CD Review: The Johnny Staats
Project
"JOHNNY STAATS DRIVES a UPS truck by day, coon hunts at night and plays the mandolin in his spare time". These are the words of Tim O'Brien, talking about one of the most remarkable mandolin players of today. The New York Times headlined their February, The Living Arts section, "Bluegrass in a Big Brown Truck. A mandolin picker is hailed as a master, but he's keeping his day job." Johnny has lived his whole life in Jackson County, West Virginia, where at the age of seven he started to play mandolin. The whole Staats family are musically, mother Betty plays piano, father John guitar, sister Missy picks the banjo and Johnny also plays guitar and fiddle. After graduation Johnny pursued a musical career and studied music in California. After moving to Nashville where he stayed with John Rich (who played in Tanya Tuckers band), Johnny found that he couldn't make a living at it and went to work for UPS in 1988. Wire & Wood is a remarkable project, which features Staats impeccable mandolin playing and expressive vocals, bringing together a host of tip-of-the-tongue names into the proceedings. Kathy Mattea, Sara Evans, Jon Randall, Tim O'Brien, John Cowan add scintillating harmonies. Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Jim Hurst, Scott Vestal, Tammy Rogers, Ron Sowall, plus the aforementioned O'Brien and Cowan contribute their crisp picking to the creation of Wire & Wood. Solid bluegrass at its best, there are 10 tracks with the additional bonus track of John 'Barty' Jam (public domain) an unrehearsed rendering of the classic John Hardy. Johnny Staats who creates a stir with his own liquid instrumental Mandolin Meltdown writes six numbers. Billy Edd Wheeler's Coal Tattoo tells of the ingrained tattoo of the underground worker, who has fought against the d`angers that could have easily ended his life. Staats embraces a favourite facet of his life with one more of his own instrumentals, Legend Of The Ghost Coon, while the title track tells of the pleasure that the Wire & Wood brings at the end of the day, when the chores are done and the neighbours call. Some excellent tracks here with Escape From Taiwan referring to when Staats toured Taiwan with a band and he says "The only song those people wanted to hear was Old McDonald's Farm, it was just awful!" Larry Cordle now famous for Murder On Music Row, co-writes on the thought provoking You Can't Take It With You When you Go. Mark Truman Henley's Timbuktu imparts a peacefulness and Staats own Jessica's Lullaby (written for his daughter) has the gentleness of an attentive father. Wire & Wood is an album of down-home excellence that I strongly recommend asa buy. Graham Lees, Dewesbury, W.Yorks Write to | Website
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By Graham Lees