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"Boston-based Americana quartet
Three Tall Pines have made a
bluegrass-savvy, roots-inspired
statement with their debut. Like any
down-home record, this CD is full of
mandolin, fiddle, banjo, dobro and
finely layered vocal harmonies on
tunes about love, heartache, women
and whiskey.
“Stillhouse Road” starts things off
upbeat (“Girl don’t you wear that
diamond ring / Don’t you wear that
thing”). “Gotta Get Paid” maintains
the pace, exorting, “Gotta get paid,
Mama / Or we ain’t paying the rent.”
Slowing the proceedings, the
beautifully arranged “Black Maria”
is a sober look at a coal miner who
fears dying before his son grows up.
In the long run, Short While Ago is
a fresh approach an enduring genre.
"
—BW,
Performing Songwriter, December 2008
"What a wonderfully vibrant piece of
work this one is!! 'Short While Ago'
by Boston country folksters Three
Tall Pines puts the genre firmly
back into contention with a blazing
album of America's finest!
Stunningly produced to deliver
maximum separation whilst retaining
that special feeling of instrumental
unity, 'Short While Ago' is bubbly,
cheery and a joy to behold. It aint
all up-lifting stuff though; in true
country tradition the songs feel
real and heartfelt so that the
emotions are tested while the senses
are swayed and soothed. Three Tall
Pines are a four-piece outfit that
play very much as one; with guitars,
mandolin, dobro, fiddle and viola
being the mainstay of their strung
armoury and with four distinct
voices to lead and harmonise, the
permutations are many and varied and
Three Tall Pines make the most of
their musical talents to ply their
trade as an amazingly robust but
gentle sounding combo.
The songs here are as good as it
gets, think Steve Earle quality but
slightly more mountainous home-town
and saw-dusty than the great man.
Without doubt Three Tall Pines have
a massive talent with words and
emotion. Their individual and
combined instrumental dexterity and
maturity ensure that the words are
aptly embellished with fine
string-driven deft touch and
empathetic feel. From mournful
through to celebratory, Three Tall
Pines produce the goods and draw the
listener into their other-worldly
musical tapestry of wash-tubs, car
tyres, barking dogs and pine needles
- I feel as though I've been
teleported into the heart of their
world and actually joined in with
their 'party' - and I aint about to
spoil it here!!
'Short While Ago' by the excellent
Three Tall Pines is country heaven;
a superbly entertaining and
rewarding musical interlude that I
didn't want to end! One thing's for
definite, with bands like Three Tall
Pines, country music and all its
sub-genre is gonna be just fine in
the future - like it or loathe it,
'country' folk music has been around
for too long to be discarded simply
cuz it aint quite musically pc.
'Short While Ago' by Three Tall
Pines proves the point and long may
these four country-ites continue to
uphold their musical heritage with
music and recordings of this quality
and depth. Anyway, I defy anyone to
keep their feet from tappin' along
to this little beauty! Mutt's nut
man, the mutt's nuts!"
- Peter J. Brown, music reviewer,
UK.
"The good ol’ boy tunes of “O’
Brother Where Art thou?” distilled
into perfect band form…
Three Tall pines is one big breath
of fresh air in an industry
struggling to find any soul in an
increasingly copycat scene, full of
poseurs, wannabes and hacks.
There “Good Ol’ timey” music, a
mixture of bluegrass and traditional
American folk, is a beautiful
mixture of heart, soul and
curiosity.
In this album is more emotional jolt
than in a thousand chickflicks, more
heart than a million Bambi’s and
more soul than the Devils secret
soul cupboard.
This is an album of unadulterated
love – love between the four band
members and love for the genre.
If you liked the Soggy Bottom Boys,
or even the songs from the Coen
Brothers instant classic, you will
adore Three Tall Pines forever…
They are the real deal, and no
mistake…"
-Andi J Chamberlain, music
reviewer, UK.
"The Three Tall Pines are from
Boston, and they are a quartet
featuring Dan Bourdeau (guitar &
vocals), Joe Lurgio (mandolin &
vocals), Gian Pangaro (bass, dobro &
vocals), Emily Rideout (fiddle,
viola & vocals) plus Chris Hersch
playing banjo on three tracks.
Very much hoedown Americana, this is
their first full length record which
has received many favourable reviews
and the band was voted regional
finalist in the Mountain Stage’s
Newsong Contest 2008 and were placed
third on the Ossipee Valley
Songwriting Competition.
It’s a true country record, borne
out of the roots with titles such as
"Bring The Wagon Home", "Stillhouse
Road", "Gospel Plough" & "Pinewood
Box" you can feel and the hear the
sagebrush blowing across these
tracks.
It’s a record that would be right at
home on Bob Harris Country, a mix of
Nicklecreek and the Dhuks, which are
no bad reference points. This is a
lively and warm record with much to
enjoy with banjo, fiddle & the
excellent vocals combining
beautifully.
Dan Bourdeau & Joe Lurgio share most
of the song writing duties and have
absorbed the history of their roots
on this admirable debut."
-Americana-UK.
"Sweet,
dirty music...I will listen
till the shine rubs off this
disc!"
