Corvus Records CD 006. PO Box 19655, Vancouver, BC

Songs: Up In The Woods / Indiana Firefly / Bluegrass Signal / The North Shore / Ponies In The Forest / Eighth of February / Johnson Warhorse / Nesser / The Nootka Blues / Alexandra Waltz / Low Gap / Greenwood

Personnel: John Reischman (mandolin); Todd Phillips (bass); Gabe Witcher (fiddle); Jim Nunally (guitar); Dennis Caplinger (banjo, fiddle); Scott Nygaard (guitar); Nick Hornbuckle (banjo); Rob Ickes (dobro); Kathy Kallick (guitar); John Miller (guitar)

By Larry Carlin
Note: This review did not appear in the hard copy version.

John Reischman doesn’t talk a lot. And you may not even know him by name. But most of you have seen him before. For over 20 years he has played mandolin in the great San Francisco Bay Area bluegrass band the Good Ol’ Persons. In the early 80s he spent some time in the Tony Rice Unit with bassman Todd Phillips. He has toured and recorded with countless others, and lately he has played some with the duo Jones and Leva. For the past few years he has been living in Vancouver, British Columbia, and this winter he will be doing some shows with banjo master Bill Evans and Friends. A few years back he released his jazz/swing CD North Of The Border, and now he has a new recording called Up In The Woods.

Like his first recording, Up In The Woods is an all-instrumental collection, and every song was written by John. This time around he explores more of his old-time and bluegrass roots, and with the help of some great players as well as co-producer/engineer/guitar-picker Jim Nunally, John has produced one fine CD. He may not have a lot to say verbally, but he doesn’t have to. He lets his fingers do the talking for him.

The first song and title cut, Up In The Woods, is an up-tempo bluegrass number that sets the tone for what follows. Indiana Firefly is a slow, bluesy song that was inspired by his first trip to Bill Monroe’s bluegrass festival in Bean Blossom, Indiana. Having grown up in Northern California, John had never seen lightning bugs before. Bluegrass Signal is a song that most folks in the SF Bay Area are familiar with, as it is the theme song for Peter Thompson’s weekly bluegrass show of the same name and it was a “commissioned” piece. The North Shore isa slow, haunting song inspired after the death of bluegrass legend Monroe. Ponies In The Forest features just mandolin and guitar, with the latter played by John’s sometime duo partner, John Miller, and Reischman wrote it after being in a train derailment (bluegrass pickers find inspiration wherever they can, but this is not a recommended experience). The Eighth of February is an up-tempo tune with some fancy guitar work by Scott Nygaard, and Johnson Warhorse features the nice twin fiddles of Gabe Witcher and Dennis Caplinger. Often John gets ideas for songs while going for walks (more preferable for inspiration than train wrecks), and that is where the songs Nesser and The Nootka Blues came from. Alexandra Waltz is a slow number that is just John on mandolin and his longtime bandmate Kathy Kallick on guitar. Low Gap ramps the tempo back up to bluegrass speed, and the final cut is a pretty song called Greenwood.

When John Reischman was growing up in the sticks in Northern California, he used to go play up in the woods near the house where he lived. If you want to have a pleasurable listening experience – or it you just want to hear what quiet John has to say, than you will want to go play Up In The Woods over and over again yourself.

Larry Carlin, Sausalito, San Francisco.|  Write to | Larry's Web site |

1st Jan 2000