Andrew Smith
The Brother Boys, founded in the late 1980s by Ed Snodderly and Eugene Wolf, are from East Tennessee. They’re still active today, performing music that has been described as “new hillbilly”.
Alana Nash characterised it as “a smart amalgam of the tongue-and-groove vocal harmony of the Wilburn Brothers, the lonesome quality of bluegrass, and the hopelessness of the Delta Blues”. A verse from Ed Snodderly’s The Diamond Stream was even included on a display at Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame.
This welcome Bear Family 2-CD release of their work features a generous 51 tracks, made between 1988 and 2022, with an equally impressive total playing time of close to 160 minutes. At a price of less than $20 USA, it’s first-rate value, too.
Tracks range from harmony singing on the honky tonk The First Time, through old-time country songs like Jordan Am A Hard Road To Travel, featuring acoustic accompaniment, and In The Shadow Of Clinch Mountain, an updated version of the Carter Family’s 1937 classic, with sympathetic guitar and fiddle backing.
The Ramshackle Shack, on the other hand, has a sound quite different from its Bluegrass progenitors or Doc Watson’s version. Band Box was recorded with Norman and Nancy Blake, and Sam Bush is featured on one track, produced by Jerry Douglas.
Variety and eclecticism undoubtedly abound in this set, with Ed Snodderly’s influences ranging from Tom Waits and Guy Clark through Johnny Cash and Loretta Lynn to old-timer Uncle Dave Macon.
Some of this music has previously been issued on now hard-to-find albums, including their 1988 debut album and two albums on the Sugar Hill label, complemented with some tracks from their 2021 comeback album. The set is the third in Bear Family’s “On the Hillbilly Highway” series (the others being by Jeannie C. Riley and Augie Meyers).
As with other Bear Family releases, the set is accompanied by a comprehensive and scholarly booklet written by an expert in the field, this time by Ted Olson, professor of Appalachian Studies and Bluegrass, Old-Time and Roots Music Studies at East Tennessee State University, and a recipient of the East Tennessee Historical Society’s (ETHS) Ramsey Award for Lifetime Achievement.
The 36-page booklet also contains a generous selection of photographs, some in color, and discographic information for each song. Ted Olson also produced the set, with Jerry Douglas, Ed Snodderly and Eugene Wolf.
The album can be ordered directly from Bear Family, Amazon (USA) and Amazon (Australia). Bear Family’s service is efficient, and their packaging is amongst the most secure for mail-order companies; and postage is free on Amazon Prime.
I highly recommend this set. Check it out on YouTube.
The Brother Boys – On The Honky Tonk Highway With The Brother Boys
