Published on Mar 5, 2001
There is a certain mentality that says if you’re going to spend
your life doing something, do one thing and do it well. It’s plain
from the liner notes of
Always In Style that the late John Duffey did one thing
very, very well. John Duffey played bluegrass, and in the words of
bluegrass historian and writer Dick Spottswood, “he was a bloody
genius”.
Indeed. Those five words summarize it, pretty damn well. Duffey
was a brilliant mandolin player, a brilliant vocalist, and a keen
musical mind.
Always In Style is a look back on his long career with two
seminal modern bluegrass bands, the Country Gentlemen and the
Seldom Scene, covering from the mid nineteen-sixties all the way up
until Duffey’s death in 1996. Sugar Hill has brought out what is in
effect the definitive history of one of bluegrass’ great
musicians.
The sound of this recording is excellent. Engineering and
production are minimal, so as to bring out the clear sound of the
music, even to the point of hearing string buzz and echoes on the
mandolin playing. One of the biggest pitfalls in engineering any
acoustic music is to sanitize the personality out of it, but
producer Fred Jasper and remastering engineer David Glasser avoid
that pitfall completely.
Always In Style is a joy to listen to from an audiophile’s
viewpoint, pure and simple.
Duffey’s performances are, plain and simple, jewels. His arching
tenor, almost a counter-tenor, is sparkling, with notable
performances on “I Haven’t Got The Right To Love You” and “Let
Mother Nature Have Her Way” being truly outstanding examples of
bluegrass vocals. (How in the HECK do those guys sing that high?)
As for his mandolin – well, the liner notes tell stories of how
Duffey preferred singing to mandolin playing and rarely, if ever,
practiced mandolin off-stage. As someone who plays a string
instrument, albeit fumblingly, I think if he wasn’t dead I’d have
to smack him. If his mandolin sounded that good without practice,
I’m jealous.
My sole complaint with this album involves, of all things, how
Sugar Hill is marketing it. Their web site claims that Duffey is
the first person to ‘put a modern spin on traditional bluegrass’.
That may be so, but
Always In Style is not newgrass or fusion or anything other
than traditional, Bill Monroe-style bluegrass. (One cover of Eric
Clapton’s “After Midnight” in flatpicking style does not a newgrass
CD make, though damn, it’s a lot of fun to listen to).
A minor quibble, though. For the bluegrass fan, for the
traditional music enthusiast, or just as an introduction to
Americana music,
Always In Style is, indeed, definitely in style.