Empty Old Mailbox cover

Empty Old Mailbox

Don Rigsby

Album · 2000 · Sugar Hill SUG-CD 3915

Empty Old Mailbox was released by Sugar Hill on 26 September 2000 (SUG-CD 3915). It was Don Rigsby’s second solo album, after an all-gospel solo debut, and he made it while a member of the Lonesome River Band and Longview. Jimmie Lee Sloas co-produced and also plays bass guitar and guitar on it.

The credits list Rigsby on mandolin with a large supporting cast: banjo from J.D. Crowe, Sammy Shelor, Ron Stewart, Ron Rigsby and Carl Jackson; guitar from Larry Sparks, Tim Stafford, Ray Craft and Jackson; Jerry Douglas on Dobro; Gabe Witcher on fiddle; and Ben Isaacs and Gene Libbea on bass, with Stuart Duncan and David Blazer also credited. Vocals are credited to Rigsby, Sparks, Garnet Imes, Tim Surrett, Carl Jackson, Sonya Isaacs, Rebecca Isaacs-Bowman, Lilly Isaacs, Tina Rigsby and Gordon Kennedy.

The fourteen songs come from a range of writers: Tom T. and Dixie Hall’s title song, Larry Sparks’s “These Ole Blues,” Paul Craft’s “Louise,” John Hartford’s “Here I Am in Love Again,” Pete Goble and Leroy Drumm’s “Bad Day in Akron” and Marvin Davis’s “Son of a Gun.” Rigsby co-wrote “I Won’t Be There” with Dale Ferguson and “Poor Little Rich Man” with Carl Jackson, and arranged the traditional “I Am a Little Soldier.” The title song won the 2001 SPBGMA Song of the Year award.

Tracklist

  1. 1 I Won't Be There 2:49
  2. 2 Bluestone Mountain 4:07
  3. 3 Empty Old Mail Box 3:02
  4. 4 Son Of A Gun 3:30
  5. 5 These Ole Blues Source Recording Larry Sparks · key B · 144 bpm 2:44
  6. 6 Poor Little Rich Man 3:59
  7. 7 Dust To Dust 5:02
  8. 8 Louise 2:50
  9. 9 Don't Sell The Land 3:14
  10. 10 Bad Day In Akron 3:58
  11. 11 If I'd Had A Mother Like You 3:36
  12. 12 I Am A Little Scholar 2:48
  13. 13 Here I Am in Love Again alt version 2:40
  14. 14 Precious Love 2:51

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