DENNIS CASH
Sing Me A Carter Family Song
A Carter Family Song – The Schoolhouse On
The Hill – Picture On The Wall – Sunshine In The Shadows – While The
Band Is Playing Dixie – My Native Home – I’ll Aggravate Your Soul – The
Waiting Stream – You’ve Been A Friend To Me – Anchored In Love – Lulu
Will – Can The Circle Be Unbroken
The Hill – Picture On The Wall – Sunshine In The Shadows – While The
Band Is Playing Dixie – My Native Home – I’ll Aggravate Your Soul – The
Waiting Stream – You’ve Been A Friend To Me – Anchored In Love – Lulu
Will – Can The Circle Be Unbroken
At the very same time Barry Mazor is releasing his very
entertaining book “Ralph Peer and the Making of Popular Music” in
Raleigh, North Carolina, Dennis Cash has a brand new CD out about the
Carter Family music just released in Autryville, North Carolina. What’s
the connection? Everything! Peer was the one who discovered the
Carter Family and even managed them. Dennis Cash also discovered the
Carter Family, especially their music, and he is singing, performing,
and recording it in a most excellent style that harkens back to what the
original Carter Family must surely have sounded like in ‘live’
performance. Dennis has the perfect voice for this kind of old-time
country music, absolutely perfect, fits like a “T.” As in Tom “T” Hall
who wrote the very first song, “A Carter Family Song” with his wife
Dixie. All of the rest of the songs are Carter Family, through and
through. Dennis’s accompanying musicians also ‘feel’ the incredible
aura of original Carter Family music. It must have been so incredibly
pleasant to hear the Carters ‘live’ and that makes Dennis’s CD so very
important. This is not the Carter Family, but it sure is close, maybe
better. What a delight to hear these songs in the hands and voice of
Dennis Cash. Lest there be any confusion, I do not believe there is a
direct connect between Dennis and the Johnny Cash tribe. Throughout
this CD you will hear a most delightful drop-thumb or clawhammer banjo
played magnificently by Kevin Scanlon. Second outstanding instrument is
the autoharp played by Dennis himself. He brought this instrument to
it’s first keen inception at the LeMars Festival last year, producing
many new fans of this lovely instrument. Josh Goforth is on the fiddle,
and he too is right in the middle of the sound track, and broadcasts
exactly what a really good fiddler would have done at actual Carter
Family performances. A great deal of the Carter Family music is
up-tempo and incredibly easy to listen to. The other thing about the
Carters is the truthfulness one finds in the lyrics of their songs.
Very unlike country music today which has cut it’s roots to real
country, stranding them in a very unwelcome musical island of
same-sounding ridiculous lyrics. Just the opposite is this remarkable
CD by Dennis Cash. This is a trip to the magical land of ‘real’ rural
music. Expect to hear some great 3-finger banjo in the hands of Bill
McDonald. The over-dubbing by Dennis on guitar, mandolin, and bass is a
triumph of a proper ‘mix’ in the final draft. Perfect ear for every
song on this CD. Dennis was wise enough to use several different
musicians on the same instrument, for instance Carl Pagter also plays
clawhammer banjo, creating a very different sound from Kevin Scanlon.
What a treat. Bill Clifton (attended the LeMars Festival in 2012) said
on the liner notes….”Here, in his second CD devoted exclusively to the
music of the Carter Family, Dennis reaches deep into the Carter’s song
bag and retrieves some sparkling gems that have been sorely neglected
over the past 85 years or so, while at the same time, breathing new life
into a few of their most widely known and oft-recorded songs.” I can’t
say enough about how well done this particular CD is. I know one thing
for sure. It’s still early in the year, but this one goes to the Rural
Roots Music Commission for ‘old time CD of the year’ and if that gets
taken else where, I’ll insist they find a new category, one that fits
Dennis Cash. Maybe ‘Best Carter Family CD of the Year” if it comes to
that. Thanks very much Dennis Cash for a most remarkable, incredibly
entertaining trip back in time to hear what ‘real’ rural country music
once was. The circle still stays ‘true’ with Dennis Cash.
entertaining book “Ralph Peer and the Making of Popular Music” in
Raleigh, North Carolina, Dennis Cash has a brand new CD out about the
Carter Family music just released in Autryville, North Carolina. What’s
the connection? Everything! Peer was the one who discovered the
Carter Family and even managed them. Dennis Cash also discovered the
Carter Family, especially their music, and he is singing, performing,
and recording it in a most excellent style that harkens back to what the
original Carter Family must surely have sounded like in ‘live’
performance. Dennis has the perfect voice for this kind of old-time
country music, absolutely perfect, fits like a “T.” As in Tom “T” Hall
who wrote the very first song, “A Carter Family Song” with his wife
Dixie. All of the rest of the songs are Carter Family, through and
through. Dennis’s accompanying musicians also ‘feel’ the incredible
aura of original Carter Family music. It must have been so incredibly
pleasant to hear the Carters ‘live’ and that makes Dennis’s CD so very
important. This is not the Carter Family, but it sure is close, maybe
better. What a delight to hear these songs in the hands and voice of
Dennis Cash. Lest there be any confusion, I do not believe there is a
direct connect between Dennis and the Johnny Cash tribe. Throughout
this CD you will hear a most delightful drop-thumb or clawhammer banjo
played magnificently by Kevin Scanlon. Second outstanding instrument is
the autoharp played by Dennis himself. He brought this instrument to
it’s first keen inception at the LeMars Festival last year, producing
many new fans of this lovely instrument. Josh Goforth is on the fiddle,
and he too is right in the middle of the sound track, and broadcasts
exactly what a really good fiddler would have done at actual Carter
Family performances. A great deal of the Carter Family music is
up-tempo and incredibly easy to listen to. The other thing about the
Carters is the truthfulness one finds in the lyrics of their songs.
Very unlike country music today which has cut it’s roots to real
country, stranding them in a very unwelcome musical island of
same-sounding ridiculous lyrics. Just the opposite is this remarkable
CD by Dennis Cash. This is a trip to the magical land of ‘real’ rural
music. Expect to hear some great 3-finger banjo in the hands of Bill
McDonald. The over-dubbing by Dennis on guitar, mandolin, and bass is a
triumph of a proper ‘mix’ in the final draft. Perfect ear for every
song on this CD. Dennis was wise enough to use several different
musicians on the same instrument, for instance Carl Pagter also plays
clawhammer banjo, creating a very different sound from Kevin Scanlon.
What a treat. Bill Clifton (attended the LeMars Festival in 2012) said
on the liner notes….”Here, in his second CD devoted exclusively to the
music of the Carter Family, Dennis reaches deep into the Carter’s song
bag and retrieves some sparkling gems that have been sorely neglected
over the past 85 years or so, while at the same time, breathing new life
into a few of their most widely known and oft-recorded songs.” I can’t
say enough about how well done this particular CD is. I know one thing
for sure. It’s still early in the year, but this one goes to the Rural
Roots Music Commission for ‘old time CD of the year’ and if that gets
taken else where, I’ll insist they find a new category, one that fits
Dennis Cash. Maybe ‘Best Carter Family CD of the Year” if it comes to
that. Thanks very much Dennis Cash for a most remarkable, incredibly
entertaining trip back in time to hear what ‘real’ rural country music
once was. The circle still stays ‘true’ with Dennis Cash.
REVIEW BY BOB EVERHART – www.ntcma.net
for Country Music News International Magazine