Brown Mountain Lights – Late Show At The Cave

For more than a century, people in Western North Carolina have been sighting strange, unexplainable lights shimmering above Brown Mountain. The lights have led to much local lore and have garnered the attention of carloads of paranormalists and curious teenagers. They’ve also recently given a name to a group of friends who joined together to open a show for Buddy & Julie Miller and decided they worked well enough together to form a band.

The Brown Mountain Lights’ debut is a live recording of two September 2003 nights at the Chapel Hill, North Carolina, bar the Cave. Although they’ve been together only since 2001, this trio delivers such tight harmonies and effortless instrumentation that it would appear they’ve been playing together for ages. They pull off that feat of sounding completely accomplished while also coming across as if they’re sitting around on the back porch, nodding to one another as they play.

This 19-track disc captures the band’s energy and showcases their often poetic and catchy songwriting. Feel-good tracks such as “The More I Think”, “When It Comes To That”, “Crossing Fingers,” and Lester Flatt’s “Get It On Brother” make up the majority of the material, but are balanced by the big-band country of “Thibadaux” and the Texas swing of “Blacktop Tar”. The band also offers up a few folk-rock tracks such as Gwil Owen’s “Tumbleweed” and “Snakedancing With Jenna Lee”, seeming right at home with their cover of Gram Parsons’ “100 Years From Now”.

There’s also the solid country of “Maryville” and “Little Things”. The latter showcases one of two lead singers, Janet Place, formally of D.C.-area band the Slim Jims. Place’s voice is reminiscent of a huskier Patsy Cline; when she calls out, “Play a little thing, boy,” her voice drips with country hard luck and hard-won wisdom. She also plays a driving acoustic guitar and mandolin on most of the tracks.

Five songs here are original compositions by Place, most of them twang-pop compositions with a strongly western influence. Eight others are hard-hitting country love songs and travelogues by Jeff Hart, who alternates on lead vocals with Place and plays harmonica and guitar. They are joined by Greg Bower, who lends a gritty electric guitar and a smooth second harmony. The trio is joined by a smattering of other experienced pickers, including Steve Watson of Two Dollar Pistols on pedal steel and John Teer of Chatham County Line on fiddle.

The Brown Mountain Lights deliver a satisfying mix of bluegrass, honky-tonk, blues, twang-pop, and folk-rock on this debut, which perfectly captures a couple September nights in a small North Carolina bar.