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New Music from Clarence White, Roland White, Eric White, and Herb Pedersen!!
Song List
1. Fire on the Mountain 1:10
2. Never Ending Song of Love 3:12
3. Dixie Breakdown 2:57
4. The Fields Have Turned Brown 3:12
5. Take A Whiff On Me 2:18
6. Is This My Destiny 2:44
7. Mocking Banjo 2:03
8. If You're Ever Gonna Love Me 3:13
9. Last Thing on My Mind 3:07
10. Dark Hollow 2:36
11. Soldier's Joy/Black Mountain Rag 2:09
12. Why You Been Gone So Long 3:01
13. Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms/Will You Be Lovin' Another Man? 3:06
14. I Know What It Means To Be Lonesome 2:26
15. Working on a Building 2:55
16. Rawhide 1:42
Rarely has there been a bluegrass find like these recordings. A never-before-heard concert tape of The New Kentucky Colonels (Roland, Eric and Clarence White and their good friend Herb Pedersen), recorded during a 1973 tour of Holland and then stored away for nearly four decades, these tracks sound as fresh and vital today as they did when they were originally recorded.
From the linear notes, by Roland White:
After working one year and two months as rhythm guitar player with Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys and almost four years as mandolin player in Lester Flatt's Nashville Grass, in January of 1973 I got a phone call from my brother Clarence. He said the folk-rock group The Byrds had disbanded. He had a record deal for an album with Warner Brothers. But he wanted to play more acoustic music. His manager/agent Eddie Ticknor needed a bluegrass band for a tour of Europe--would I be interested in getting our Kentucky Colonels group together again? Of course I would! But who should we call on to fill out the band? Roger Bush was in a new band, The Country Gazette. Billy Ray Latham had been playing mostly rhythm guitar in another band. What about our brother Eric to play bass? Yes, he was ready and eager! Byrds' record producer Jim Dickson suggested that we call on Herb Pedersen to play banjo, and we had our band.
We arrived in Amsterdam about noon, and were surprised to be picked up in a late 1960s Oldsmobile. Ted and his wife Nikki Boddy were our hosts and the driver was Mr. Ted Boddy himself. The Boddy family included two teenage boys, and two girls. We stayed at their beautiful old Dutch hotel, The Weichmann on Prisengracht, and across the street was a canal. We arrived at the hotel and were shown to our rooms. I ran some hot, hot water over my face and went down the winding stairs. They had a snack lunch waiting for us. They served cheeses like we'd never had. The bread was from a local bakery, baked fresh every day, and white wine. I recall that I went up to my room after visiting with the Boddys. I just crashed. The next morning there was a knock on my door. On a tray at the door was the best, strongest coffee I'd ever had and it was so good. On the tray a note read, "breakfast is on when you're ready." I bathed and went down the stairs, and had the best breakfast. More cheese, an assortment of delicious breads, jellies, eggs and that great coffee. I recall we went over a set list mid-day. We stayed at the hotel the whole week and a half, and traveled to different towns/small cities each day. The first show we did was in their little nightclub "Boddy's Inn", within walking distance, about two blocks away. Folks walked everywhere, or rode bicycles, the old and the young.
We played the concert on this recording at Het Turfschip (a large concert hall) in Breda. The sound was being adjusted during the first couple of songs but overall it sounds great; I think you'll agree! To play with my brothers again, to me was exciting, a dream come true. We had played music together since the 1950s. When we got together again it was like taking an old clock out of the attic and winding it up and tick, tick, tick, it still runs perfectly! Clarence's flatpicking was fast, accurate, clear, and ballads soulful. He could raise the hairs on my whole body, as he did to anyone who heard him. His playing has influenced all flatpickers since he began being heard, and will for generations to come. Eric's bass playing is just exceptionally great. Listen to his bass lines here. He liked playing around with rhythms, and so did Clarence. Clarence would look over at him with a grin as they played off each other. Then there is Herb Pedersen with his hard driving banjo and fabulous vocals. He blended like another brother. Because of his command of the high vocal range we were able to do some great trio arrangements Is This My Destiny especially stands out. I'm listening to it now and I've got goose bumps.
Roland White
Nashville, Tennessee
March, 2013
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