Back to the Mountains cover

Back to the Mountains

The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys

Album · 2016 · Randm RANDM 064

Back to the Mountains is the first album by the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, released on CD by Randm Records, a California label, on 5 February 2016. The band signed with Randm to make it, describing its hard-charging traditional sound as “outlaw bluegrass” in contrast to the smoother style then common in contemporary bluegrass. C.J. Lewandowski plays mandolin and sings most of the leads, Josh Rinkel plays guitar, Jereme Brown banjo and Jasper Lorentzen bass, and Billy Hurt guests on fiddle. It was recorded at Buckaroo Studios and Audio Farm Recording.

The twelve tracks mix new songs and borrowed ones. It opens with “I Can’t Go On This Way,” written by Noah Crase, and includes the Charlie Moore gospel number “I Believe in the Old Time Way,” the Stanley Brothers’ “Late Last Night,” the title song by Allen Mills, and Jerry Cole’s murder ballad “Back Toward the Mountain.” Rinkel wrote “Messing with My Mind” and “Remember Where You Came From,” and Lewandowski wrote “The Girl I Denied.” A final track, “The Honky Tonk Downstairs,” appears a second time with Taylor Malpass on electric guitar and Clyde Mattocks on pedal steel. The reviewer for Bluegrass Today described the music as the retro sound of the 1950s, played with a lot of energy.

Tracklist

  1. 1 I Can’t Go On This Way Source Recording Noah Crase · key Bb · 140 bpm 2:03
  2. 2 Are You Homesick in Carolina Source Recording Eli Johnston · key A · 98 bpm 4:26
  3. 3 The Honky Tonk Downstairs 2:49
  4. 4 Messing With My Mind 2:13
  5. 5 The Girl I Denied 3:05
  6. 6 Back to the Mountains 2:32
  7. 7 Late Last Night alt version 2:21
  8. 8 Remember Where You Came From 3:55
  9. 9 I Believe in the Old Time Way Source Recording Bill Napier, Charlie Moore · key B · 127 bpm 2:35
  10. 10 Back Toward the Mountain 3:41
  11. 11 Drive Myself to Drinkin' 2:37
  12. 12 The Honky Tonk Downstairs (Country Version) 2:49

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