Echoes of the Mountains is a 2009 album by the Dry Branch Fire Squad on Rounder Records, produced by Ken Irwin and Steve Chandler. Chandler also recorded and mixed it. Most of it was cut at Hilltop Recording Studios in Nashville. “Rovin’ Gambler” is the exception: Bordley Palk recorded it in 2005 at his studio in New Lebanon, Ohio. The album is dedicated to the memory of Howard Aldridge, and Tom Adams wrote the liner notes.
Ron Thomason founded the band in October 1976, after playing with the Clinch Mountain Boys. On this record he plays mandolin, guitar and clawhammer banjo, and he sings most of the leads, with Tom Boyd on tenor and Brian Aldridge on baritone. Aldridge plays guitar and mandolin, Boyd banjo and Dobro, and Dan Russell bass. Michael Cleveland guests on fiddle on “Dixie Cowboy” and “Bring It On Home to Me.” Some tracks feature the other singers. Boyd sings “Little Joe,” Aldridge sings “Grayson’s Train,” and the two share the lead on “Stormy Waters.” Thomason performs “O Captain! My Captain!” alone with his clawhammer banjo. “Dixie Cowboy” and “Power in the Blood” add Russell as a fourth voice, singing bass.
Tracklist
- 1 Dixie Cowboy 5:16
- 2 Echo Mountain 3:46
- 3 Rider on an Orphan Train 4:41
- 4 Up on the Divide alt version 3:27
- 5 (You Got To Pray To The Lord) When You See Those Flying Saucers 2:12
- 6 Bring it on Home to Me 4:15
- 7 Little Joe alt version 3:16
- 8 Seven Spanish Angels 3:15
- 9 Stormy Waters alt version 3:17
- 10 O Captain! My Captain! 3:24
- 11 Power in the Blood alt version 2:31
- 12 Rovin' Gambler 4:09
- 13 Grayson's Train 3:08
- 14 Thank You Lord alt version 2:10
