High Drive: Tom Lyons -Kenny Wise - Bradley Sams - John O'Dell - Terry Wittenburg
Date-line: 5 December 2013
John O'Dell is up on stage sitting in the gloom warming up his Martin. He's improvising on "Fly Me to the Moon" and it sounds great. It's about 6:00 at The Stables Restaurant in Westminster, Maryland. The dinner crowd is just starting to roll in. The Christmas decorations have gone up since the last time I was here to see the Martin Brothers and Aspen Run. They look pretty nice, compared to what you see in most music joints. It's funny hearing "Fly Me to the Moon" coming out of the guitar of a bluegrass guy. John sounds obsessed with the song. I know the feeling. You get a song going in your head and you can't get rid of it. Sometimes I have whole operas going around in my brain. I should probably see a psychiatrist for the affliction. John O'Dell is performing tonight with "High Drive" - a combination of players from "Windy Ridge" plus Kenny Wise. It's a spur-of-the-moment combination that is flying by the seats of their pants and in the end they won the house, but more about that later. Stables is continuing with a once-a-month bluegrass night featuring a lot of highly recognized local talent. Other weekend nights are booked up with rock and country bands. I'm here for the bluegrass. I don't really care about the other options. It's interesting this evening because local boy Kenny Wise has made somewhat of a name for himself in the country genre. In conversations around the tables and the bar area that's all I heard about. Kenny Wise is the local boy made good in country music. I had to take it with a grain of salt because I don't know anything about him, his career, or for that matter what's going on in country music today. So as far as my approach was concerned, I'm happy I was going into this with a blank mind. I was there to hear some bluegrass.
High Drive is Kenny Wise, John O'Dell, Bradley Sams, Terry Wittenberg, and Tom Lyons. Kenny Wise and John O'Dell were new faces to me; the rest of the group I had seen in other configurations and I had a pretty good handle on what they could do with a bluegrass song. Bradley Sams (Bass) Terry Wittenberg (Banjo and vocals) and Tom Lyons (fiddle) are right up there with the crop of bluegrass professionals working in Maryland and beyond. John O'Dell (Guitar and lead vocals) is a walking juke-box of music repertoire (that's what everyone calls him - a walking juke-box). Kenny rounded it out with his own lead vocals and Mandolin. John O'Dell dominated the evening with his singing and stage presence. He's a big guy with a dominating big baritone. But this is not to say he wasn't entertaining. I had a ball listening to old chestnuts like "Rose-Colored Glasses," "Last Train from Poor Valley," and "Rebel Soldier." Even though Kenny Wise and John O'Dell did a sterling job on the leads, the group sounded a lot better when they were all taking parts. The sleeper here is Terry Wittenberg's high tenor offerings. There were a lot of rough edges easily worked out with more performances. The entrances and exits were rough; nothing disastrous. All these guys are pro's and it just seemed to need a bit of polish here and there. Kenny Wise did two purely country numbers - not bad. Aaron Martin (bass-player and vocalist for the Martin Brothers and Aspen Run) was sitting in the audience with Herb Martin. Kenny and John invited him up on stage to do two numbers with the band. Aaron Martin constantly amazes me with his sense of musicality. He's continually improving and maturing. As the three sets wore on and the night wound down the vocals got better. The group unity got better. There was a sense of them having fun with the music. It's worth watching these guys to see what they do in the future.
Traditional 'Maryland-Style' bluegrass is offered once a month at the Stables Restaurant on Main Street in Westminster, Maryland. Foggy Hollow will appear in January followed by the Martin Brothers & Aspen Run in February. The food is excellent - the music is even better.
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