Native and Fine was released by Rounder Records on 7 November 1995 (Rounder C 0295). It was Bill Evans’s first solo recording, made while he was playing banjo with Dry Branch Fire Squad, and it earned an honorable mention for Acoustic Instrumental Recording of the Year from NAIRD in 1996.
Evans plays banjo throughout. On most of the instrumentals he is joined by David Grier on guitar, Mike Compton on mandolin and Missy Raines on bass, with Stuart Duncan or Jason Carter on fiddle. Two pieces are sung over banjo alone: Suzanne Thomas sings “Wondrous Love,” and Ron Thomason, who fronts Dry Branch Fire Squad, sings “Omie Wise” and plays mandolin on his own tune “Saalo’s Joy.” Compton is credited as producer, Mark Howard recorded and mixed the album at Eleven-O-Three Studio, and Jon Hartley Fox wrote the liner notes.
Five of the twelve tracks are Evans’s own: “Native and Fine” (written with Darin Lawrence), “Scotland Yard,” “Jump Jesse,” “Chicken Pox” and “Midnight in Rosine.” The rest include Ralph Stanley’s “Fling Ding,” Don Reno’s “Choking the Strings,” and traditional pieces such as “Goodbye Liza Jane” and “Clarinet Polka.” The cover photographs were taken at the Monroe homeplace and the Old Barn Jamboree in Rosine, Kentucky.
Tracklist
- 1 Fling Ding 1:47
- 2 Native And Fine 5:30
- 3 Goodbye Liza Jane alt version 3:52
- 4 Wondrous Love alt version 3:53
- 5 Scotland Yard 3:36
- 6 Choking The Strings 2:16
- 7 Clarinet Polka 1:58
- 8 Omie Wise alt version 3:14
- 9 Jump Jesse 5:12
- 10 Saalo's Joy 1:44
- 11 Chicken Pox 2:57
- 12 Midnight In Rosine 5:14
