Music
Furnace Mountain
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
Rob Adams
four stars
THERE were times when this concert came close to an update of the Dillards’ Live!!! Almost!!! album with added extras. The Dillards’ Elektra records were rites of passage for bluegrass fans of a certain age and Furnace Mountain could well have the same effect on subsequent generations.
Danny Knicely’s observations on Berryville, Virginia and other quips were straight out of the Dillards school and his fluid mandolin lines, alongside David Van Deventer’s fiddle mastery, added to the whole back-porch bluegrass ethos of apparently casually-delivered brilliance.
What Furnace Mountain has that sets the group apart, though, is the sugar ‘n’ spice vocal partnership Aimee Curl and Morgan Morrison use to make vintage Carter Family songs such as By the Touch of Her Hand sound at once like ancient wisdom and a freshly minted message – and to give their own writing a gorgeous blend of strength and vulnerability.
Curl, on double bass, and Morrison, on bouzouki, are also the quietly effective rock that forms the basis for the quartet’s instrumental prowess. Van Deventer’s Inchworm Set and a tune of Morrison’s that featured phrases tossed back and forth across the stage, demonstrated the kind of inventiveness they can apply to traditional Appalachian picking styles, and Knicely’s mandolin improvisation on Ashby’s Breakdown was the sort of thing that can be dangerous if done too closely to flammable material.
With Knicely doubling on fiddle – and also percussion in the form of step dancing – there’s a richness to Furnace Mountain’s sound as well as a character that’s been passed down the generations. It all adds to the impression that they don’t just play this music, they live it.
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