Chatham County Line "The Carolinian"

I wholeheartedly enjoy bluegrass music. Having thoroughly surveyed the foggy nebulous of a genre that people categorize as alternative country, it was only a matter of time before the jangle of banjos and sweet swell of fiddles lured me in.

Chatham County Line is among my favorites when it comes to bluegrass. The quartet out of North Carolina possess a sound that does not seem to belong with this current generation. The banjo, fiddle or mandolin, and guitar meld and compliment each other in a fashion that is nothing short of anachronistic. That worn feel of years past is compounded by everything from their lyrical diction to their dress.

"The Carolinian" is a wistful recollection of a providential meeting upon a train, relating an unspoken, futile love and pensive pining for what might have been. The notion that the encounter occurs on a train itself seems out of place, and couplets such as "She smiled and said 'Richmond' when I asked where she was bound/I began to wish my life away to be born in that town" inflate the old fashioned, Americana sensation. Nowadays, bands like The Head and The Heart write with a nostalgic look at our country's past ("I wish I was a slave to an age old trade/Like ridin' around on railcars and workin' long days"), but Chatham County Line songs "The Carolinian," "Wildwood," "Crop Comes In," and "I Got Worry" illustrate something beyond ruminating nostalgia. It is that unpolished and unpretentious rusticity which Chatham County Line draw from the American folk tradition that make the group so endearing.

And one more for luck...