Gothic Theatre
Jim Lauderdale
Just when you think you’ve seen all the cards in Jim Lauderdale’s hand, he calls for a fresh deck, changes the game, and starts dealing from the bottom. Of course, he’s telling a funny story, so nobody notices.
Fresh from his Grammy winning CD with Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys (Lost in the Lonesome Pines, Dualtone) country’s most unpredictable and freewheelin’ artist reels off another exciting recording with another great band, Ithaca’s own Donna the Buffalo. The new album is called Wait ’til Spring.
Typical of Lauderdale’s apparently insatiable appetite for breaking fresh ground, his last two records are with outfits about as far apart as two acts that play some Country music can be. The legendary Clinch Mountain Boys, of course, incline more toward the bluegrass and old-time side of Country music. Donna the Buffalo mix the Country element of their sound with rock, Cajun, Zydeco and folk flavors. They are very well established and highly regarded nationally on the festival circuit. Sometimes they are thought of as a “jam band,” but guitarist Jeb Puryear backpedaled that notion. “That jam band tag can be a double edged sword. It’s a really great audience, but some of the acts can be a little sketchy sometimes. It’s a slippery slope.” Donna the Buffalo is a full grown, versatile musical outfit, they just happen to be a great dance band, too.
Puryear first laid eyes and ears on Jim Lauderdale at The Ryman Auditorium some years back. It was a big Ricky Skaggs extravaganza, and Patty Loveless was singing “Halfway Down” with Jim, who wrote the song. Jim says "I met Donna the Buffalo the summer that Lucinda’s Car Wheels on a Gravel Road came out, I think that was 1998. “Halfway Down” was already a staple song in their set, so that made it special for all of us. We met up at the Newport Folk Festival, and I started sitting in with them at Merlefest in North Carolina. I started going to their Grassroots Festival in Ithaca, and some of these songs began in those situations. On a few others, I wrote the music in the studio, and came up with the lyrics later."
Lauderdale is becoming the Renaissance Man of Country. This is his eleventh record, a dozen if you count the 1989 debut that never came out (except as an import). His songs have been cut by artists far too numerous to mention, including eight albums by George Strait alone. He played an impeccable George Jones in the stage production of ‘The Tammy Wynette Story’, singing, talking and looking uncannily like “The Possum” himself, one of the artist’s true heroes. He’s known for being able to write stone traditional Country when he likes, and then alternative, progressive Country that incorporates any number of other styles if the spirit or occasion calls for it. On Wait till Spring he’s decidedly in a serendipitous and wide open groove with Donna the Buffalo, and the record shines with that creativity. Four members of Donna are vocalists, and the backup vocal arrangements on this collaboration feel like a whole new sound for Lauderdale. It’s got psychedelic country moments that recall the Grateful Dead and the New Riders of the Purple Sage. Lauderdale has actually penned some forty odd songs with the esteemed Robert Hunter (Jerry Garcia’s writing partner his whole career) some of which appeared on his country albums and both albums with Ralph Stanley.
Here are ten great new songs by Jim, and a rework of “That’s Not the Way It Works,” from 1995’s Every Second Counts. The band cooks while the artist croons, and it’s a helluva ride. It’s sure to attract new legions of Jim Lauderdale and Donna the Buffalo fans alike with Jim Lauderdale classics like “Ginger Peach,” and “A Different Kind of Lightning.”
