MP3 Casey and Chris and the Two-Stringers - Get Along Girl
This sister and brother team delivers hard driving traditional bluegrass with a youthful point of view, fresh original material, and classic sibling harmony.
13 MP3 Songs
COUNTRY: Bluegrass, FOLK: Traditional Folk
Details:
Read REVIEWS of this CD at: https://www.tradebit.com
With their new release Get Along Girl Casey and Chris and the Two-Stringers emerge onto the bluegrass scene as a significant and surprising new presence. Fans may think they know these two from the years they’ve spent playing with their parents, Red and Murphy Henry, or from their stints in other bands--Casey with Tennessee HeartStrings, Chris with Dave Peterson and 1946 and Audie Blaylock and Redline. But as this disc demonstrates, their music is nothing like what they’ve done before, yet it perfectly reflects their personalities and musical tastes.
The group of musicians assembled here seamlessly blends to bring to life the mostly original material introduced on Get Along Girl. Casey demonstrates why she is earning notice for her powerful banjo picking, which is strongly Scruggs and Crowe influenced. Chris, the top Monroe stylist of his generation, lays down some astounding, instantly recognizable performances. Joining them are elegant and tasteful guitar player Tyler Grant, who appears regularly with the Two-Stringers, and the incomprable Missy Raines on bass. Shad Cobb also adds his powerful fiddle to the mix on several tunes.
Seven of these thirteen tracks are self-penned. Chris’s prolific songwriting maintains the flavor of early-‘50s bluegrass, while exhibiting a refreshing twist of melody and lyric. From the sibling duet “One Foot In The Graveyard,” to the classic call and answer of “Change Of Heart,” to the epic tale of war and folly in “Counting On The Stars,” these stories speak to your heart, as well as to your head. Carefully selected material from other writers includes Florida bard Will McLean’s “Hold Back The Waters,” about a 1920s flood caused by a Katrina-like hurricane, and Sally Jones’s “Sound I Hear,” about a pioneer on the Canadian prairie trapped in a less-than-storybook marriage.
Bringing as much notice as their picking is their singing. For as long as bluegrass and country music has been around, sibling duets have thrived. Casey and Chris’s vocal blend results from a lifetime of singing together, listening to the same music, and striving toward a unified musical vision. That vision, brought to fruition with Get Along Girl, is of a fresh sound, different from anything on bluegrass radio today. This album promises to be the first of many. Casey and Chris are just getting started. Won’t you join them for the journey?
Casey Henry, born in Gainesville, Fla., relocated to Winchester, Va., with her family when she was eight. She started playing bass at the age of twelve, and joined her parents’ band at fourteen. A year later she took up the banjo and never looked back. Throughout high school and college Casey played with several local Virginia bands and taught banjo in Charlottesville. Upon graduating from the University of Virginia in May 2000 with a BA in English and Women’s Studies, Casey put out her first banjo CD, “Real Women Drive Trucks,” which was greeted with much critical praise.
Since relocating to Nashville, Tenn., in early 2001 Casey has played with Uncle Earl, the Jim Hurst Band, June Carter Cash, and Tennessee Heartstrings, who released one CD in 2004, “New Strings, New Hearts.” She has taught one Murphy Method instructional video called “Melodic Banjo.” Casey’s writing has been published in several music magazines, including Bluegrass Unlimited, Banjo Newsletter, and Bluegrass Now, and she gives banjo lessons in Nashville.
Chris Henry started playing mandolin when he was nine and added the guitar a couple of years later. At age twelve he joined Casey in their parents’ band, playing up and down the east coast. They recorded two projects as a family and he also played on Casey’s “Real Women Drive Trucks” CD. In high school Chris took up drums and put together a rock band called the Bends. They played loud, fast, and wrote all their own material.
Chris moved to Nashville in late 2003 where he has worked with several bands including Dave Peterson and 1946, and Audie Blaylock and Redline. Chris concurrently worked on his own musical projects, including a CD entitled “Monroe Approved,” produced by Butch Baldassari, of original and Monroe tunes, which will be released sometime this year. Much of Chris’s time is spent composing and writing songs, and he has produced several rap CDs for himself and others in his home studio. He has recorded one instructional video for the Murphy Method, “Bill Monroe Style Mandolin.” He also gives lessons on mandolin and guitar in Nashville.
Tyler Grant graduated from California Institute of the Arts in 2000 with a degree in instrumental music performance. There he studied with such luminaries as Miroslav Tadic, Stuart Fox, Larry Koonse, Wadada Leo Smith, and Charlie Haden. He participated in master classes with Christopher Parkening and Dusan Bogdanovic. A tasteful and versatile guitarist, Tyler’s musical expertise covers such styles as bluegrass, old-time country, rock, folk, jazz, r&b, and reggae. A native of San Diego, Calif., Tyler now lives in Nashville, Tenn., where he has spent past years on tour with international acts Adrienne Young and Little Sadie, April Verch, and Abigail Washburn. He appears regularly with the Drew Emmitt Band.