- Kent Gustavson, composer and
bluegrass musician, New York, NY
"On
their debut album, Short While
Ago, Dan Bourdeau and Joe Lurgio
of Three Tall Pines don’t sing
like guys from New England. In
the way that they adopt the
sun-soaked melancholy of a
pitched southern twang, their
music is more of a restoration
than a new construction. It’s
not Americana, it’s not country
and it’s not bluegrass: it’s
more a mood and an attitude than
it is any aisle in any music
store. They are restoring to the
process of making music
something rural and agrarian
that was long ago appropriated
by a machine that turns every
vernacular into a trend and
every trend into a profit. They
are rescuing country music, and
music itself, from the
instruments to the accent, from
Toby Keith and Big & Rich; from
Sony and Columbia; from
Metallica’s struggle against the
proliferation of digital media;
from $130.00 Bob Dylan boxed
sets. On Short While Ago, the
times have indeed a’ changed,
and not for the better.
The disc opens with a banjo
playing a rich minor key vamp,
courtesy of the deft right hand
of Chris Hersch, before settling
into the warm bluegrass groove
of Stillhouse Road, before
things get more serious with
Stone Wall, where there’s
clearly more going on than urban
sprawl:
“…Times have changed since my
young life and I never thought
I’d see the day/There’s houses
in the corn field around a
fallen down barn/And the old
dirt road is paved…”
Ultimately the song offers no
resolution, just Emily Rideout’s
fiddle growing more and more
mournful. Lurgio’s mandolin, a
little lower in the mix, is rain
hesitating to fall on what’s
left of rusty aluminum roofs,
padding around looking for
anything organic, finding
nothing.
On Jenny Mule, even the beasts
of burden are rebelling:
“Pull up on those reins boy,
hold on tight/
That Jenny Mule’s as fresh as
the morning dew “
Carolina opens with Gian
Pangaro’s stand-up bass playing
a beautifully bent triplet
behind a 4/4 beat, wayward,
through the verse, before it
finds its direction in a
plaintive refrain:
“Carolina, I'm coming home to
you.”
It is literally and figuratively
where Three Tall Pines are
going, but where are they coming
from?
“New York lights and Boston
town/From Rome to Houston I've
traveled all around…”
That return is not certain:
“Left you down in Tennessee/Down
by the willow tree…I hope you’re
still there, waiting on me.”
This ends more hopefully than
does Stone Wall. Rideout carries
the band into a redemptive
chorus before a final, joyful
phrase on Lurgio’s mandolin ends
the song.
The mood stays upbeat on the
next two tracks, Bring the Wagon
Home John and Gotta Get Paid,
both gentle stompers with which
you can’t help but sing along.
The big city is lurking,
however, alien and foreboding:
“It’s a rare trip to town when
you don’t lose a bushel of
corn…”
But there are no alternatives.
The work has already been done,
as in the similar tune by the
Staple Singers. The crops have
been raised, the music has been
made, and all that’s left is to
get paid. In that, however are
traps, even a plague, as in the
drop-dead gorgeous Black Maria:
“…Going down that dusty
mine/Work a long hard day for a
nickel and a dime/Singing a song
about a poor man’s life/And pray
Black Maria pass by our house
tonight.”
Here the resignation is made
intimate by using a familiar
one-four-five progression in a
major key, while Pangaro shines
on the Dobro. Wisely not opting
for ostentatious solos, he lets
the strings ring continuously
behind the song, carrying cars
of coal back and forth and
ultimately up to brief glimpses
of Lurgio’s mandolin that
disappear as quickly as a miner
can turn back into the tunnel.
Little Suzie inverts the
sentiment of Stone Wall and
Carolina: The pleasant myths of
hearth and home remain, but the
love has moved on, to a city of
fluorescent lives and vanishing
identities:
“…Those hazy fluorescent
lights/Can blind you of yourself
at times.”
There is no return and no
reunion:
“These times, they’ve changed my
mind/From leaving here.”
Everywhere on Short While Ago
are lives changed irrevocably by
the ceaseless march of time, by
a world that is simultaneously
becoming broader and more
crowded. Lives are tugged along
by rapidly deteriorating values,
are governed and nearly torn by
the diverging poles of material
success and a very terrestrial
set of traditions and values.
These Three Tall Pines don’t let
the wind blow them one way or
another: their roots are too
strong. They’ll take the gold
from the muddy river, but
they’re ready for the Pinewood
Box, as well. They remain in the
center, report and feel. What
they have made is the most
intimate, most democratic form
of art: something that doesn’t
govern too strongly the visceral
reaction a listener will have,
but rather allows the listener
to feel along with it. "
- G. W. Mercure, Motif
Magazine
"Eyes closed,
Bourdeau and Lurgio
drew the audience
in...[they] had all
of us tapping our
feet together,
breathing in rhythm
with every song.
The fiddle swirled
gently...mandolin
and guitar notes
wove their way...the
bass, strong and
heart-wrenching,
travelled up from
the floor,
supporting the whole
band. They sang
with wisdom,
introspection, and
emotion of
octogenerians
looking wistfully on
their world...“
- Sarah Bidinger
(fan), The Cowl,
November 2008
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