Lonesome River Band’s Sammy Shelor has set his banjo down for the day. He’s lending his engineering and producing skills to R&B/ gospel artist Vanessa Nichols’ new album, which is being recorded at Mountain Fever Studios in Willis, Va.
“We’re trying to get the first single done today, and we’re just getting started,” Shelor says. July has been an eventful month for Shelor. LRB’s latest LP, “No Turning Back,” enjoyed its third month at number one on Bluegrass Unlimited’s Top 15 Albums Chart,” while their song “Like A Train Needs a Track” tops the Top 30 Hot Singles Chart. Shelor found out about the coups via e-mail from Bluegrass Unlimited. “It is excited to be recognized for your work and I’m really pleased with the album and the configuration of the band right now,” Shelor says.
How did you celebrate having both the number one bluegrass album and single in July? We haven’t celebrated too much. If it stays up there six or seven months, then we’ll really celebrate.
What’s been the key to keeping LRB’s sound consistent through various lineup changes? I’ve been in the Lonesome River Band for 19 years. The younger people that are coming up now listened to what I did 18, 19 years ago and are learning from that. So they kind of learn that style of music through the older CDs we did. So you look for people who’ve grown up on it or have that same sort of feel. (Current LRB singer/mandolin player) Andy Ball, for instance had never listened to LRB, but when I heard him play and sing I knew he fit the mold very well.
How so? It was the style of his playing. He grew up listening to Jimmy Martin, and Jimmy Martin had a certain feel and energy to his music that we learned from, all the guys that have been in the Lonesome River Band. He had the same influences that we did.
You mentioned younger bluegrass musicians. In 2009, what is it about bluegrass that’s still attracting new fans and players? I think in bluegrass, it’s the simplicity that draws people in, no matter their age. If they want to understand the music, hear the lyrics, feel the energy…bluegrass has all of that. What we do is very simple melody-wise and vocally. Our signature is the energy we put into it—it’s almost an R&B or rock ‘n’ roll downbeat—so we put kind of an edge to it, and that appeals to the younger crowd. But it also appeals to our older fans and they’re the ones who’ve been buying it for 25 years. We have to continue to please them, but we also need to look for fans for the future.
What are some of your favorite non-bluegrass artists? Stevie Ray Vaughn and a group that was around back in the early-90s, Col. Bruce Hampton & The Aquarium Rescue Unit. I listen to about everything but bluegrass. To me there are only two kinds of music: good and bad.
Your grandfather made you a banjo out of a pressure cooker thing when you were a kid. Do you still have it? Absolutely. I was four years old. My grandfather had bought a banjo in the ’60s; it was a Bacon & Day, a real ornate banjo with a lion’s head carved in the heel with ruby eyes and had all this abalone inlays and stuff. I was intrigued by the look and sound. So when I showed an interest in the banjo he decided he’d build me a smaller scale banjo that I could hold and play. It had a tin head. He whittled the neck out—it didn’t note out perfectly but it was playable. We went out to the local tractor supply company and got bolts to make the brackets out of and used clothes hanger wire. The pressure cooker was kind of like the bands around the outside and he built a wood rim on the inside. I learned my first two songs on that.
Lonesome River Band plays the Indigo Bluegrass Festival Aug. 1. The Indigo Bluegrass Festival runs July 31-Aug. 1 at the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium. Tickets are $20 for Friday, $25 for Saturday or $35 for a weekend pass.
Call 864-582-8107 or visit www.indigobluegrassfestival.com for more information.
Or check out www.lonesomeriverband.com for more on Lonesome River Band.
