BLUEGRASS TODAY - Nov. 14, 2011 Steve Gulley to Dale Ann Bradley / By John Lawless
Steve Gulley has announced his departure from Grasstowne to fulfill a long-time dream of working regularly with Dale Ann Bradley. He will be singing and playing guitar with Bradley’s band, working by her side on duo shows as well.
Steve tells us that both of them are thrilled with their new partnership, one that has been some time in preparation.
“It’s an exciting time for me and Dale Ann as we finally get to do something we’ve wanted to do for many years. We’ve been singing together for over 26 years, and are as close as brother and sister on and off the stage. We feel strongly that the timing is right for us and the music we make together, and look forward to a long partnership. We’ve always been kindred spirits so it’s going to be fun to see that finally come to fruition musically.
It was hard for me to leave Grasstowne and the great bunch of guys who make up the band. They’re some of my best friends in the world and I know they’ll continue to make some great music. I wish them the very best.”
Get Tickets online at http://www.tix.com/Event.asp?Event=409028
Bell Theater 114 W. Kentucky Avenue Pineville, KY 40977 Phone: (606) 337-3806
BitterSweet Festival
FREE EVENT!! Come join Dale Ann this Saturday, Main Street, Mt. Vernon, KY, for the BitterSweet Festival. She will perform from 4 - 5:45 PM. Don't miss it!
Dale Ann Bradley’s New Release
Dale Ann Bradley’s New Release September 6th, 2011 Dale Ann Bradley, 4x IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year Presents Her New Album, Somewhere South of Crazy
Award-winning daughter of bluegrass Dale Ann Bradley celebrates her musical heritage with new originals, a creative Seals and Croft cover and a forthcoming music video for the track “Come Home Good Boy”.
“I grew up in a tar and paper covered shack right near Loretta Lynn’s childhood home,” reflects Dale Ann Bradley on her rustic origin in the hills of east Kentucky as a hardscrabble preacher’s daughter. ”It was very different. It was not easy,” she says. And even as a girl, she knew she wanted more. With Somewhere South of Crazy (available today), this three-time IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year shares what has shaped her life and music, by going deeper—deeper into bluegrass, deeper into her own musical passions, deeper into her own history as a veteran entertainer who spent years singing country music alongside her ‘grass at Kentucky’s venerable Renfro Valley.
The result is a set that ranges from first-generation bluegrass classics through long-cherished favorites to brand new songs from Bradley and her friends—but always, always with her incomparably rich voice and east Kentucky sensibilities right at the center.
The title track provided Bradley with some especially enjoyable moments. “We had the best time writing,” she says of writing—and singing—partner Pam Tillis. “I just love her. We sat down, and she had that title line and the idea, and I came up with the melody and some lines—we had worked on a few different things, but this was the one that we finished, and as soon as we did, I knew it was going to be the title track.” Bill Monroe’s “In Despair” may be more unexpected. “I didn’t plan it as a tribute,” Bradley says with a laugh. “But I hope people will think of it as one. I just wanted to showcase a more traditional side of what I do. But I’m glad it’s coming out on his 100th birthday!” The track “Come Home Good Boy” was more intentional and especially poignant, lending itself to Bradley’s first memory of a funeral, when, at age five, a neighbor boy who served with her uncle in Vietnam returned home in a casket.
A smartly selected crew of singers and players frame Bradley’s tender yet muscular singing to perfection. A couple of her regular bandmembers—harmony singer Kim Fox and banjo man Mike Sumner—make appearances, and so do supple, inventive musicians like the Infamous Stringdusters’ Andy Hall, ace studio fiddler Stuart Duncan, bass stalwart Mike Bub, producer Alison Brown (who doubles on guitar and banjo) and, perhaps most surprisingly yet appropriately, young mandolin phenom Sierra Hull. All those elements come together in the partnership here with singer, guitarist, songwriter and friend Steve Gulley. “We grew up together,” Bradley notes. “Steve and me—we each know what the other one’s going to do.” Yet as strong as the supporting cast is, the focus is, as always, on Dale Ann and the songs she’s chosen—and as always, they’re a deliciously varied bunch.
