Tag: Shades Mountain Air

Art, Banjo, Bluegrass, Blues, Concert, Conflict, Country Music, Folk, Gospel music, humanity, Music, Old-time music, Perfectionism, Shades Mountain Air, Songwriting, Thankfulness1 Comment

Thou Shalt Love Thy Bandmates

Gary Furr

Anyway, riding in a van for a week turned us from “Friends

and Brothers” to angry inmates who couldn’t wait to bust out.

Fifteen Years.  That’s how long Shades Mountain Air has been together, at least the core of Greg and Nancy Womble, Gary Furr, and Don Wendorf.  We have spent a couple hours a week most of that fifteen years weekly at Greg and Nancy’s house, practicing, horsing around, composing, arranging, learning and growing from one another.  We’ve only had one personnel change in all that time–Don’s son, Paul, our outstanding fiddle player, left us to move on with wife, kids, career, to Texas, and so, we were four again for a while, then found Melanie Rodgers.  Mel has added dynamic new joy to our sound, and is now a part of our 15th Anniversary Live Album that is now available.     (Go to the website store for our new CD click here!)

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Shades Mountain Air at Moonlight, 2013

The album sounds great!  We hired Fred Miller of Knodding Off Music to record and engineer our live concert.  Fred did a fantastic job and we are so happy with the result.  He captured our live sound and energy.  It sounds like us!  There is NOTHING like live music, and though it’s fun to be in a studio and monkey around with something until you get it “perfect”, there is a corresponding loss of that spark that performers-audience and a venue provide.  We did it at our favorite gig–Moonlight On the Mountain in Bluff Park in Hoover, Alabama, with Keith Harrelson, as always, handling lights and sound.

I say all this because Shades Mountain Air is more than a band.  We have become family together.  We love playing together, singing, creating, whether anyone is listening or not.  Greg and Nancy’s kids grew up having to hear us every week in their house. We have been through life crises, griefs, and changes Continue reading “Thou Shalt Love Thy Bandmates”

Art, Banjo, Christmas, Culture, Movie Soundtracks, Music, Songwriting

Visitor to Virgin Pines

Gary Furr
Scene from the movie

I have dipped my first toe into soundtrack creation for a movie.  My bandmate, Greg Womble, has written and produced a beautiful short Christmas film and is in the final edit stage of his short Christmas film, “Visitor to Virgin Pines.”

Our band was invited to do music for it, and I have to say, it is one of the most interesting undertakings I have ever done.  Mostly late at night, I sat with a banjo, guitar, mandolin, even percussion, and tried to create “moods” for scenes.  I have enormous appreciation for what people who do this face.  And yet, it is joy to do it.  I came up with some really nice instrumental stuff, not all of it chosen for the musical, but which may land in a Christmas CD.  Here’s a piece I did on the banjo called “Sugarplum Ferries” (yes, I know.  I spelled it the way I wanted to–I had the image of little boats going back and forth loaded with goodies).   “Sugarplum Ferries” Continue reading “Visitor to Virgin Pines”

Art, Culture, Economics, Environment, Modern Life, Music, Technology5 Comments

Think Globally Listen Locally

Gary Furr

Corporations are not necessarily evil in and of themselves, but the net effect can be the disappearance of everything that makes the place where you live distinctive. Got a notice from my friend Steve Norris that our friend Dale Short put us on his “Music From Home” radio program yesterday.  (LISTEN) (SMA is on the first program) Thanks, Dale!  “Music From Home” is local artists.  I appreciate that there are still programs here and there in a world in which globalized corporate mass culture (which is short for “controlled by a few people who are not always interested in the … Continue reading Think Globally Listen Locally

Art, Bluegrass, Christianity, Gospel music, Jesus, Music, Old-time music, Poverty, Prayer, Race, Suffering, Theology and Life2 Comments

“Just a Little Talk With Jesus”

Gary Furr

“Just a Little Talk With Jesus” is a famous old gospel song.  Last night, our band, Shades Mountain Air, had a grand time at the American Gospel Quartet Convention in Birmingham and sang this crowd favorite.  I knew that it was a song that black and white audiences in the South had shared since it was written.  It’s been covered by just about everybody—Bill Gaither, Elvis Presley, the Stanley Brothers, and innumerable mass choirs, quartets and Sunday night gatherings around the piano in little country churches.   (click this link to listen to the song by Shades Mountain Air) It’s so … Continue reading “Just a Little Talk With Jesus”