BELLE MONROE AND HER BREWGLASS BOYS: Belle Monroe and her Brewglass Boys

Belle Monroe and her Brewglass Boys

Belle Monroe and her Brewglass Boys

© 2007 Belle Monroe and the Brewglass Boys (837101346870)

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Hard-drivin' bluegrass: hot tunes, sparking vocals and blazing pickin'

notes

Known for “putting the dish in traditional”, Belle Monroe and Her Brewglass Boys have been surprising Bay Area bluegrass, Americana and alternative country audiences for the last 7 years with their sparkling vocals, finely tuned arrangements, inventive delivery and blazing instrumental skills. Belle Monroe has been winning fans around the world with her strong, bluesy bluegrass and swing vocal style for the last fifteen years. A veteran of the San Francisco folk, swing and roots music scenes, Belle rounded up a bunch of her favorite local pickers to play some old bluegrass standards and imbibe a brew or two… thus the Brewglass Boys were born. Singer and mandolinist Ted Silverman, along with Tom Drohan on the bass, and Belle on guitar form the core rhythm section. The incendiary steel guitar of Rick Hendricks adds fire and flash to the music. Jordan Klein picks a hot 5-string banjo and sings a few choice numbers, and Brewglass “boy,” Diana Greenberg, rounds out the group on fiddle.

The band regularly performs throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, including Slims, the Sweetwater and the Mystic Theater in Petaluma, and has a regular monthly slot at the SF bluegrass hotspot, Amnesia.

In July of 2006 the Brewglass Boys made it to the finals of the Rockygrass Bluegrass Festival Band Competition, and were selected as a California Showcase Band for the 2008 California Bluegrass Association’s Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival.

Belle and her Boys have wowed crowds at the San Francisco Bluegrass and Old Time Festival every year since 2001 and have also performed at the Brookdale Bluegrass Festival, the Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival, the 2002 and 2007 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festivals in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park the 2008 Strawberry Music Festival and will be featured at the 2009 Wintergrass Bluegrass Festival in Tacoma WA.

reviews

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  • Great Fun!
    author: Rhonda Berney

    I caught part of this band'd fine set at this year's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in SF. The band's energy and humor come through on this CD.

  • I want my CD back!
    author: Mandy

    Unfortunately, I made that mistake of letting my father borrow the CD and I haven't seen it since. I LOVE IT and evidently so does my father. Feel good music that I can turn up loud! It is hard not to smile and have a good time when listening to Belle Monroe and her Brewglass Boys. Kudos to the band for a job well done!

  • For Whom Belle Tolls
    author: Matt Kramer, Pacific Sun, Marin County, CA

    The cheekily named Belle Monroe and her Brewglass Boys have at last—after a decade or so of performing around the Bay Area and beyond—produced their first full-length recording. Sharing its name with the six-piece band, the CD is a genuine homegrown product: It was mastered across the bay in Richmond, and recorded in the heart of Marin at Icehouse Recording, on Fourth near Shaver Street in San Rafael. A small studio audience gives the 16-song set even more of a hand-made aura and, according to the liner notes, the recording session was akin to jamming at a party: making music, having fun with friends and passing around a bottle or two. The disc definitely has a good-time vibe to it. Mirth and musicianship mingle to color quite a few of the bluegrass tunes, originals and covers that include compositions from the Reverend Gary Davis to Peter Rowan and Bill Monroe to Gillian Welch to Bob Dylan. The majority clock in around the three-minute mark, with plenty of good, clean picking packed into each and every song. True to the few times I've seen this band perform live, Belle and her boys—one of whom is a girl—share the lead vocal chores, and also harmonize mighty well together when called for. Belle has some fun singing lead on "The Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me." Actually, the entire band's having fun on this one, contributing to the vocals and taking the tempo from lope to gallop and back again. The Russian/Gypsy homage in this tune, complete with a shouted "Hey!" works perfectly. Yet this band is far from a one-trick pony. There are serious songs, bluegrass-befitting doses of lonesome, and a waltz replete with trembling mandolin and weeping violin. And then there's the eerie and gorgeous take on the Monroe/Rowan nugget "Walls of Time," which has been playing in my head off and on for about three days now. Belle's plaintive and strong vocals rise above the lushly arranged and perfectly paced rhythms, taking me back to Peter Rowan's performance earlier this year. The loud and powerful acoustic guitar chords contribute emotion to this potent rendition, which is also enhanced by a short, stuttering run on the resophonic guitar. At 4:26, this haunting track is tied for longest song on the disc with a cover of Gillian Welch's "Tear My Stillhouse Down," a song I love in spite of the chills it sends down my home-brewer's spine. There's plenty of fiery fiddling and banjo picking along the ride, too, from the first fretted chords of "Fire on the Mountain" to "Leaving Wins My Heart" and its odd take on romance and relationships and right on through the "Trainwreck of Emotion" that brings this overdue recording to a crashing close.

  • Killer Stuff
    author: David G

    Just got my copy and felt compelled to write. This stuff is so dead on and genuine. The perfect blend of American roots music with just enough modern sensibility to make it interesting. Belle’s voice cuts right through you. She’s a treasure. It really is a party in a box.

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