To a listener unfamiliar with her unique ability to pull songs from the rock vaults and make them her own, Seals & Crofts’ “Summer Breeze,” will doubtless be the biggest surprise, but Bradley sees it as a natural. “I’ve always wanted to do that song,” she says. “I don’t pick out a rock tune just for the sake of having one—it has to be one that I always grew up with, or one that I hear that strikes me as fitting into the mix. Sometimes a melody or lyric will just have that feel, just lend itself to the banjo or something like that—like this one, it almost sounds Celtic to me.”
Some songs, like “I Pressed Through The Crowd” and “Will You Visit Me On Sundays,” have been in Bradley’s repertoire for years, yet were never recorded until now. “I was so tickled when Alison gave the o.k. to ‘Sundays,’” she notes, “because it brings back the traditional country that Steve and I have been singing together for a long, long time. And of course, ‘I Pressed Through The Crowd’—I’ve been doing that one for a long time, and it just keeps getting more and more meaningful to me.” Others are more recent. “Leaving Kentucky” was, ironically enough, started in Nashville, but finished after Bradley moved back to Kentucky.
Add it all up, and Somewhere South Of Crazy just might be the quintessential Dale Ann Bradley album, made up equally of the surprising and the familiar, the challenging and the comfortable. Like the artist who made it, it’s an album that just keeps getting better and better—and that’s the one part of the deal that’s surely no surprise.
By Bluegrass Music Profiles http://bluegrassmusicprofiles.com/2011/09/dale-ann-bradleys-new-release/
Bradley nominated for 4 IBMA Awards
Bradley nominated for 4 IBMA Awards by Donna Greene/Lifestyles Editor
Bell County native Dale Ann Bradley debuted her new CD, “Somewhere South of Crazy” with a release party at the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame in Renfro Valley, Ky. Pictured is “the Queen of Bluegrass Soul” as she performs one of the songs from her new album. RENFRO VALLEY, Ky. — A new CD receiving rave reviews. Not one but four International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) nominations. Life can’t get much better for “Queen of Bluegrass Soul” and Bell County native Dale Ann Bradley.
A three time IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year, Bradley is once again nominated in this category. She is also nominated for Song of the Year: “I’ll Take Love” - Dale Ann Bradley with Alison Krauss and Steve Gulley (artists); Louisa Branscomb and Dale Ann Bradley (songwriters); Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year: “Sailing On” - Russell Moore and Dale Ann Bradley (artists); Rick Lang (songwriter), Jesse Brock and John Miller (producers); Rural Rhythm Christian (label)l Recorded Event of the Year: “I’ll Take Love” - Dale Ann Bradley with Alison Krauss and Steve Gulley (artists); Louisa Branscomb and Missy Raines (producers); Compass Records (label)
To introduce the her newest CD, a Release Party was held September 2 at the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame at Renfro Valley, a place where not only did Bradley reside at one time, but also performed at the at.
With Somewhere South of Crazy (which went on sale August 30), Bradley shares what has shaped her life and music, by going “deeper — deeper into bluegrass, deeper into her own musical passions, deeper into her own history as a veteran entertainer who spent years singing country music alongside her ’grass’ at Renfro Valley”.
This is Bradley’s third Compass album, and eighth overall, and she “continues her measured but steady ascension to the highest levels of bluegrass performance and reverence. The new CD features songs that range from bluegrass favorites to brand new songs from Bradley and others, including the title track, which provided Bradley with some especially enjoyable moments with co-writer Pam Tillis.
“We had the best time writing,” she stated in a prior interview. “I just love her. We sat down, and she had that title line and the idea, and I came up with the melody and some lines — we had worked on a few different things, but this was the one that we finished, and as soon as we did, I knew it was going to be the title track.”
And reviews agree.
