Late to the County Line

Somewhere between alt-country and bluegrass, a psychedelic hint of early-1970’s folk merges with the sound of Chatham County Line and reverberates like a wolf’s distant howl through creaking trees in the night. Too much? Maybe. But apparently while I’ve been asleep, songwriter Dave Wilson and his band have been steadily building their fanbase for over eight years with songs that sound at once dusty and dusted off.

Wilson’s voice is reminiscent of Ryan Adams’ minus the cracks, while the instrumentation seems channeled from a mountainous woods that was timbered decades ago. With producer Chris Stamey (of Yo La Tengo’s “V.O.T.E.” and Alejandro Escovedo’s “Man Under the Influence”) at the knobs, CCL manage to honor the ghost of Bill Monroe while conjuring up harmonies that would have sounded right at home in CSNY’s ranch studio. Traditional bluegrass strings blend into in the background when it’s time for the vocals to shine, but hasten to sing themselves when called forth on tracks like “I Got Worry” and “Let it Rock.” At times, the pedal steel surges up to remind us what’s good about country music, then sits back to remind us why the classic songs of that genre have lasted a generation or more, while so much of the modern stuff goes sour in months.

CCL just re-released their self-titled first album, while their fourth and most recent record is still picking up steam nearly a year after its release. The latest is titled “IV,” which might seem lazy but for the sense that a wordier title just wouldn’t fit these songs. You can stream the full record here, or download it here, or check out some of their stellar live shows at archive.org.