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Holly Springs, N.C. -- Russ Barenberg and Bryan Sutton share the stage at the Holly Springs Cultural Center on Saturday, May 9. The show starts at 8 p.m. For the past two years, Barenberg (2008) and Sutton (2007) have each been singled out by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Country Instrumental Performance.
Barenberg currently freelances in Nashville and performs with his own group--The Russ Barenberg Trio--as well as in a duo with Sutton.
Russ Barenberg is known as one of the most melodic instrumentalists in contemporary acoustic music, and his compositions are among the finest the genre has to offer. When at Last (2007), his most recent CD, reflects an ever-deepening musicality with continuing dedication to vibrant, roots-based melodies and ensemble interplay. “Little Monk,” the album’s opening track, was nominated for the 2008 GRAMMY for Best Country Instrumental Performance.
Bryan Sutton is one of the most high-profile acoustic guitarists in bluegrass and country music these days, a first-call Nashville session player whose jaw-dropping technique, deep background in tradition, and fluency in multiple styles have landed him important gigs with Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Douglas, Earl Scruggs, the Dixie Chicks, Béla Fleck, and others. Sutton’s most recent album, Not Too Far from the Tree (2006), came from an idea he first conceived of “in a car on the way back from a trip,” he says.
“I was thinking about all these guys that had influenced me and that some of them weren’t going to be around forever. I was thinking about records like Mark O’Connor’s record of fiddle heroes and Jerry Douglas’s record with all the dobro players. And I got this idea of recording with these guys that were my heroes and also good buddies and advice-givers - people that have helped me in my career as a player. I felt like it was something I could do, and I felt honored to be in a position to be able to call everybody up and ask if they wanted to record.” Among the artists included on the album are: Doc Watson, Tony Rice, Norman Blake, Earl Scruggs, Ricky Skaggs, Russ Barenberg, and many others.
Sutton not only wanted to showcase his heroes, but also demonstrate just how his own playing as evolved under their influence. However, far from aping his partners, he simply listens and reacts, allowing the music to grow naturally.
“I really like the musical conversation that goes on in a duet,” Sutton says. “I like the reactions, and with this record I tried to capture as much of those nuances as possible. In a duo, you have the freedom to go as far as each person is willing to go. You have this great possibility to get one sound, one voice. The guitar has such a wide tonal range that in a good duet situation you don’t miss anything, you don’t want for bass or the mandolin chop or anything. You’ve got plenty of sustain and rhythm, all that stuff. When you get a trio, suddenly you have different roles to play. And in a band everybody has their specific part to do at any give moment. But with a duet you can constantly change dynamics and it’s completely free."
Sutton says of Barenberg: “Russ is such a solid player, and his soloing is so lyrical. He reminds me to keep a melodic idea strong in my solos. He’s one of those great improvisers, like Jerry Douglas and Stuart Duncan, that always have a great melody in their solos.”
Russ Barenberg began playing guitar at the age of 13 in Pennsylvania. He took lessons from Alan Miller, the older brother of future band mate, guitarist John Miller, and was inspired by guitarists such as Doc Watson, Mississippi John Hurt, and Clarence White, along with a variety of old-time, bluegrass and contemporary folk and blues musicians.
While attending Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, in 1970, Barenberg joined with Peter Wernick, Tony Trischka, Kenny Kosek and John Miller to form the groundbreaking Country Cooking. During the four years that Country Cooking was together, the group recorded two influential albums, Country Cooking: 14 Bluegrass Instrumentals and Barrel of Fun and accompanied mandolinist Frank Wakefield on a third album. Barenberg also played on a number of Trischka’s solo albums throughout the 1970s.
After Country Cooking disbanded, Barenberg temporarily switched to electric guitar and performed with jazz-rock band Carried Away. A couple years later, he moved to New York and, together with Trischka, Miller, and fiddler Matt Glaser, formed the eclectic string band Heartlands. Heartlands backed Barenberg on many of the cuts on Cowboy Calypso, his 1979 debut album, which showcased his sophisticated playing and immediately established him as one of the premier composers and arrangers in the emerging new acoustic scene.
Moving to Boston that same year, Barenberg joined Glaser and fiddler/mandolinist Jay Ungar in the triple-fiddle band Fiddle Fever, recording two albums with the group. Fiddle Fever’s recording of “Ashokan Farewell” was later used as the centerpiece for the soundtrack to Ken Burns’ celebrated documentary, The Civil War. Barenberg played on the soundtracks for several other Burns’ films as well, including The Brooklyn Bridge, The Shakers and Huey Long. During this time, he also worked with Glaser and mandolinist Andy Statman in the experimental bluegrass-jazz band Laughing Hands.
Barenberg recorded his second solo album, Behind the Melodies, in 1983. That album, along with his appearance on Jerry Douglas’s 1982 release, Fluxedo, marked the beginnings of an ongoing series of collaborations between the two musicians. While in Boston, Barenberg was also active in the vibrant contra dance scene, playing frequently for dances. He played on fiddler Rodney Miller’s recording, Airplang, which was seminal to the development of contra dance music in the late ’80s and ’90s. A number of Barenberg’s own tunes have since become popular standards in the contra dance repertoire.
Barenberg moved to Nashville in 1986 and has lived there since. Along with Douglas, he worked for several years accompanying Irish singer Maura O’Connell, and in 1988 recorded his third solo album, Moving Pictures, another collection of original instrumentals featuring Douglas, Meyer, banjoist Bela Fleck, and fiddlers Mark O’Connor and Stuart Duncan, among others. Over the years, he has been a member of many highly influential groups, most notably his collaboration from 1989 to 2001 with dobro master Jerry Douglas and bassist Edgar Meyer. This trio became a highly original ensemble that further reshaped the direction of acoustic music. Their popular 1993 recording, Skip, Hop & Wobble, has been extremely influential with the new generation of acoustic instrumentalists. In 1996, Barenberg worked with Douglas, fiddler Darol Anger and Los Angeles-based music producer Snuffy Walden to create the soundtrack for Homecoming, a film starring Anne Bancroft.
Barenberg has performed and recorded with many other top acoustic and country music artists including Randy Travis, Emmy Lou Harris, Ricky Skaggs, Tim O’Brien, Sam Bush, Paul Brady, Darryl Scott, Joan Osborne, Bryan Sutton, Aly Bain, Phil Cunningham, Eddi Reader, Natalie McMaster and Sharon Shannon. Many of these musical associations came about through his ongoing work on The Transatlantic Sessions, a series of television shows produced in Scotland beginning in 1994 that bring together top acoustic musicians from the British Isles and the United States for collaborative performances.
This show is one of PineCone’s Listening Room Concerts, presented in collaboration with the Town of Holly Springs. The concert begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are $14 for PineCone members or $16 for the general public. Call the Holly Springs box office at 919-567-4000 for tickets, or visit www.etix.com.
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
