The Track is Laid Ahead... All Aboard.
By Matt Busch
"Riding this train station to station Bought my ticket with no hesitation " -CCL
This past Saturday night's Chatham County Line show, at the Lincoln, showcased a new chapter for the band, ushering in and playing both old and new songs, leaving the audience excited for the year ahead. I had an opportunity to speak with Dave Wilson and John Teer about life and the show, but let’s offer a quick recap.
What we had was a can’t-lose lineup: Joseph Terrell of the band Mipso set the night off sharing his remarkable songwriting. Pushing beyond his lyrics, which stand on their own, is his use of non-standard tunings and melodic fingerpicking. Joseph shared a great cover of John Hartford’s “Gentle on My Mind", then moved on to several songs off his new album, Good for Nothing Howl, most notably “Persimmons”, featuring Dave Wilson on lead guitar. It’s hard to pick just one song to share here, but I would encourage everyone to listen to Cast Iron Kettle.
Throughout this opening set, I spot members of Chatham County Line (CCL) peering from backstage in what appears unharnessed excitement and anticipation. I can only imagine hometown family and friends began filling the venue, sharing waves and glances. Before long the second floor of the Lincoln began to fill. Then the house lights were dimming and the ambient glow of Edison-style stage lights filled the stage with warm hues.
Members of CCL walked out onto the stage. On the first song—Speed of the Whippoorwill—Dave Wilson stepped to the microphone, and turned classically to the side as he sang the first line. Positioning sideways like this used to make room and accommodate other instruments playing into a single vintage mic. Dave also doesn't sing these notes directly into the mic, but angles his vocal projection, putting air between the mic and his tenor notes, resulting in a clear but delicate sound as he drifts back from the mic. It’s like that. Dave is a master at controlling a microphone from being overdriven. And all the band members are seasoned at playing into the one microphone, making a CCL concert an audiophile's dream.
But there are now several mics, and the North Carolina flag once pinned behind the band has been folded away. And a new chapter is being written following Chandler Holt's (banjo/vocals) retirement. For Dave and many of the band’s members, it has included embracing some modifications and growing as an artist, expanding and both different tunings, influences, and additions to the band as you will hear later.
But what makes this story equally compelling, is how so much of this next chapter could have been taken away. John Teer ended up having a neck surgery that came with complications that took away his voice. And had it not been for a team of specialists, this next chapter might not have occurred. This is a story bigger than a recap of a night – which it could have been. But fortunately for us, the band was willing to share, providing quality responses to my questions. Who could tell it better than members of this band going through a seminal moment in their career? As a writer, we try our best to get out of the way of the story, and as such, I’m doing that now.
Talking with Dave Wilson (guitar/lead vocals)
RML: Leading into the show Saturday night, during the opener, I caught you pacing back and forth backstage with both acoustic and electric guitars. You looked eager and excited. Maybe nervous? What was going on in your head?
Dave: Usually before a show I am running my mind through the different technical things that need to be attended to - guitar changes, tuning changes, effect changes, etc. Since we do not travel with a guitar tech, all of the tuning and instrument changes are handled by the band themselves which takes some forethought. Personally, I admit that we have played enough shows in our careers that nervousness really doesn’t factor into things. Once you have spent a considerable amount of your life on a stage it ceases to be some sort of strange place, for me it is an extension of my living room.
RML: On the topic of former band member Chandler Holt’s retirement, and making new musical arrangements, how has that process gone?
Dave: We took Chandler’s retirement as inspiration to shift the focus of the band away from our acoustic single-mic roots into something that resembles the music we actually listen to when we’re not onstage. It has really become a pivotal moment in the history of all of our lives. However much I love bluegrass music I never really felt like we adhered enough to the formula to be considered a bluegrass band. I don’t sit around listening to records made in 1946 very often, there are some great albums being made today and I love that now we can use those as a clearer inspiration to our sound. We have had a blast reimagining some of the earlier material and recasting certain musical passages on other instruments. For example, I used the tuning of a banjo which is normally tuned to open G to push me into learning open G tuning on guitar. That is the tuning that I use on the electric guitar pieces in the set. Having Greg be able to play Pedal Steel in the set is awesome as well. I am a big fan of Charles Lloyd and the Marvels and love hunting down some of those sonic landscapes in the set.
Talking with Teer (mandolin/violin)
If you attended the Lincoln theatre show, you may recall the energy and stage presence of John’s work in vocals and instruments. Supported by a new brace for his violin, he played with a stronger presence than ever before. On Wildwood he took centerstage on the powerful solo. In transitioning to mandolin, Teer’s energy was palpable, plucking notes with strong and hard intonations that felt more like an attack and percussively aggressive than my memory recalled them being; making the show even more dynamic.
RML: Coming out of surgery, how did you feel about the show and playing tonight? Did everything feel like it worked okay? I recognized you were wearing a brace.
John: I actually don’t wear a brace. It's a strap that buckles in to help keep the fiddle in place so I don’t have to apply pressure with my chin to hold the fiddle. It’s called a Wickelbuckle made by Duncan Wickel. I had my neck surgery back in early November called ACDF (Anterior cervical diskectomy and fusion). The surgery was a success, and I’m happily pain-free but temporarily lost my voice as my right vocal cord became paralyzed after surgery. I worked with an incredible speech therapist/vocal coach named Audrey Walstrom and thankfully my vocal cord began to wake up, and my voice miraculously started to come back in late Dec. 2022. It was awesome and emotional that my surgeon Dr. Przybylowski and the team from Raleigh Neurosurgical Clinic were at the show. Dr. Prz is my hero and saved my career and will always be on the guest list, haha! My voice has been getting stronger ever since it started to come back and it felt great at the show.
Moving into the summer and the next chapter
I asked both John and Dave what they were most excited about this summer and coming year? One may have caught at the Lincoln show, there was a mentioned "new album" being worked on. Backstory: as some may know the guys spent time working on the George and Tammy SHOWTIME Docudrama series in Wilmington NC. In that process, they ended up meeting their co-producer for their upcoming album. This is exciting news. Regarding the album, Dave had this to say: “We worked really hard on it and are super excited for folks to hear it!” And as for any summer plans? “We’re really excited to get in front of as many audiences as we can, so far the new sounds and addition of the great Dan Hall on drums have given us some of the most responsive audiences of our career. We plan on staying up on that stage for a lot of years so hopefully we’ll make some new friends along the way. Till next time Cheers”.
Encore?
Can writers do encores? I think so. One would be remiss not to include a note on the cover in the encore set at Lincoln, where CCL ripped through the Dire Straits “So far away”. This was preceded by stage banter of recollections of great old places in Raleigh, like Sadlacks, or Beaufort's Backstreet Pub, it may have been the lead-in to one of the new songs on the album or simple banter but it made for a nostalgic moment in the night of old time fans. So thanks!
Setlist: Speed of the Whippoorwill, Carolinian, Station to Station. Queen Anne, Route 23, Bon Ton Roulet, Wildwood, Ghost of Woody Guthrie, Heaven, Company Blues, Prez Guitar, Jackie Boy, Crop Comes In, Strange Fascination, Alone in NY, She’s Got You, Way Down Yonder, Chip of a Star, So Far Away, The Traveler.Write your text here...
