Amtrak May Be in Trouble But Railroad Earth Is Right on Track
writen byJanie Franz
Mar-06-2002
©2002 iBluegrass.com. All rights reserved.

Steaming onto the music scene last year, Railroad Earth has been turning dyed-in-the-wool bluegrass fans onto what the tie-dyed set have been appreciating since Leftover Salmon tripped out its first extended jam. It is the insightful song writing as well as the skilled musicianship of the band members that is winning fans. Many jambands, whether bluegrass-based or not, have signature 30-minute jams that take the audience on an extended musical journey that may or may not be anywhere near the original melody they started with. Unlike most bluegrass bands that highlight an instrument at a time, doing a short riff to show off their skill, jambands show off as a whole, drifting as a group in and out of the melody and -if they're really good-finding their way back to the original melody and jumping right back into the song. Lyrics are sort of incidental to the whole experience.
Railroad Earth, however, is lyric-driven, thanks mainly to guitarist and lead vocalist, Todd Sheaffer, formerly from the RCA Records band, From Good Homes. His songs dominate Railroad Earth's debut album, "The Black Bear Sessions." He wrote seven of the ten songs on the album and co-wrote another with bandmate Andy Goessling, who also has another song on the CD.
The album grew out of a desire to capture the intensity of the bluegrass jams they were doing in rehearsal and on stage when they all met. There are no overdubbs on the CD, except for backup vocals which were added later. There is an immediacy and excitement to the songs, with strong instrumentation that doesn't get in the way of the spirit of the song or the lyrics. Some songs take you happily down a path, skipping to a skiffle-folk beat produced by inventive drum and bass lines. Other songs have a heart-rending depth like "Chains" that deals with the legacy we carry from our forebears, whether it's a beautiful voice or abuse. And then, there's the soul-searching, "Seven Story Mountain," that captures a Middle Eastern feel-how it's done with bluegrass instruments is remarkable. "Black Bear" has the jazzy feel of a lumbering old bear and the wistfulness of a Grateful Dead tune. And "Colorado" is no where near a John Denver tune, but it makes you want to pack your car and head West as you listen to the dreamy guitar, mandolin, and fiddle. On and on, every song is different, every song playing with the bluegrass medium, but respectfully.
Members of Railroad Earth, for the most part, know where the music came from. Though they are East Coast boys, they can trace their musical roots back to Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley, often through other players who were heavily influenced by these bluegrass legends. You'll find those earthy influences in Tim Carbone's fiddle, John Skehan's mandolin, and Andy Goessling's banjo and mandolin. Carbone had previously played old-time fiddle with two other bands, Falcon Ridge and Winterhawk. Skehan toured with a number of bluegrass and rock bands. Goessling is said to play anything that you can blow or has strings (acoustic guitar, mandolin, banjo, dobro, pennywhistle, saxophone, etc.). These guys noodle, but it never becomes self-indulgent. They add texture and highlight for the band's musical layers.
Carbone and Goessling were playing with the Blue Sparks from Hell when they met Sheaffer at a party and asked him to sit in with a group of friends who were jamming for fun. From that moment, they knew they were on to something. They grabbed Carey Harmon, their resident New Yorker, who had been touring with the regional band, The Hour, to play drums, and nabbed Dave Von Dollen right out of his seat at the New School where he was studying jazz for the upright acoustic bass. Harmon and Von Dollen, sorry to say, had never listened to bluegrass before they joined the band, but quickly liked what they heard. Their jazz influences are adding a new dimension to where the bluegrass band is going.
The Black Bear Sessions, released last June, started Railroad Earth touring, landing them slots at some of the biggest bluegrass festivals around. They recently signed with Sugar Hill Records and will be releasing their second album June 2002. They will be debuting some of the new songs from that album as they tour the country this spring. Railroad Earth has garnered multiple dates for some of the biggest festivals of the year: the Suwannee Spring Fest (Live Oak FL), the Old Settler's Music Festival (Austin TX), Togetherfest (Pocohontas AR), Merlefest (Wilkesboro NC), the Telluride Bluegrass Festival (CO), and the High Sierra Music Festival (CA).
You can find out where they'll be plying their wares from their tour page at www.railroadearth.com. If they come through your town, you won't regret seeing them.
And don't have a heart attack when Harmon starts setting up his drum kit. Carbone says that they got booed at a bluegrass festival when the audience saw the drums. "We went right on," he says. "Todd's songs won them over. Afterwards, some people stopped us and told us that they had been put off by the drums at first, but the songs and the music were so good that they couldn't think that it wasn't real bluegrass." They said the band could come back any time, he says.
Carbone does realize that he walks a line between improvisation and traditional bluegrass. "Are we in danger of diluting a real American folk idiom?" he asks. When you look beyond the drums and the jamming, you find Sheaffer's songs and the improvisational roots of bluegrass, Carbone adds. "Bill Monroe was listening to a bunch of blues when he started. You can really hear the influence of blues in Ralph Stanley's voice, too."
For younger folks not raised on traditional bluegrass or old time music, bands like Railroad Earth are the ones who are bringing that legacy to a new audience. "We aren't deluding ourselves," Carbone says, "We know where our roots are. This will be how we'll keep the tradition alive."

taken from iBluegrass.com.