New Lost City Ramblers – There Ain’t No Way Out
The New Lost City Ramblers — Mike Seeger, John Cohen and Tracy Schwartz (who replaced Tom Paley in 1962) — were the anti-Kingston Trio. During the 1960s folk revival, they were both meticulous folklorists and a rip-roaring live act, capable of bringing fire, humor and excitement to the pre-bluegrass Southern string-band music they performed.
It was sad to see them disappear into the mist of professions, family life, and a certain waning interest in the music they loved so well, and that’s why it’s such a kick in the head to have There Ain’t No Way Out, their first new album since 1973’s Remembrance Of Things To Come. They’ve aged — both the current photos and the music on the CD give testimony to that fact — but the cragginess in their faces and their voices somehow adds to the (watch out, folkie cliche ahead) authenticity of their re-creations.
The new album is a mixture of familiar stuff (“Free Little Bird”, “Shady Grove”), songs they’ve recorded before but have seen fit to revive (“Weave Room Blues”, with lyrics corrected after discussions with former mill-workers, and “Colored Aristocracy”, with a graceful defense of the song’s title by Mike Seeger in the liner notes), songs they’ve always meant to record (a superb version of Dock Boggs’ “Oh Death”), and a heaping helping of great discoveries, including an archaic-sounding Monroe Brothers tune (“Do You Call That Religion?”), a near-anarchic Uncle Dave Macon banjo romp (“Rabbit in the Pea Patch”), and a very weird song called “Brown Skin Girl” about which they know nothing but the name and record label of the original performer.
There Ain’t No Way Out can proudly take its place among the NLCRs’ 20 other albums, and if you want to play catch-up, I hereby direct you to two other CDs from Smithsonian Folkways: The Early Years and Out Standing In Their Field, which are summaries of their nearly 40-year career. In the liner notes here, they say they’re heartened by the revival of interest in this music. I say that’s no reason for them to get lazy and wait another 24 years to make their next album, though.