“One could imagine that when bluegrass music legend Dale Ann Bradley sings, God himself smiles in heaven above. This may sound like lavish praise, but it only does if you have never heard the golden voiced singer who was named IBMA “female vocalist of the year” three years in a row (2007 - 2009). Now, you’ll find Dale Ann Bradley in a place “Somewhere South Of Crazy,” and it’s one loony bin you’ll never, ever want to leave
The album begins with the title track “Somewhere South Of Crazy.” As usual with Compass Records’ projects, the production is top-notch, and the song is a mid-tempo feast for the ears. Likewise, Bradley’s voice has aged perfectly, and the artist has never sounded better, “said the review from Country Chart.com.
While the title track is receiving rave reviews, it is “Come Home Good Boy”, that Country Chart.com calls “the biggest surprise” of the album. The review of the CD went on to say, “the biggest surprise of the album is the sincere “Come Home Good Boy,” which is a story in song about a mother who has to let go of her son who is leaving for war in the armed forces. Words cannot describe the authenticity in which Dale Ann Bradley sings on “Come Home Good Boy” which deserves widespread fan and critical respect.”
Bradley says the selection of “Come Home Good Boy” was especially poignant, as it connects itself to her first memory of a funeral, when, at age five, a neighbor boy who served with her uncle Mickey Wilson in Vietnam returned home in a casket.
Bluegrass fans will also be pleased with the rest of the tracks, which includes song’s like “New Shoes”, “Restoring the Love”, “I Pressed Through The Crowd”, “Will You Visit Me On Sundays,” “Leaving Kentucky”, “Round and Round”, “Next To Nothing”, and just in time for his 100th birthday celebration, the late Bill Monroe’s “In Despair”.
Bluegrass fans unfamiliar with her ability to pull rock songs and make them her own may question her decision to include “Summer Breeze,” first recorded by Seals & Crofts, on a the new CD, but Bradley sees it as a natural.
“I’ve always wanted to do that song,” she says. “I don’t pick out a rock tune just for the sake of having one — it has to be one that I always grew up with, or one that I hear that strikes me as fitting into the mix. Sometimes a melody or lyric will just have that feel, just lend itself to the banjo or something like that — like this one, it almost sounds Celtic to me.”
The CD concludes with a live bonus cut from “Old Southern Porches”, that ends with the concert announcer stating, “If that don’t turn you on, you ain’t got no switches.” As one reviewer said, couldn’t say it better myself.
Bradley, co-founder of the Cumberland River Music Academy along with another Bluegrass great and Claiborne County, Tenn., resident Steve Gulley (who sang with Bradley on some of the cuts for the new CD) also plans to hold a release party at the Bell Theatre in Pineville in the near future.
“We’re working on getting it together for sometime after the IBMA Awards,” said Bradley.
For now, her schedule is packed. She just completed a performance at the National Folk Festival in Nashville, and will be working steadily in the weeks leading up to the IBMA Awards, set for Oct. 2 in Nashville. Her appearances include performing at the Carter Family Fold in Hiltons, Va., Pickin in the Panhandle in Martinsburg, W.Va., the Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion in Bristol Tenn./Va., in Bristol, Tenn., the Three Sisters Bluegrass Festival in Chattanooga, and on October 1 at Sounds Like Home at nearby Cove Lake State Park in Caryville, Tenn.
In between all those performances, Bradley’s fans may just see her around, as she is planning a trip home before the awards show to see her son, John Bradley, perform in the starring role of the Middlesboro Little Theatre’s production of “Magic Man: The Fall of David Grant Colson”.
Middlesboro Daily News Lifestyle Editor Donna Greene can be reached via e-mail at dgreene@middlesborodailynews.com
Read more: The Middlesboro Daily News - Bradley nominated for 4 IBMA Awards
2011 IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year!
"I am so honored and humbled to have won the IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year. Your support and acknowledgment truly means so much to me! Thanks again to everyone that voted and to all the promoters who give us the opportunity to perform each year! I truly, truly appreciate it and feel blessed everyday to make a living doing something I love. Congratulation to all the winners! God Bless!" ~~ Dale Ann Bradley
