Search - Joe Ross :: Festival Time Again

Great songs and each one is different

Eadsey | 07/25/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Great songs and each one is different. Joe Ross tells a good story and he knows how I like story songs. I like Joe's voice the best. He has the best musicians with him, and most all are my buddies. I don't know Bryan Bowers and a couple more. Joe is multi-talented, and I'm thrilled to write this review. He has a lot of talent. I really like Desert Grave, Blood Red Roses, Home in Old Virginia. I like them all, especially because they are so different. Each song has its own tune and beat. Most bluegrass albums sound the same from beginning to the end, where the music is over cooked to where you can't hear the lyrics because the pickers are too busy behind the singer. I can hear Joe's lyrics good and plain. Hotqua Nights is a real good Instrumental... Joe Ross is young and has a great future ahead. I wish him more good luck than he can stand. I sure hope he keeps doing just what he is doing.... Pete Goble, Rockwood, Michigan"

Festival Time Again

Joseph E. Falletta | San Diego, CA, USA | 10/09/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Joe Ross is a man of many voices and talents. Known to many of us for his insightful reviews in Bluegrass Now, here he shows off a delightfully different side of himself as musician, arranger, and composer.

There's a good mix of sounds and styles here: the very appealing and energetic title cut and the sizzling "Many A Blue Moon" are two fine straight-ahead driving bluegrass cuts to watch out for. Joe dabbles in Calypso with the charming "Good Deeds." "HotQua Nights" is a very melodious and haunting instrumental that conjures up images of a Gypsy dance with its creative lead work on hammered dulcimer and fiddle. "Pitch Black By The Ton" hearkens back to Woody Guthrie with its sad tale of the final hours of the men trapped in the Sago Mine Disaster. "Through Heaven's Gate" winds up the album on a real upbeat note, musically and spiritually, with praise and thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life.

Joe performs lead and harmony vocals and on guitar, mandolin, bass, and hammered dulcimer. He composes on variety of topics, drawing inspiration from the news, movies, and the Bible, as well as personal emotions and experience. Joining him is a fine line up of bluegrass household names the likes of Ronnie Stewart, James King, and Scott Vestal, along with Bryan Bowers on autoharp, Radim Zenkl on pennywhistle, and Mitsuki Dazai on koto.

Tying things together very nicely is a nice liner booklet in which he writes about each cut, as well as a website to hook up with the lyrics. Barry Willis, author of "America's Music: Bluegrass" calls Festival Time Again a "delightful, enjoyable project worthy of any tunesmith or band." I couldn't say it better myself. There's a lot to like about Joe and his very able band of friends. I wouldn't be surprised to find a few of these cuts showing up at a jam or on a stage soon."

Pieces are interesting, entertaining and enjoyable. Joe Ross

gracie | US | 07/18/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'll tell you how this album makes me feel... The title track creates excitement and stirs your imagination. Listeners recall the excitement of Spring. New life, new weather, new festivals, new bands to check out, new tunes to learn, new and old bluegrass, the music we love to pick, play, sing and hear. Joe writes about this excitement level that most b'grassers experience when the weather starts to warming and the crocuses poke out their heads! YOO HOO! Time to pick! Every bluegrass band should learn this song as an opener to their first set. It's exciting, and that's what it is meant to do as it stirs up in your bluegrass bones.



Track 2 is Blood Red Roses, a soldier song that breaks your heart ... Keep a box of Kleenex close by. Good Deeds is a happy, fun and light tune. This is one of my favorites. It's 'fun' and has a great message. Not just for the kids either, but for the adults. We need to be reminded that we're not just here for ourselves. Good job JOE!



Mysterious and provocative is HotQua Nights. You feel like you are beginning on an exotic adventure and you are. The musical kind. Pitch Black by the Ton is about the recent Tallmansville mine disaster. Joe goes into the mindset of the miners, especially the line, "I was so proud the day I was hired," and that almost shocks you, because we all know what a dangerous line of work this is to be in. Joe helps us realize that the miners are a proud, poor people; but, yet, we so heavily rely on them to put their necks out there. What would we do without the coal? The miners are to be respected, to be honored. I hope this gets folks to thinking, we do really need to get that Coal Miners' Stamp project and get on board with it. You contributed lately? Listen to this song, you might be led to. I am. Shake the hand of a miner when you can. Listen to Tim Crouch's fiddle ending. Wow, stirring.



Track 6, My Home in Old Virginia, is destined to become a standard. It's great, it's about music and home, something we all relate to. Joe's message carries on in true bluegrass tradition, and you can't help but love that. Our roots where we all come from are what I felt listening to this, and I'm even from Kentucky. James King on lead vocals here does a good job, and you'll recognize his voice. Nice call.



Desert Grave is a good story song about a pioneer, who makes the desert his home and dies there. A sad tale, as described by the lines "his headboard's a faded slat" and "lonesome and forgotten in the desert hot and still, as the moon begins to rise, the coyote on the hill." ... Dry, hot, lonely. It's amazing how Joe can bring such strong feelings up with his words. Tim Crouch does a fantastic job on fiddle (my favorite instrument).



An upbeat and rousing instrumental is Goldfield. You really have to admire the bluegrass musicians. Anyone can plug in a guitar and make a loud sound. To play this instrumental, you'd better be good or it'll show that you aren't. Whether it's fiddle, mandolin, banjo or guitar, this one will take you to task. I'm not even gonna try it. If you're good though, you will.



I really liked Old Dan and Little Ann. "Where the Red Fern Grows" is the book by Wilson Rawls, that all three of my sons read as did I. Joe assumes the personality of the main character, 10-yr-old Billy, and writes the song, as if Billy, himself is singing it and telling the story. You'll adore this song, especially if you've read the book. Joe is very creative. What a "novel" idea it was. Pardon the pun.



Brokenhearted old Blue Moon and hearts are what this next number is all about. Love and breakup, disappointment and hurt. Yep.. a true bluegrass song. No murder, tho' he says he was willing to die!



Track eleven is a song called Philosophy. Just too deep for me ... Joe is reaching into the depths of philosophy and I'm not real philosophical, so he led me into the forest, and I got lost.... I liked the whistle playing and instrumentation in the song.



The last track is a good gospel called Through Heaven's Gate. You have to have at least one 'good gospel' on any project, I think, to make everyone happy and to get out the message about our Lord and Saviour Jesus. Joe emphasizes the importance of the gospel and its message. Something we look forward to, is God's promise of a place to dwell beyond this life. Thanks Joe, this song gives nothing to dread.



I would love to say here, that if you haven't followed Joe's writings or music, then you're missing out. He is a truly inspired writer, and his pieces are interesting, entertaining and enjoyable. Joe gets an A for this album....Experience this project.



Gracie Muldoon, Station Manager/Host

WORLDWIDEBLUEGRASS.COM

PO BOX 95 MARATHON OH 45145

graciemuldoon@msn.com

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