The Doug Dillard Expedition. Live At The Fremont Hotel, Las Vegas, 1970. Floating World Records

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Best known amongst Americana fans for the two albums he released with Gene Clark in the late 1960s (The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark and Through the Morning, Through the Night) Doug Dillard was an exemplary banjo player who had first found fame of sorts with his brother Rodney in The Dillards. Tagged as hillbillies via TV shows such as The Andy Griffith (where they regularly appeared, under the name of “The Darlings”) Doug Dillard was drawn to the newer sounds coming out of Los Angeles leading to his leaving the band and hooking up with Clark. Their first album is now considered to be one of the earliest country rock albums but when Clark dissolved the union Dillard decided to carry on with what was left of the band, utilising the “expedition” part of that first album.

The Doug Dillard Expedition proved to be a short lived affair but this disc, recorded when they played support to Kay Starr in Las Vegas (billed only as “The Expedition”) is a unique time capsule, capturing them in their prime. Retaining the brilliant fiddler Byron Berline from the Gene Clark band, Dillard had recruited Roger Bush on double bass and Billy Ray Latham on guitar, mandolin and banjo and the quartet are pretty much a perfect bluegrass and old time band on the strength of these recordings. Strangely, there’s no evidence of Dillard’s dalliance with Clark aside from a frantic delivery of Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms, a song which appeared on their second album. Instead we get a heady (and well recorded, given its vintage) set of speedball instrumentals and well harmonised songs, all played with no reference to the then burgeoning country rock scene. This is much more akin to the vintage music being revived at the time by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their groundbreaking Will The Circle Be Unbroken triple album.

Anyhow, there’s so much to enjoy here as they rip through their set. Most of the songs and tunes will be familiar to anyone acquainted with the bluegrass and country canon – Uncle Pen, Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down, Take A Whiff On Me and Cumberland Gap all get an outing – and at times the playing is quite incendiary. Berline’s fiddle is on fire on Orange Blossom Special while Dillard’s banjo playing on Dear Old Dixie has to heard to be believed. When they weigh into gospel as on Wicked Paths Of Sin their harmonies are quite excellent and by the time the set ends with Berline again a whirling dervish on fiddle on Lee Highway Blues, as a listener you might be quite exhausted. If at all you are interested in that intersection of tradition and new in the early days of country rock then you might want to invest in this fine recording.

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We haven’t got a clip from the album to share but here’s a short video from around the time the album was recorded.

Session Americana. The Rattle And The Clatter

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Despite having nine albums under their belt, Session Americana are not a band whose name is likely to trip off the lips in conversation. A shame really as this collective, originally formed around informal jam sessions in a pub in Massachusetts in 2003, have recorded with several well known performers such as Anais Mitchell, Kris Delmhorst, Laura Cortese and Jefferson Hamer (all of whom appear on this album). The Rattle And The Clatter is a retrospective collection, a best of if you wish, which plucks 16 songs from their nine albums so far (with a new one in the offing).

The album title comes from the second song here, a live capture of the band in a well burnished and sleek blues rock mode on Making Hay which originally appeared on a 2018 live album. From the same album, Rodney Crowell’s I Ain’t Living Long Like This is a turbo charged country rocker while another live cut (from 2011’s Live album) Doreen finds the band having fun on a rural mandolin fuelled song which recalls the likes of The Gourds. The audience certainly seem to be enjoying it as they heartily join in on this loose limbed fun number.

While the above should encourage one to check out the band live if you get the chance, the studio cuts here are all memorable also. Beer Town chugs along quite wonderfully in a manner reminiscent of the Colorblind James Experiment while Helena (written by Jefferson Hamer) is a sly mix of gothic horror and Byrds’ like harmonies and jangle guitars. The band do flit from style to style but, like musical chameleons, they always blend in.

With a basic core of Billy Beard, Jon Bistline, Ry Cavanaugh, Dinty Child, and Jim Fitting, the band have seen auxiliary members come and go and several of the songs here feature guest vocals although the liner notes don’t make clear who sings what. Nevertheless Trip Around The Sun features a female lead on a sublime song, replete with rippling strings while Love Changes Everything has Laura Cortese singing with the boys in the band on a song which recalls the heyday of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. We have to mention the opening song, Pack Up the Circus. Produced by Anais Mitchell, it sets the band’s wares from the outset. Wonderfully played, perfectly sang and rippling with a very cool country rock vibe it’s a grand start to what is an excellent album.

