The clue is in the name, Silver Bullet, yes? Silver Bullet as in the Silver Bullet Band, or, more specifically, Bob Seger, whose band it was and whose songs he, and they, played. Bluegrass, in that these are all interpretations flecked with bluegrass tropes, at least instrumentally, so fiddle, mandolin, banjo, all that stuff. I’m uncertain whether the Kentucky purists would concede the legitimacy of the performances, but, hey, maybe it’s not for them. At least, they’re welcome, but Silver Bullet Bluegrass is aimed at lovers of blue collar heartland rock, of which Seger was a rightly celebrated king.
Seger’s commercial heyday largely happened in the ’80s, his big-lunged anthems emerging from Detroit. If this raises some eyebrows as to why, where and how these good ol’ country boys should be celebrating him, think again. His raw and emotive songs, a little like the songs of New Jersey native Bruce Springsteen, transcend any simple classification. There is rock and roll, there is blues, and there is country running through their veins. (A little-realized fact is that Seger’s last live appearance was actually in Nashville, as he helped Patty Loveless be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. If he has no issues with country music, hell, why would we?)
Silver Bullet Bluegrass has been some years in the making, an idea that initially sparked over a decade ago, with producer Randall Deaton thinking the songs would translate well across the idioms. A few tracks were laid down, but they stayed on the back burner until encouragement came in the form of Jimmy Nutt, engineer for, amongst others, Jason Isbell, and Gary Nichols, sometime Steeldrivers’ frontman. Enthusiasm rekindled, with a bevy of appropriate singers and players, young and experienced alike, accrued, with Nichols featuring on guitar and backing vocals. This baker’s dozen of songs is the result.
Impossibly young fiddler Carson Peters, barely into his 3rd decade, and perhaps familiar mainly to viewers of The Voice, is first out the corral, with a lively take on “Long Twin Silver Line.” It starts with a clunk of banjo, mandolin and guitar, and some howls of high lonesome fiddle, ahead the banjo acceleration. It is a great way to tackle the song, and a good omen, the clear youth of the singer adding to the verve. The playing is sound,–Peters’ fiddle play, of course, but also the driving string bass, the combination making you forget quite what an out and out rocker was the original. Sarah Borges is also tucked in, on backing vocals, for extra kudos.
That erstwhile Steeldriver Gary Nichols follows with an impassioned dobro-heavy “Turn the Page,” his sandblasted vocal perfect. Less perfect to my ear is the Shonna Tucker-helmed “Hollywood Nights” we discussed here previously; for me this smacks a little too much of the Hayseed Dixie novelty confection school. The onetime Drive-By Trucker gives it her best holler, but the backing is just too frantic. Much more successful is Tim Shelton’s Eagles-esque “Against the Wind,” had that band a voice that booms with quite as much authenticity as Shelton’s. (So much so that I am searching out last year’s debut recording from his band, the Tim Shelton Syndicate.)
“You’ll Accompany Me” suffers also from the rent-a-banjo approach. Keith Garrett is a mandolinist out of East Tennessee and maybe suffers from the choice of song, as it all a bit generic, in style and substance. If you’re interested how lighters-in-the-sky standard “We’ve Got Tonight” might hold up, the answer is….. interesting. Rather than a putdown, Kentucky veteran Jeff Parker does it proud, with some harmony vocals from Cindy Walker, and it transposes better to the style the one might expect.
For another of Seger’s more roustabout songs. “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man,” the energy invoked by the banjo is enough to take any taste of pastiche/parody out your mouth. Add in the fact that the subject matter is so true to a country, if not bluegrass, narrative; Bo Bice sounds well versed in each. The banjo is by Ned Luberecki, with Darrell Webb’s mandolin also worth a mention. Indeed, they, with Mike Bub’s bass make up the core house band here, present for most of the tracks. (Megan Lynch, absent on this particular song, is the main fiddler, unless otherwise mentioned.)
A casual 1,2 introduces “Betty Lou’s Gettin’ Out Tonight,” one of the more throwaway songs here, and Ward Hayden gifts it a ramshackle wood outhouse of a version that just about scrapes through, on the basis of it sounding fun to play. Josh Shilling invests a plangent wail into “Main Street” that convinces, with Lynch’s fiddle pairing with Wayne Bridge’s dobro to good effect. So far, the ballads are winning over the rockers. No piano, sadly, fitting the genre, despite it being one of Shilling’s trump cards.
“Even Now” gets the accolade of forgetting it was ever a Bob Seger song. A project like this relies often on the familiarity of the songs, and 1982 hit or not, Tim Stafford’s delivery dials it back into a thing of restrained beauty. Tim Crouch is the fiddle man on this one, and plays a blinder. Robert Hale, a name new to me, sounds just a little too eager, desperate even, for the song. I note, without irony, his website features a song called “What People Think of Me Is None of My Business,” so I doubt offense will be much taken.
I suppose “Roll Me Away” is such a classic Seger construction as to be hard to lose that sense of ownership. Bill Taylor even has one of this big voices, if cleaner, and with an endearing warble as he stretches notes. Despite the spirited arrangement, it remains definably Seger. I do like it, mind.
Which only leaves the song, I guess, “Night Moves.” Larry Cordle, of a similar vintage to Seger himself, is better known for his own songwriting, having penned hits for Garth Brooks, George Strait and Trisha Yearwood, amongst others. Despite the presence of session man extraordinaire David Hood, of Muscle Shoals fame, on bass, it is a little lackluster, with marks more for effort than strength of performance. I hoped that Hood might actually have played with Seger at some stage, so as to give a tangible link to bridge the influencer and the influences, but I’m sadly unable to find any definitive proof. Be that as it may, Hood’s bass is low in the mix, and dobro, with Bridge again providing the main focus. The repeated “yay yay”s and “I remember”s are also a distinct turn-off. In truth, I confess to finding it a slightly disappointing conclusion, especially after the highpoints of “Turn the Page,” “We’ve Got Tonight,” “Main Street,” “Against the Wind,” and, especially, “Even Now.”
I like how the bulk of Silver Bullet Bluegrass features artists little known outside the bluegrass belt. It can’t but help enlarge their listening bases; who knows, it might even give Seger a late career sales surge in the southern states. Full credit to Randall Deaton for coming up with, and continuing with, this worthy experiment.
Silver Bullet Bluegrass tracklisting:
- Carson Peters – Long Twin Silver Line
- Gary Nichols – Turn the Page
- Shonna Tucker – Hollywood Nights
- Tim Shelton – Against the Wind
- Keith Garrett – You’ll Accompany Me
- Jeff Parker – We’ve Got Tonight
- Bo Bice – Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man
- Ward Hayden – Betty Lou’s Gettin’ Out Tonight
- Josh Shilling – Main Street
- Tim Stafford – Even Now
- Robert Hale – Feel Like a Number
- Bill Taylor – Roll Me Away
- Larry Cordle – Night Moves
