Carry Me Back To The Bluegrass,The Latest Album From Big Country Bluegrass
Rebel Records has announced the release of Carry Me Back To The Bluegrass, the long-awaited new album from Big Country Bluegrass.
With its first album in six years, the band delivers its own hard driving and heartfelt style of bluegrass music. Featuring twelve tracks that feel like family heirlooms passed down through generations, the album reimagines classics from Dave Evans, Carter & Ralph Stanley, and Tom T. & Dixie Hall while also including obscure numbers rarely heard, highlighting the band’s deep respect for the bluegrass heritage.
We’ve been at it a long time, almost 40 years, and it means more to us now than ever. Traditional bluegrass, the real heartfelt kind, the ‘play the melody with everything you’ve got in you’ kind. This music is in our blood and when it’s in your blood, you gotta get it out – Tommy Sells.
21 albums. 38 years. There aren’t many bands in American entertainment with that kind of record or staying power. But Big Country Bluegrass is one of those rare cases where the sheer ‘realness’ of the music shines through Kyle Cantrell of BanjoRadio.
Carry Me Back To the Bluegrass kicks off with the up-tempo title track; a hard-driving number made famous by bluegrass legend Dave Evans. Aptly named, the majority of the album has a similar nostalgic feel. Whether it’s Carter & Ralph Stanley’s Midnight Storm or little known Springtime in the Mountains, the beauty of the simple life at home and in the mountains is lauded. While life as a moonshiner may not be simple, the debut single Remember Who You Are celebrates the importance of loyalty to the family name.
At first glance, Tom T. and Dixie Hall’s Stranger in My Own Hometown might be the only song that falls outside of the theme but upon a closer look, the singer is missing the days when life was easier in his hometown. The album concludes with When There’s Nothing but the Crickets Left to Sing, another up-tempo track full of longing: Oh I miss those happy days when the bluegrass music played…
On Carry Me Back To The Bluegrass, Tommy Sells drives the band with his unique mandolin style and his wife Teresa plays guitar and sings both lead and harmony. Along with Teresa, Eddie Gill with his distinctive high lead vocals creates the unique vocal sound at the heart of Big Country Bluegrass. Additionally, Billy Hawks plays fiddle and contributes baritone and tenor vocals, newest member Daniel Martin adds banjo and baritone vocals and Tony King keeps time on the bass.
Big Country Bluegrass is committed to the roots of traditional bluegrass. In a time when artists are experimenting with the core bluegrass sound, Carry Me Back To The Bluegrass is proof that Big Country Bluegrass will always hold true to what it knows and loves.
We’ve gone through some hard times these past few years, Sells explains, referencing the band’s six-year hiatus during COVID and myriad health challenges for the band. But when life gets hard, you gotta lean on what you know best, so we got back to it, back to the business of bluegrass.
A timeless and infectious collection, Carry Me Back To The Bluegrass reaffirms Big Country Bluegrass’s role as keepers of a precious musical flame.
Download or preview the new album here.
About Big Country Bluegrass:
Founded in 1987 by Tommy and Teresa Sells, Big Country Bluegrass has earned widespread recognition for their authentic approach to Traditional Bluegrass. In 1999 the group won a contest sponsored by Martha White Flour to see who could provide the best rendition of the famous Martha White theme as featured for so many years by Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs. On the strength of that contest, the group earned a guest appearance on the Grand Ole Opry.
Each of the band’s last five releases has had a #1 song on the Bluegrass Unlimited Airplay Chart, including three written specifically for the group by the late Tom T. Hall. Based in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains along the Crooked Road Music Trail, their music resonates with audiences worldwide.
About Rebel Records:
Rebel Records is the leading independent record label dedicated to promoting and preserving Traditional Bluegrass Music. Rebel’s current roster includes Larry Sparks, Peter Rowan, Big Country Bluegrass, High Fidelity, The Kody Norris Show, Starlett & Big John, Seth Mulder & Midnight Run and Rrinaco. Known for innovation and excellence since 1960, Rebel has introduced many of the most important artists of the genre, from the Country Gentlemen and Seldom Scene to Blue Highway, Lonesome River Band and IIIrd Tyme Out. In addition to its cutting edge presence in contemporary Bluegrass, the label has also been a home for legendary traditional artists like Ralph Stanley, Del McCoury, Rhonda Vincent and Dave Evans.