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Scott Ashworth. Ghosts And Broken Men

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It seems like eons ago that Blabber’n’Smoke first became aware of Scott Ashworth, a singer songwriter currently residing somewhere around Falkirk who, over the past year or so has released a steady trickle of songs in a lengthy run up to this, his debut album. Singer songwriter perhaps does him an injustice as several of these songs were far removed from the solitary pose one expects from such a description. The first one we recall hearing was The Ghost, a fine slice of gothic Americana, peopled with, well ghosts, and accompanied by some superb spectral pedal steel and cavernous drumming. We liked it then and we still do, ensconced as it is in this very impressive album.

The album opens with the horn laden lament of I Never See Colour Again. Corkscrewed (and occasionally squalling) guitar is entwined within a New Orleans like slow procession creating a fine gumbo of a song. Over this hefty chunk of southern soul stew Ashworth proclaims himself a broken man, helpless at the hands of fate. A swirling organ introduces more misery in the Band like Pity Clown which features some extraordinary guitar playing on a song which sounds as if it were birthed in the famed Muscle Shoals studios as opposed to a rain swept central Scotland.

Throughout the album Ashworth displays a deep affinity with some of the best Americana music of the past few decades but he’s at his best when he’s delving into its heyday. Learning To Be Me glistens and chimes with echoes of Gene Clark’s masterpiece, No Other, while Running From Tomorrow also has a touch of Clark in its veins. You Can’t Break My Heart delves deep into the self misery which is essential to great country music while the band, and, especially here, the pedal steel playing (courtesy of Stephen Hicken Jr.) recall the cosmic country stylings of bands such as The New Riders Of The Purple Sage. A duet with Laura Begley on Sinking Silently is also redolent of classic country rock. Reining it in to just voice, acoustic and pedal steel guitar on the restrained Love Ain’t Around Anymore, Ashworth proves worthy of writing a song which envelopes a true sense of misery. Meanwhile, Happy Man (a true misnomer given its depths of despair) grinds and gyres with a heavy Crazy Horse vibe.

Overall, Ghosts And Broken Men is quite an impressive debut and the band (Barry Frame on lead, rhythm and bass guitars and piano, Dave Cantwell on Drums, Iain Donald on bass, Steven Hicken Jr on pedal steel guitar, John Elliott on lead guitar, Andrew Alston on piano, organ and harmonica, Laura Begley on vocals and Andrew Hooley, Damian Cook and Ben Cummings on horns) are to be congratulated for some exemplary playing. Ashworth meanwhile is more than capable of mining the depths of despair and displaying a true feel for the classic sounds of primetime country rock. His voice, slightly nasal, could perhaps do with some variance but, aside from that, Ashworth has certainly delivered the goods.

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Skyrie. Ceilidh-Celi

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So, what’s a ceilidh band doing here in the American –roots music infused pages of Blabber’n’Smoke? Much of it is down to simple intrigue. Skyrie, who recently performed at Celtic Connections’ Danny Kyle stage might play traditional Scots music but two of their members have what might be termed rock’n’roll backgrounds playing with acts as diverse as Nazareth, Big Country and Shirley Manson of Garbage.

The band are composed primarily of a trio, Lesley Thompson Smith on fiddle and whistle, Jimmy Anderson on guitar and bass, and Chris Smith on drums and bodhran, but often play live with an expanded line up. Ceilidh-Celi, their latest release was Celtic Music Radio’s Album of the Week back in September of last year and having listened to it we can understand why. It’s a grand listen, even without the benefit of a ceilidh floor to get up and dance to it.

When on stage the band have been described as being “Hotter than a goat’s butt in a pepper patch!” but the album is somewhat more restrained although there are moments when it’s hard not to at least get both feet tapping furiously, not least on the boisterous Virginia Reel where the band reach out across the ocean to add some Appalachian tones. Much closer to home is the Auchtermuchty Hat Dance, the title alone enough to draw you in but an excellent fiddle tune with Thomson Smith skirling and bowing as if possessed while Chris Smith’s bodhran is assisted by his skilful full drum set up giving the tune a propulsive beat. From the start, opening with a tune called Whisky on which Thompson Smith and Anderson display their respective skills quite excellently and there’s much joy to be had when they both take their turns to indulge in short solos. However, it’s when the band are truly locking step that the tunes are most infectious. In this they are ably supported on the disc by the award winning multi instrumentalist Fraser Fifield.

With tunes indulging in most of the favourite traditional ceilidh styles – reels, military two step, Gay Gordons and Strip The Willow – this album is just about all you need for a home made ceilidh. Roll back the carpet, get the drinks in and turn it up loud.

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