I HAD HEARD OF ALAN MUNDE (rhymes with Al Bundy) from his days with the Flying Burritto Brothers and Country Gazette but I had heard very little of his music, so I went to the Junction expecting a typical hard driving bluegrass banjo performance. What I heard, however, was an infinitely more subtle performance with Alan giving a laid back but virtuoso banjo performance ably assisted by Joe Carr on guitar and mandolin.

Joe Carr and Alan Munde at Rainford
Photo D.Brandon copyright © NWBN

The performance was not built solely around Alan Munde’s banjo but featured Joe Carr’s excellent singing and the dry humour of his introductions. Talking to Joe after the show, he said that they played to a wide variety of audiences and they tried to make their shows entertaining to a broad range of people. Based on the performance I saw they definitely succeeded!

Their songs mostly had a country-type flavour but covered a wide variety of moods and topics. There were sentimental songs, like the touching Hound Dogs Never Die which told of the death of a young boy’s hound dog and compared it to what would happen when the boy’s father eventually died. There was a lot of humour including The Great Joe Bob which told how an American college footballer turned bad.

They also covered many styles. As well as bluegrass numbers there was a touch of western swing with Floyd Tillman’s I’ll Keep On Loving You and was old time with Milwaukee Blues from Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers. There were some jazz influences in Tumbleweed as well as some modern folk in the gentle finger picking which accompanied Wildflower Moon.

I liked that fact that many of their songs related to their home area of Levelland, West Texas. This is a rural area concentrating on arable farming, so we had songs such as Sweet Alice Chambers, about the dust bowl of the thirties; a song to a tractor and an ode to the local tumbleweed, which Joe reckoned had a mind of its own and ganged up on passing motorists or farmers. Finally came the hilarious Welcome To West Texas, a song about the local weather which would make even Manchester’s weather seem balmy. I liked the line that referred to the mornings that were so cold you had to get up and chip the livestock off the fence.

One of the highlights for me was the Tennessee Waltz, in which Alan included some terrific breaks with parts of the melody played on harmonics. I’m not a banjo player but I was amazed at the way he switched between open strings, fretted notes and harmonics with no discernible variation in the dynamics. My banjo playing friends tell me this is hard.

Moving on to Alan’s playing: As a non player I found his playing delightful and tasteful at all times. He is obviously incredibly skilful but it was the music which came across to me not the ‘cleverness’ of the execution. Some people may have preferred the drive of a banjo playing as part of a traditional bluegrass band. But I think Alan’s performance was equally exciting and entertaining and ideally suited to the material performed.

He played tunes ranging from a tribute medley of Scruggs tunes, old time fiddle tunes like Sally Goodin’, Bill Cheetham, Devil’s Dream and Cripple Creek, through to a tongue in cheek banjo flamenco tune. Joe Carr provide basic backup guitar for most of the tunes but on occasions showed some fancy picking. He also played some good mandolin including a Monroe style mandolin blues.

Alan and Joe both lecture in the Music Department of South Plains College in Levelland, Texas and they have published a book on their local country music called Prairie Nights To Neon Lights. This is published by the Texas Tech University Press and is available from on the internet at $24.50

This was a great night which provided a pleasant variation from the usual bluegrass bands. I saw the Del McCoury Band at the Liverpool Philharmonic a couple of weeks ago (reviewed in this issue) and in these two concerts I saw the very best of bluegrass from two very different angles. I’m all in favour of a broad approach to our music and Alan Munde and Joe Carr helped us take a welcome diversion from the traditional bluegrass format.

Pete Mackie, Formby

(Pete is Consulting Editor - | Write to Peter | Web page | )

Photos copyright © North West Bluegrass News. Please ask permission to use them.

1st July 1999