Chuck from High Lonesome joined KGNU’s Dave McIntyre to discuss the band’s self-titled debut album and upcoming performances. Chuck performed a few covers and original songs and talked about his appreciation for the Lyons music community (Interview date: 12/6/2024)
Dave McIntyre: As promised, we have a guest in the studio, Chuck from High Lonesome. Say hello to the folks, Chuck.
High Lonesome: How’s it going out there, KGNU listeners?
Dave McIntyre: Chuck and his band put out a debut CD, simply called High Lonesome. It just arrived last month, wasn’t it?
High Lonesome: Yep, we debuted it November 1st at Swallow Hill. We played in Daniel’s Hall, and it was our big album release show. Tonight’s our last album release show in our hometown in Lyons.
Dave McIntyre: Alright, we’re looking forward to that. Why don’t you play us a tune? This an original? What do you got lined up for us, Chuck?
High Lonesome: I’ll play a cover tune for you first, and then I’ll play an original later. This is one of my favorite writers, and I don’t play guitar like he does. I picked up this tune many years ago at Everett’s Bar, and a buddy of mine turned me on to it. I always like to play it in December, because it’s like the beginning of December tune.
Dave McIntyre: Nice. Whose song is that, Chuck?
High Lonesome: That is an old Norman Blake tune. Have you ever heard of Norman Blake?
Dave McIntyre: Sure.
High Lonesome: He’s one of my favorite writers and I never took the time to learn how to cross pick like that. But I have a lot of his records and I’ve got that really popular album that he has. I just listened to it recently and it’s like a masterclass on cross picking. He’s one of the greatest bluegrass guitar players of all time, but he’s such a great songwriter too.
Dave McIntyre: All right. And from the CD, we’re going to play “We Hit the Road”. Listen to the full band here, folks.
Alright, nice tune Chuck.
High Lonesome: Thanks!
Dave McIntyre: All the songs on the CD are originals, is that correct?
High Lonesome: We’ve got two songs on there that are not original tunes. One is by the Delmore Brothers. They wrote a lot of really cool tunes before Bluegrass was like even a thing. I actually stole that one from Sam Bush. Speaking of Sam Bush, I heard him doing it recently. I was like, oh, I got to start doing that again. There was a time where I was really into the Louvin Brothers. I still am, but I was playing a lot of Louvin Brothers and like Delmore Brothers tunes.
It’s so melodic and it’s just so fun. That song plays itself, “Nashville Blues”. And then there’s another song on there written by Walter Hyatt. Do you remember him? Uncle Walt’s band? He was a songwriter from Nashville and he actually died in a plane accident in the nineties over the Everglades in the value jet.
Oddly enough, a buddy that I went to high school with was also on that plane. I learned that song in Nashville. That’s called “As the Crow Flies”. There is one other tune on there. So there’s three songs that were written by other people and then the rest of the songs are by us.
We have eight originals on the album. The other song was written by Louisa Branscombe and she also wrote “Steel Rails” for Alison Krauss. She’s a really good friend of mine. She wrote “Old Familiar Song”, which has been our big hit off the album. It’s getting all the plays.
Dave McIntyre: That’s a good one.
High Lonesome: It’s a good one. Yeah.
Dave McIntyre: You’ve toured with the band.
High Lonesome: Yeah, we’ve done a little bit of traveling.
Dave McIntyre: Anything out on the horizon coming up?
High Lonesome: Oh, yeah. It’s funny because some of the things that are happening right now, I really can’t talk about because they haven’t been announced. I want to announce that there’s an announcement coming, but I can’t tell anybody about it. I don’t want to be that guy. You know what I’m saying? It seems like we’re getting bigger and bigger opportunities. We work really hard with the venues that we play at. We’re playing at Ophelia’s in February and tickets are on sale for that. We’re playing with Foggy Mountain Spaceship.
We do mostly ticketed shows. That being said, we love playing Oskar Blues, Lyons. We really want to keep that a non-ticketed show because we love the community there. That is a town that if that town gets behind you, then you’ve got a really solid, sound fan base. That’s really important to us.
I play a lot of solo shows around town. We’re getting in the studio soon to start working on our second album. We’re excited to be introducing a bunch of our own original music. Dylan wrote a really great instrumental song. It’s just so good. It’s called “Jubilee”. And then Neva, who is in her early twenties, she’s writing great tunes. She wrote “Trust My Hands”, which is on the album. A great cut. So yeah, I’m really excited. As this band gets more confident in our songwriting abilities and working together, we’re just getting bigger and bigger opportunities.
