Last Chance to Win (Mountain Fever Records, MFR 230818) was released on 18 August 2023. It is East Nash Grass’s second album, the follow-up to a self-titled debut from 2021, and the band produced it themselves. The Bluegrass Discography places the sessions at The Tractor Shed in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. The players are James Kee on guitar, Cory Walker on banjo, Harry Clark on mandolin, Maddie Denton on fiddle, Gaven Largent on dobro and Jeff Picker on bass. The band began as the house band at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge, where No Depression reported a long-running Monday-night gig, and it observed that on the record, as on stage, lead and harmony singing is shared among the members.
Clark sings lead on the title song, written by Christian Ward, and on “Starlet Iris,” which he wrote, and Leroy Carr’s “Papa’s on the Housetop,” which Bluegrass Today says the band gives “a strong swing feel.” Kee sings his own “I Almost Told Her” and Bill Anderson’s “Love Slippin’ Away,” Denton leads Theo Macmillan’s “When You Come Home,” and Largent takes Uncle Dave Macon’s “Railroadin’ & Gamblin’.” “Jenna McGaugh,” by Denton, is an instrumental. Bluegrass Today’s reviewer called the album “a wonderful release from beginning to end.”
Clark won an IBMA Momentum Award as Instrumentalist of the Year in 2022. The band was nominated for IBMA New Artist of the Year in 2023 and won the award in 2024, the year Largent was named Resophonic Guitar Player of the Year.
Tracklist
- 1 Last Chance to Win 2:17
- 2 I Almost Told Her 2:32
- 3 East Due West Blues 3:03
- 4 Papa's on the Housetop 2:44
- 5 Jenna McGaugh 3:00
- 6 How Could I Love Her So Much 3:26
- 7 When You Come Home 3:16
- 8 Starlet Iris 2:33
- 9 Magic City Grey 2:52
- 10 Love Slippin’ Away alt version 3:28
- 11 Railroadin' & Gamblin' 2:53
