. I particularly like her beautiful and delicate banjo playing, and the instrument's tones and subtleties are well captured by the digital medium. I have only one complaint: her playing reminds me of what I missed by giving up the banjo after a month or so!
I just can't imagine an album from Sara that isn't a pleasure to hear, so carefully does she choose her material and so delightfully does she perform it. This CD is no exception and especially noticeable is its aura of intimacy rarely achieved in the clinical setting of a sound studio.
Doug Porter, Derby, England
www.dougporter.freeserve.co.uk
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All Music Guide Summer 2000
Featuring an intricate claw-hammer banjo style and a singing voice somewhere between Jean Ritchie and Joan Baez, Sara Grey is a traditional folk-singer of the rarest kind. An expert collector of obscure English, Irish, and early American folk songs, as well as "Down East" folk humor, Back in the Airly Days is an understated masterpiece. Ranging from no frills a cappela ballads, occasionally employing Carter Family-style harmonies, to stark murder ballads and cheery sing-a-longs, Grey is a true student of the craft, as her detailed liner notes present the historical significance of the songs presented. Authentic renditions of the child tune "The Frog's Wedding," "Goodbye My Lover I'm Gone," and "Down the Road," all employing gorgeous four-part harmonies, have to be considered among the definitive versions of the songs. In short, fans of traditional folk forms will find more than enough here to get excited about.
Matt Fink
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