Roots Music Report

MIKE MITCHELL’S “SMALL TOWN”The Story:

This album has been 4 years in the making—-it is a distilling of the past 20 years of observations, experiences, and challenges living in a one-stop-light town in a one stoplight county in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The songs on this album speak of love and loss, grief and faith, hope and second chances, forgiveness and perseverance. There is even one song about breakfast. Two covers, one Folk, (Ola Belle Reed) and one Bluegrass (Osborne Brothers) highlight the “Folk-Grass” sound. And as always, no record of mine would be complete without a couple of fiddle tunes! An obscure Kenny Baker number, and one that I composed, in the Baker style.

The Players:

When Mark Schatz agreed to produce the album AND to play bass on it, we knew we were in business...definitely! Schatz brought in Jarrod and Claire from his band. I brought in Sammy and Jesse from LRB, and myself and Tommy from Mike Mitchell Trio finished out the group. Harold Thompson is the Gandalf the Grey of Bluegrass engineers. His Blackwater studio was designed and built with John Peluso. All of the mics are handmade in the Peluso lab, in Floyd County.

Mike Mitchell—fiddle, lead and baritone singing, rhythm guitar Jarrod Walker —mandolin and guitar

Tommy Morse—banjo

Sammy Shelor—banjo

Mark Schatz—bass, clawhammer banjo

Jesse Smathers—tenor harmony

Claire Lynch—guest vocalist on “Jenny Lynne”

The Songs:

Sunrise on the Mountain: Written by my longtime friend, Mark Lewis. This one makes me think about bacon! Mark and the late Bill Moran, of Floyd County, Virginia were two of the first fellers that were patient and kind enough to try to teach me about Bluegrass Music.

Tell it to My Face: ...is about choosing to stay in a small town despite having gone through a rough time both personally and professionally—- walking down the street, stopping at the grocery or the post office, knowing the people all know my business and even participated in some of the gossip and slander. Tell it to My Face is me not running from past mistakes, staying to both play and face the music, so to speak—-winning back the faith and trust, and even the love that was lost. We chose to shoot the video with humor from the perspective of feeling like I would just rather people would tell me, to my face, what they like or don’t like, rather than hide or whisper.

The Plan: 13 years in the making, this is a song about loss, grief, and even guilt—young children taken to heaven after brain tumors or children left behind when parents were killed in a DUI accident. It also addresses my own dealings with a sort of “survivor’s guilt” and a huge gratefulness for surviving that same brain tumor, myself, and my own shameful car accident that, by God’s grace, did not take a life.

Lowground: Composed in my teaching studio, this fiddle tune is based on the idea of “What would Kenny Baker have done with the oldtime tune Billy in the Lowground, and made it into a festival tune?”

Jenny Lynne: I know no better way of pledging my love and faithfulness to my bride, than by writing a ballad—-a love song.

Thirteen Hours: About 13 years ago one of my daughters asked: “Daddy, if we die and go to heaven, then what are ghosts?” I wrote this song as a sort of response to her question, laying flat on my back from a herniated disk.

It wasn’t long after I penned this tune that the Sago Coal Mine disaster occurred, trapping 13 men in a mine in WV. It remains, dedicated to their families.

Young Love on the Mountain: Loosely written about a friend from years ago, back in my roadhouse musician days...we were playing a gig up in Fayetteville, WV, and he was stumbling along to the music with a young lady in the audience. The next thing you know, his wife came in the side door. You never saw a Budweiser bottle fly so far, and high. Across the dance floor with a perfect arch. Hit 'ol boy right in the mouth and busted a tooth. From then on, we called him Chip.....Chip Chipofferston.

High on a Mountaintop: A wonderful tune, written by Ola Belle Reed, on White Top Mountain in Grayson County, VA—this is the story, as I heard it from Emily Spencer.

Grassy Fiddle Blues: Kenny Baker is my hero! He taught this tune to Blaine Sprouse, who taught it to me!

Crazy Girl: A much-needed rest and get-away from a difficult and stressful time, took Jenny and me to the beach in NC for a weekend—-we wrote most of this song as we drove—Jen at the wheel, me playing my guitar.

Amanda Dead: This is my stab at the infamous murder ballad—the chorus was written while I was brushing my teeth, thinking about ‘ol James King.

Listening to the Rain: An Osborne Brothers’ hit from the 70’s, I first heard this song in a Time-Life movie about the first bluegrass festival presenter, Carlton Haney. I loved the song, then, and have always wanted to do it. Jenny and I happened to run into a little old man decked out in a fancy red suit at an Italian

restaurant, in Raleigh, NC, during IBMA, last year. It was Bobby Osborne! It seemed fitting the this song be included in my “Small Town” album.