It’s festival season here in North America, and every weekend between now and early September will have an Americana music festival of some sort within about a 2 hour drive for probably 98% of the population of the U.S. and Canada.  Many of those events will have a side stage or campground stage that highlights traditional bluegrass music.  It may not have a headliner, but it’s where the core energy of the festival emanates.  That old-timey, hard core picking spirit has been magically captured on the upcoming release from the Slocan Ramblers, Queen City Jubilee.  Although Toronto based, the group sounds like they were raised in some holler in the hills of Kentucky.
The record starts with Mississippi Heavy Water Blues, a traditional sounding bluegrass song that was written by Barbecue Bob almost a century ago, inspired by a Mississippi River flood in the ’20’s.  The Ramblers take what was originally a blues number and turn it into a showcase for their instrumental chops while keeping the original sadness and loss.  We’re thrilled to premiere the song here on Twangville.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.