Dave McIntyre: That’s great. And for the show tonight, you’ve got some guests.
High Lonesome: I’m going to be playing with C-Bob, who’s one of my favorite people on the planet. He’s just such a nice guy and he’s such a great banjo player. He comes from Texas. He’s a big Alan Munde banjo player. That was his mentor. Anything you throw at this guy on stage, he can handle it. David Tiller is just a phenomenal mandolin player. He also happens to be my landlord, which is pretty cool. So I’m playing tonight with my landlord.
We’ve gone through some changes because Josh has moved to Ojai. He moved back home with his family. It’s a long story, but we’re happy for Josh. Josh is getting married to Taylor and he’s going to be playing bluegrass in California and we’re just excited for him.
Dave McIntyre: So you’re from Atlanta originally?
High Lonesome: I’m an army brat. So I was born overseas and that’s why I’m so socially awkward. I’ve never been anywhere for a long time. I don’t have a place that I’m from, or a friend from kindergarten or anything like that. When you’re in the army, you just pick up and move. We moved probably five or six times before I was even in elementary school, but I did grow up in New York City as a little kid. And my dad taught at West Point. So I spent a lot of time in New York. Then for the last 30 years I lived in Atlanta where I picked up bluegrass at the Everett’s Pick and Barn in Suwanee.
Like I said, I’m friends with Louisa Branscombe and I just have a lot of mentors that are the older generation of bluegrass. It’s really who I cut my teeth with.
Dave McIntyre: You referred to some of the music as mash grass.
High Lonesome: Have you ever heard of that band East Nashgrass? I think that’s a play off of it. Jimmy Martin, he came up with this way of playing the rhythm guitar. A lot of people say Tony Rice is an awesome rhythm guitar player. He kind of got that from Jimmy Martin. If you asked Jimmy Martin when he was alive, who was a better guitar player, Jimmy Martin would have said Jimmy Martin. But he invented the drive style of Bluegrass, which is what I like.
And I love Tony Rice. It’s like you’re cheating. You’re getting in front of the note a little bit and that’s why they call it drive grass. Some people call it mash grass, because it’s maybe from Kentucky or something like that. But yeah, I like that stuff.
For example, I’m really excited about Russell Moore joining Alison Krauss because his third time out band is a kind of a good example of that. That’s the style of bluegrass I learned from Everett’s Pick and Barn. We had people like Scott Vestal, Jeff Autry, Matt Mundy, Russell Moore. Ray Deaton, like a lot of really big names in bluegrass were just picking at my jam spot every Saturday night. That’s where I learned all that stuff. That’s where I learned bluegrass – at Everett’s Barn.
Dave McIntyre: All right. You got one more for us? Tell us about this song.
High Lonesome: I’m always interested in Native American studies. I can’t say I know everything about Native American history because it’s so big. But when I moved here, I saw the statue of Chief Left Hand, I saw Left Hand Brewery, I saw all this stuff about Left Hand. I didn’t really know about him, so I went and bought a book called Chief Left Hand from the Pearl Street Bookshop. And I wrote this tune. That book talks a lot about how the people who lived here in Boulder actually camped out here in the wintertime ’cause it was a little bit warmer than Denver. Chief Left Hand spoke a lot of languages and he was the kind of person that the government here didn’t want to talk to because they knew that he wanted peace and really, they just wanted to eradicate the Arapaho and Cheyenne from the area.
Dave McIntyre: Gotcha. And this is called “Savage”?
High Lonesome: This is called “Savage Sundown”. And I’m not referring to the Native Americans as savages. I’m referring to John Chivington and John Evans as the Savages. So here it is, “Savage Sundown”.
Dave McIntyre: That’s a great song.
High Lonesome: Appreciate it. And I’ll look forward to seeing you tonight.
Dave McIntyre: Yes, indeed.
High Lonesome: At my favorite place to go and see live music. Y’all gotta check out Lyons Oskar Blues. They got an awesome talent buyer who’s got great taste in music. Curates a really great scene there. And honestly, of all the places, I’ve been looking forward to playing Oskar Blues for months, because it’s rowdy. You get a little bit of space in there to do whatever you want to do.
We’re playing tonight at 7pm. Doors open at 6:30. The whole band with C-Bob on the banjo, David Tiller on mandolin. Thank you so much for having me on. Really excited to hear the Henhouse Prowlers, who are one of my favorite bluegrass bands that are out there touring around. These guys are awesome.
Dave McIntyre: They’ll be on the show a little later today. So thanks again, Chuck. Appreciate you coming by. See you tonight, man.
