BILL AND THE BELLES  

RING TRUE!

BARTLETT, TN, HOUSE CONCERT  

JULY 6, 2018

L to R: Kalia Yeagle, host Mike Albert, Helena Hunt,

hostess Lisa Albert, Kris Truelsen, Karl Zerfas

     WE WERE THRILLED TO LEARN that a relatively new old-time music group was passing through West Tennessee, and that friends Mike and Lisa Albert were going to host a house concert for them. On this hot, sultry and typical summer day in the Memphis area, we did a little GPS work, and after a few missteps, we found our way to the music. Mike and Lisa had prepared their home with lots of chairs, delicious food, and beverages. The band was somewhere there tuning up for the concert. Waverly, the beautiful and friendly family dog, did his part with tail-wagging and friendly visits with the audience.

Waverly

     At the appointed hour, three young, talented East Tennesseans (actually, one was from Alaska, not a bad place to be at this time of year) stood before us with fiddle, guitar, banjo, and upright bass poised and ready. From the first note of the first song, we knew these folks had honed their craft and knew their chops. BILL AND THE BELLES delighted the sold-out crowd for the next two hours (with an intermission for snacks, chatting and CD sales) with music that took many of us 'way on back to the beginning of old-time, bluegrass and country music. Living in and around Johnson City, TN, and having been exposed to the old-time and bluegrass music program at East Tennessee State University (ETSU), Bill and the Belles have been immersed in the "'way back when" music of the turn of the 20th Century and up to the '30s and '40s. Bill and the Belles are honoring what has become known as the Knoxville Sessions from 1929. They do it right! Let's hear it for traditional!

 

Kalia, Karl, Kris, Helena

Kalia, Karl, Helena

    Traditional music lives today! A former host at Mississippi Public Broadcasting (MPB) with a regular Saturday night folk and bluegrass show called "Grassroots," Mike Morgan, always had a segment of his show called a "scratchy-disc" set. He would play the music from the old recording machines with their knocks, pings, hisses and scratches. People loved it, with all its imperfections created in making the recordings. Currently, Martin Fisher, of the Center for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), in Murfreesboro, brings his old-time equipment and wax cylinders to Breakin' Up Winter, an annual old-time music feast at Cedars of Lebanon State Park, Lebanon, TN, about 30 miles east of Nashville. Breakin' Up Winter is always the first full weekend of March.(Info at www.notsba.org). Fisher records current old-time bands and artists who hope to keep the sound like it was 100 years ago or more, with its knocks, pings, hisses, and scratches. He later sends the bands a CD of their scratchy-disc recording. Radio was in its infancy back then, and people were fascinated by hearing what could come out of a piece of furniture sitting there in their living rooms. It was clearly another day and time...Sigh!

     We need to introduce Bill and the Belles and tell you what we heard at their concert. The band is Kalia Yeagle (fiddle and vocals), Kris Truelsen (guitar and vocals), Helena Hunt (banjos and vocals), and Karl Zerfas (upright bass). They have CDs, YouTube, Facebook, and the Web at www.billandthebelles.com. Their newest CD on Jalopy Records (gotta love that!) is due out in August of 2018.

     Our moms and dads, and even our grandparents would remember some of these delightful (some melancholy) tunes: Work Don't Bother Me, Old Lonesome Blues, Carolina Sunshine Girl, Oh Johnny, Put Me in Your Pocket (from WWI), The Preacher and the Bear, Three-in-one Two Step (fiddle tune), Tired of Me, Finger-Pointin' Mama Don't Ya Point That Thing at Me, Get Up and Give It One More Try, Never Get Along with You, Tuck Away My Lonesome Blues (a yodel tune), Don't Let Your Deal Go Down, Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo', Hum Your Troubles Away, The Old Smoky Mountains, Hell Amongst the Yearlings, When You Wore a Tulip (and I Wore a Big Red Rose), When Wedding Bells Chime, Good Gal I'll Be OK, I Told Them All about You, I Once Loved a Sailor (Airship), The Man Who Comes Around, Blue So Blue, Where the Shy Little Violets Grow, Salty Dog Blues/Easy Rider, Back to My Childhood Days, Paddy on the Turnpike, Pal of Mine, and the encore was...High-falutin' Newton from Idaho.

 

     Bill and the Belles are delightful and very entertaining. We hope to see them again very soon. Check them out on YouTube and Facebook. Visit their website www.billandthebelles.com  Pick up that new CD on Jalopy Records as soon as it comes out.

  

 

     A very special thanks to Mike and Lisa Albert (and Waverly) for hosting the concert! It was an amazing evening!

 

Pick away!