The Cumberland Trio, a prominant folk group from the Southern USA that originated in the '60s Folk Era, reunited for a 2nd time on September 24, 2004 once again at the historic Bijou Theatre in Knoxville, TN, for another official Reunion Concert, "Back Where We Began," which was captured in brilliant digital stereo, and features a 2 Disc CD, 29 song, 2 1/2 hour rousing concert happening, in front of a raucous and appreciative sold out SRO audience!! It has also just been released as a FANTASTIC DVD, also available right here on CDBaby in the Trio's CDBaby site.
This new concert release has been praised by such Folk Icons as Mike Kirkland of The Brothers Four and Roger McGuinn of The Byrds as a Landmark Folk Recording that should be in all "folkies" and bluegrass fans' CD and DVD collections.
The Cumberland Trio appeared on three episodes of ABC-TV's prime Saturday night prime time music show, "Hootenanny," in the mid-'60s and broke up in 1965 after the British Invasion. The ORIGINAL Trio, Andy Garverick, Jerre Haskew & Tom Kilpatrick, reunited in 2001 for a special live Reunion Concert (also available on on 2 Disc CD on their site on CDBaby) and continue to perform today to sold out audiences at intimate venues across the USA, as well as at large, multi-genre music festivals.
The "Back Where We Began" 2 Disc CD (also available on DVD ontheir site on CDBaby)is brilliantly produced by Steve Wallace of CWSMultimedia.com and features a wide variety of songs, spanning the generations from the Folk Boom of the '60s to the present. To categorize this band's music genre is almost impossible, as it's music consists of hard-driving folk/bluegrass, folk and folk pop ballads, folk rock, reggae, blues, pop, as well as classical and traditional Southern gospel. Vocally, this landmark CD features the Trio's unique close harmonies and unique individual solo voices of each of the three members. Instrumentally, it features the great innovative driving and soft Scruggs, chromatic, rhythm and frailing banjo styles of Andy Garverick, the incredible unique lead/rhythm guitar and autoharp of Tom Kilpatrick, the high end guitar and banjo rhythm of Jerre Haskew, the high end acoustic upright bass and sensational comedy routine by original Trio bassist Jim Shuptrine, the solid bottom of Bob Wilkerson on electric bass, the versatile Don Cassell on mandolin chops and solo breaks- and most importantly, the almost unbelievable dobro playing of Lou Wamp, nicknamed the "wizard of string" who is recognized as one of the top 3 dobro players in the world alongside the great Jerry Douglas and Rob Ickes. Lou also plays in his multi-talented unique style on violin/fiddle and cello in this incredibly varied musical experience. Adding to this great lineup as Guest Artist is the GREAT nationally known singer/songwriter (Susan) Taylor Pie, who had a # 1 hit on the Billboard POP charts in 1968 while she was the lead singer for the famed Pozo Seco Singers of the folk rock era. Pie performs that great song,"Time," as well as two of her other signature modern era songs, backed by the Trio and Band. Both Taylor Pie and Lou Wamp also have incredible solo CDs available here on CDBaby.
Lastly this concert is incredibly entertaining, featuring funny songs, "Sam" the Lion and famed University of Tennessee football mascot, "Smokey" the hound dog in lively and fun interaction with the Trio and the audience. In short, it's a really good time created by a great group of singers and musicians fueled by an enthusuastic audience that loved them back!
The Cumberland Trio reunited in 2000 with the release of their 1964 RCA LP remastered to CD, produced by the late GREAT guitarist and producer Chet Atkins and has now recorded two live reunion concerts (2001 & 2004) on 2 Disc CD and this new 2004 release also on DVD. The Trio continues to perform concerts at music halls & major festivals. Their music is being played on major NPR/Americana/Bluegrass/Folk music radio stations across the USA and in Europe. In addition PBS has broadcasted the Trio's newly released 2004 reunion concert DVD within Tennessee in December of 2005, with plans to syndicate it to other PBS stations throughout the USA in 2006.
The truly amazing thing is that unlike most half-baked reunion attempts by other '60s folk era artists, they are all original and even better than they were back then!!
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