Album Notes

No Worries Is:
Jim Amsden: vocals, mandolin, bass, electric and slide guitars, organ, bouzouki
Richard Bowdon: vocals, rhythm guitar, harmonica
Ken Faircloth: vocals, lead and rhythm acoustic and electric guitars

The Doc and Merle Watson Highway runs from their hometown of Deep Gap into Boone, NC. Doc’s a major musical hero of ours, a trailblazer of musical fusion, one of the first to cross traditional boundaries of genre. He taught us that good music is just good music, never mind what you call it, or where it came from. No Worries!

Album Notes:
1 How Things Will Be
© 2009 by RICHARD BOWDON
A politically incorrect, old-school road song. Remember when gas was cheap enough to waste? You don’t ever know how things will be.
2 This Heart of Mine
by STEPHEN F. BRINES & JIM SMOAK, BARREN COUNTY MUSIC
Ken first heard this song by a group with local ties named After 5.  Immediately attracted to the energetic rhythm, he later realized it’s the rare bluegrass tune not about heartbrokenness nor murder.
3 I'm Blue
© 2009 by RICHARD BOWDON
The snappiest little ditty about suicidal depression you’ll ever hear. Bob Bowdon inspired the harmonies.
4 I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal
by BILLY JOE SHAVER, SONY/ATV SONGS LLC DBA
Billy Joe’s classic self-improvement song, the perennial New Year’s resolution. “Someday” indeed.
5 Free Will Blues
© 1979 by NICK JOHNSON
Nick Johnson is another longtime hitchhiker on Doc’s Highway. He taught Richard to play this one in Midland, Texas many years ago. Nick currently lives in the high desert east of Albuquerque.
6 The Thrill is Gone
by B. B. KING, UNIVERSAL MUSIC-CAREERS
Bringing the thrill of the blues into bluegrass with this B.B. King classic. Who said the mandolin isn't a blues instrument?
7 Four July Parade
© 2006 by RICHARD BOWDON
A celebration of mature love.
8 Bears
by STEVEN FROMHOLZ, PROPHECY PUBLISHING
Fromholz is in Richard’s Top 10 of real honest-to-God Texas songwriters … and that is high praise, y’all.
9 Layla
by ERIC CLAPTON, ERIC PATRICK CLAPTON MUSIC
Another classic blues love song adapted to bluegrass instruments. We tried to capture the contrasting tension and beauty in this song to reflect the love and conflict that originally inspired it.
10 No Time To Kill
by CLINT BLACK, HAYDEN NICHOLAS, BLACKENED MUSIC
Ken two-stepped to this tune many times back in the 90's at the Longbranch. It’s a timeless masterpiece that transcends country music. There’s no time to kill.