The San Francisco Bay area bluegrass community is characterized by a love of tradition, applied in a progressive way—particularly in its inclusiveness. The All Girl Boys was a natural product of this open musical community.
A unique assemblage of talented northern California bluegrass musicians, who, as Laurie Lewis noted, “happen all to be women,” The All Girl Boys approached bluegrass music with an approach that was steeped in tradition yet progressive at the same time. Three songwriters, four lead singers, and four lead instruments gave the AGB the flexibility to both honor tradition and set forth great new material. The band’s well-crafted songs and tunes, arranged to highlight the talents of individual band members, range from traditional bluegrass to “country weepers.”
Out of print for almost ten years, this re-issue is dedicated to bassist Carolyn Cirimele, who lost her battle with cancer in 2005.
On this recording, The All Girl Boys were:
Mary Gibbons, guitar and vocals
Debby Cotter-Kaspari, banjo and vocals
Chris Lewis, mandolin and vocals
Carolyn Cirimele, bass and vocals
Kathy Barwick, dobro, lead guitar, and harmony vocals
Liner notes by Laurie Lewis:
Since the Redwood Canyon Ramblers hit the San Francisco Bay Area music scene in the 1960's, there has been a vital, growing and changing community of bluegrass musicians in this area. Each successive "generation" of bands has learned from and been influenced by its predecessors and peers, and has been welcomed into the community and musically nurtured. Although some of out brightest stars have moved away, the Bay Area is a place where people tend to settle and make homes for themselves. One can trace a continuum from the earliest bands--Vern and Ray, the Styx River Ferry, Hired Hands, High Country--through the Phantoms of the Opry, Good Ol' Persons, and Grant Street String Band--to The All Girl Boys. This is not to say that there are no outside influences: for whatever reason, northern California bands have always had a reverence for traditional sounds. The Bay Area has simultaneously a reputation for free-thinking and open-mindedness, attracting and holding musical ground-breakers, among them David Grisman and Peter Rowan. Perhaps it is this combination which has led to the abundance of women playing a traditionally male-dominated style of music, and the large number of great songwriters using bluegrass as the vehicle for their compositions. Whatever it is, it seems only natural that there is a group here of fine musicians, writing great songs and tunes within the bluegrass tradition who happen all to be women.
The All Girl Boys began playing together on a casual basis in 1989, and in time the band became a creative focal point for its members. This, their first recording, represents music made through the process of listening to each other and melding ideas. The three writers, Debby Cotter, Chris Lewis and Mary Gibbons, depend on the group for support and honest criticism. This is a band that allows creativity to blossom, and indeed, the inclusion of so much good original material bears this out. There’s the Johnson Mountain Boys-style “Climbing Up The Mountain,” the sweet country-flavored “Hideaway,” the joyful “Going To See My Baby,” and the driving instrumental title cut, to name a few. Along with the originals, the Boys have included some more obscure bluegrass songs gleaned from the likes of Flatt and Scruggs, the Holy Modal Rounders, Mac Wiseman and the Kentucky Colonels. Rounding out the collection are a couple of songs borrowed from old-time and country music that are tailed just to suit the band.
It has been exciting to watch the progression from the back rooms at music parties to the onstage jams at Paul’s Saloon, to the space that The All Girls now occupy—as self-assured, comfortable performers with something to say and the means to express it. With this long awaited recording, they share their heart’s desire—the music they love—and add songs to the bluegrass repertoire that are deserving of a wider audience.
--Laurie Lewis
Bluegrass Unlimited Review by Jon Hartley Fox, September 1994:
When it comes to turning out high quality, traditionally-oriented but original bluegrass bands, it's getting so that the San Francisco area is hard to beat. From Vern & Ray through High Country to the Grant Street String Band, Bay Area bands have shown a decided knack for bringing the old and the new together in inspired ways. That gift is shared by the latest band to pick up the torch, the All Girl Boys, whose "Heart's Desire" is an assured, confident recording blessed with great songs, sweet singing, hot picking and attactive packaging. Makes one wonder what this quintet might come up with by the time of its second album.
Wiht four lead singers and three songwriters within the ranks of the band, it would be easy for "Heart's Desire" to lose its focus, but that never happens. Of the lead singers, rhythm guitarist Mary Gibbons is both the most prominently featured and the most striking. She's a strong, stylish singer, whether burning through some bluesy bluegrass ("Blues Be On Your Way," "Heart Upon My Sleeve" or "Climbing Up The Mountain") or wearing out a country weeper ("I Thought I Heard You Calling My Name," "Running Away With Our Hearts"). Debby Cotter is also effective on "Hideaway" and "Old Man At The Mill." Harmonies are another band strength; the Cotter-Gibbons close-harmony duet on "Goodby and So Long To You" and the lush trio on "Running Away..." are especially nice.
Engaging new material is just one of the ways "Heart's Desire" differs from the average debut recording. Eight of the album's fifteen cuts are band originals and all three writers (Gibbons, Cotter and mandolinist Chris Lewis) turn out literate, well-crafted songs. None of the songs here are less than interestig, but the standouts are "Heart Upon My Sleeve" and "Running Away with Our Hearts," both written by Gibbons and both worthy of much wider exposure. The band's preference in cover songs leans to the obscure, groups like the Wandering Ramblers (love that redundancy!) and the Holy Modal Rounders, though lesser-known gems from Flatt & Scruggs and Clarence & Roland White are likewise included.
Thanks to Kathy Barwick's double duty on dobro and lead guitar, the All Girl Boys also showcase four lead instruments on this recording. It's in the picking that the traditional side of this band really seems to emerge, perhaps most strongly in Lewis' outstanding Monroe-based mandolin work. Her playing on "Blues Be On Your Way" and the tune "Powder Creek" is most impressive. Cotter's solid banjo picking is featured throughout, but nowhere more winningly than on her original "sensitive banjo tune," "Heart's Desire." The real discovery here is Barwick, a good lead guitar player ("Farewell Blues," "Running Away...") but even better on the dobro, where her economical approach proves that power and soul are not functions of how many notes one plays. Check out her playing on "Blues Be On...," "Powder Creek," "Heart Upon My Sleeve" or "Heart's Desire," for a mini-lesson in taste and restraint.
It's not often that a band's first recording flat-out demands a listener's attention, but that's just what happens with "Heart's Desire," perhaps the most auspicious Bay Area debut since the Grant Street String Band's album on Bonita a decade or so ago. The All Girl Boys are a traditional band with modern ideas, a very exciting combination when it works, which it definitely does here.
Recommended, to people on both ends of the bluegrass spectrum, and to those in between.
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