Kentucky's Barrenhart expertly blends Celtic and Bluegrass
As a rule, I concentrate on purely local bands and artists, but every so often I will venture out past the city limits. Today’s discussion takes us three hours north to my home state of Kentucky, the birthplace of bluegrass music.
There you will find Barrenhart, as fine and well-seasoned a bunch of performers as I have ever known. Their album, Celticgrass, as the name suggests, manages to straddle the line between Old World and New in a way many attempt and few ever get right.
It’s understood, of course, that Celtic music is the progenitor of bluegrass, and it isn’t uncommon to hear a modern bluegrass band occasionally belt out an old Irish or Scottish standard.
It is slightly less common, but by no means unheard of, for a Celtic band to feature a recognizably bluegrass tune in their set. By and large though, despite the direct line relationship between the two styles, a band is either one or the other.
Barrenhart, consisting of Hazel Johnson, Masako Yamashita, David Foster, and Greg Cutcliff, is one of the few bands that manage to seamlessly blend both styles in to all that they do.
The track list of Celticgrass is replete with familiar old Irish titles like “The Old Dun Cow,” “Rambles of Spring,” “Drowsie Maggie” and “Tam Lin,” but the execution of those tunes is unmistakably bluegrass and, more poignantly, unmistakably Kentucky.
Trad Irish, Appalachian string band, bluegrass ensemble, any of those are accurate descriptions of the band’s sound, but no single one completely defines the band which just serves to reinforce the notion that Barrenhart is a genuine (and very successfully accomplished) synthesis of styles.
The production quality (courtesy of David Barrick of Barrick Recording Studio, Glasgow, KY.) is superb and was accomplished with minimal overdubbing. Indeed, it is a testament both to the producer and the band that the overwhelming majority of the album was done in single takes, recorded in the round (which is to say all the musicians were seated in a circle, in one room, playing live.)
The instrumentation is standard to the style, with fiddle, mandolin, guitar, and bass. Guest artist Troy Mimms provides percussion throughout. Additionally, the Scottish chanter is used to great effect on “Hector the Hero” and the inclusion of two bagpipe tunes (beautifully performed by Greg) secures the band’s Celtic credentials.
The group’s successful melding of various traditions gives them an almost chameleon-like ability to move from festival to festival without being pigeonholed in a particular niche.
There is certainly a good deal of overlap between fans of Celtic, bluegrass and old time music, but Barrenhart moves beyond that overlap in to a realm of broader appeal than their more genre-specific peers.
To date the bulk of their performances have been somewhat further north than the Scenic City, but their growing success and Chattanooga’s expanding collection of folk festivals mean it’s just a matter of time before the band’s live performances are a little more accessible to the local crowd.
In the meantime, Celticgrass is available via their website at barrenhart.com along with extensive biographical notes and pics, and their YouTube channel features a number of excellent performances.
Fans of the various genres mentioned here in addition to Americana, roots, and other associated styles will find much to love in this twelve song collection.