Feller & Hill
Feller & Hill and the Bluegrass Buckaroos
Blue Hill Records
4 stars (out of 5)
By Larry Stephens
Southern Indiana has produced some excellent bluegrass musicians. Michael Cleveland and Ron Stewart hail from southern Indiana...
Feller & Hill
Feller & Hill and the Bluegrass Buckaroos
Blue Hill Records
4 stars (out of 5)
By Larry Stephens
Southern Indiana has produced some excellent bluegrass musicians. Michael Cleveland and Ron Stewart hail from southern Indiana and then there’s Milan. Milan High School won the Indiana state basketball championship against Muncie Central High School in 1954, the victory being significant as Milan was the smallest town to win a state championship in the United States at that time (and still the smallest in Indiana to do so). The 1986 film Hoosiers is based on the story of the 1954 Milan team.
But bluegrassers know about Milan for another reason, because that’s the home territory of the Holt brothers of the Boys From Indiana. The original group included Aubrey and Jerry Holt, along with their uncle Harley Gabbard. Later Tommy Holt joined the group. Aubrey now appears on the road with his son and Tony’s group, the Wildwood Valley Boys.
Tom Feller is one of the clan, too, son of Judy Holt Feller and cousin to Tony. Tom was filling in on bass for WVB at the same time that Chris Hill (Gerald Evans and Paradise, Karl Shiflett, James King Band) was in the band. Both have enjoyed varied careers in music and have now become partners. Appearing on their debut CD as their Bluegrass Buckaroos (though it isn’t clear how many of them are really band members) are Brian Blaylock (lead guitar, Dobro), Cody Jones (bass vocals), the aformentioned Michael Cleveland and Steve Thomas (J D Crowe) on fiddle, and Glenn Gibson (Dale Ann Bradley, Marty Raybon) also on Dobro. Feller plays the acoustic and pedal steel guitars, mandolin, bass and sings various parts while Hill plays the banjo and sings various parts. As you would expect, the musicianship of this group is excellent.
They offer a great combination of classic bluegrass and some classic country. Many songs cross the boundary between the two genre so many times that you can’t pin them to one or the other. “Big Blue Roses” (Tom T and Dixie Hall) has a walking bass line and has a pure classic country sound. Along with Buck Owens’ hit, “Together Again,” you can hear some Don Rich in Hill’s voice, a reminder of Rich’s untimely loss that staggered Buck Owens’ career. (From Wikipedia: In a late 1990s interview, Owens said, “He was like a brother, a son, and a best friend. Something I never said before, maybe I couldn’t, but I think my music life ended when he died. Oh yeah, I carried on and I existed, but the real joy and love, the real lightning and thunder is gone forever.”)
Tom Holt wrote three of their songs. “Will Heaven Be Like Kentucky” is a Boys From Indiana number and the likeness of Feller’s voice to Aubrey’s and Tony’s voices is remarkable. “Lost Love” is a slow song that highlights a great tenor line on the chorus while “Those Old Things” will touch a chord with those of us that have a few decades of living behind us.
Who I am is gravel roads,
Pocket knives and fishin’ poles
And balin’ hay on a summer afternoon
Microwaves just can’t replace
Those hot biscuits mama made
Yes, it’s those old things that make me who I am
Yep, that about says it.
“Wasted Words” (written by Don Gibson, a hit for Ray Price) is another borrowed country song that they do well and they don’t forget gospel music. “My Lord Keeps a Record” is a well known Carl Story song that they sing to minimal accompaniment, while they move right along on the Inspirations’ “Is That Footsteps That I Hear, ” a fabulous southern gospel number.
They use new material, Mark Brinkman’s hobo story “The Old Kentucky Man,” and old material like the Delmore Brothers’ “Southern Moon” and the well used “Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar,” but they’ll touch a lot of heart
