Biography

Song Times/Order

1. Don’t Care Anymore (2:25)

(Tompall Glazer) Sony / ATV Melody, BMI
Bill Emerson – banjo
Tom Adams – guitar, lead vocal
Teri Chism – bass, harmony vocal
Wayne Lanham – mandolin, harmony vocal
Frank Solivan – fiddle

2. Love Reunited (2:40)

(Chris Hillman, Steve Hill) Bar None Music, BMI
Bill Emerson – Banjo
Tom Adams – guitar, lead vocal
Teri Chism – bass, harmony vocal
Wayne Lanham – mandolin, harmony vocal

3. Life in the Old Farm Town (3:18)

(Vince Gill) Vinny Mae Music, BMI
Bill Emerson – banjo
Tom Adams – guitar, lead vocal
Teri Chism – bass, harmony vocal
Wayne Lanham – mandolin, harmony vocal
Rickie Simpkins – fiddle

4. The Midnight Train (2:57)

(Alton Delmore)
Bill Emerson – banjo
Teri Chism – bass, harmony vocal
Wayne Lanham – mandolin, lead vocal
Rickie Simpkins – fiddle
John Miller – guitar, harmony vocal

5. Old Coal Town (2:52)

(Lionel Cartwright) Silverline Music / Long Run Music, BMI
Bill Emerson – banjo
Tom Adams – guitar, lead vocal
Teri Chism – bass, harmony vocal
Wayne Lanham – mandolin, harmony vocal
Rickie Simpkins – fiddle

6. The Black Fox (3:16)

(Graham Pratt) - ?
Bill Emerson – banjo
Tom Adams – lead vocal, guitar
Teri Chism – bass, harmony vocal
Wayne Lanham – mandolin, harmony vocal

7. I Can’t Find Your Love Anymore (2:44)

(Hazel Dickins) Happy Valley Music, BMI
Bill Emerson – banjo
Teri Chism – bass, lead vocal
Tom Adams – guitar, harmony vocal
Wayne Lanham – mandolin, harmony vocal

8. Little Stone Lambs (2:45)

(Carl Jackson, Tim Stafford) Colonel Rebel Music, ASCAP / Daniel House Music, BMI
Bill Emerson – banjo
Tom Adams – guitar, lead vocal
Teri Chism – bass, harmony vocal
Wayne Lanham – mandolin, harmony vocal

9. Sometimes the Pleasure’s Worth the Pain (2:27)

(Marty Stuart) Marty Party Music, BMI / Gary Nicholson, ASCAP
Bill Emerson – banjo
Tom Adams – guitar, harmony vocal
Teri Chism - bass, lead vocal
Wayne Lanham – mandolin, harmony vocal
Rickie Simpkins – fiddle

10. Grandpa Emory’s Banjo (2:59)

(Pete Goble) Brandy Keg Music, BMI
Bill Emerson – banjo
Tom Adams guitar, lead vocal
Teri Chism, bass, harmony vocal
Wayne Lanham, mandolin, harmony vocal

11. Grandma’s Tattoos (3:22)

(Janet Davis) JD Productions, BMI
Bill Emerson – banjo
Janet Davis – banjo
Tom Adams – rhythm guitar
John Miller – rhythm and lead guitar
Teri Chism – bass
Wayne Lanham – mandolin

12. The Lord Will Light the Way (2:31)

(Tom Adams) Three Twenty Three Music, BMI
Tom Adams – guitar, harmony vocal
Teri Chism – lead vocal
Wayne Lanham – mandolin, harmony vocal

Lola Emerson, Janet and Jim Davis, Judy and Emma Adams, Molly Grodon-Maguire, The Golomb Family, Pat and Alex Bogenn, Sonny Osborne, Lynn Morris and Marshall Wilborn, Pete Goble, George and Jackie Hodgkiss, Jean Patterson and Geoff Stelling.

Bill Emerson plays and endorses Stelling Banjos, Osborne banjos and D’Addario strings.

Production Credits

Recorded by George Hodgkiss at Phoenix Productions – 211 Lands Run Road, Browntown, VA 22610
Mastered by Bill Wolf at Wolf Productions, Inc. – 2601 A Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA, 22201
Produced by Bill Emerson, George Hodgkiss and Sweet Dixie
Photography by Dean Hoffmeyer

Special Guests:
Janet Davis, Banjo on Grandma’s Tattoos
Rickie Simpkins – Fiddle
Frank Solivan – Fiddle on “I Don’t Care Anymore”

Bookings: The Bogenn Agency (703) 304-3111 (Email - bogenn@verizon.net)


Liners

George B. McCeney July 9, 2009

For those who have followed the career of Bill Emerson for more than fifty years, we need only two words to characterize the entire body of his whole life’s work: distinctive and innovative. From the time he joined the Country Gentlemen as a founding member, through his stint with Jimmy Martin, the years in the Emerson and Waldron collaboration, and then later when he founded Country Current, Bill Emerson has evinced a consistent ability to enhance the sounds of bluegrass music in ways no one would have anticipated or suspected. Fortunately for all of us, that creative dynamic is still alive and as strong as ever.

From a remarkable collection of songs by writers like Vince Gill, Pete Goble, Marty Stuart, and Janet Davis, Bill Emerson and Sweet Dixie enrich the lyrics and music of these writers in ways that will charm just about everyone. Not the least of these charms is the singing, songwriting, and guitar playing of Tom Adams. His vocals are enhanced with the singing of Wayne Lanham on mandolin and Teri Chism on bass who all together present a spectrum of songs as tight as they are polished.

There are but a few banjo players in bluegrass who remain famous for an easily recognizable touch and style. Bill Emerson is one of those few. But his imagination vaults him far beyond a mastery of a single instrument and well into a thorough comprehension of how a song should be played. A former poet laureate of the United States, Archibald McLeish, once urged all of us to become what he called “right readers”. There are no better examples of what McLeish had in mind than when we listen to the ways in which Bill Emerson “reads” and then arranges the songs on this CD.

Lola Emerson, Janet and Jim Davis, Judy and Emma Adams, Molly Grodon-Maguire, The Golomb Family, Pat and Alex Bogenn, Sonny Osborne, Lynn Morris and Marshall Wilborn, Pete Goble, George and Jackie Hodgkiss, Jean Patterson and Geoff Stelling.

Bill Emerson plays and endorses Stelling Banjos, Osborne banjos and D’Addario strings

Thank you

Lola Emerson, Janet and Jim Davis, Judy and Emma Adams, Molly Grodon-Maguire, The Golomb Family, Pat and Alex Bogenn, Sonny Osborne, Lynn Morris and Marshall Wilborn, Pete Goble, George and Jackie Hodgkiss, Jean Patterson and Geoff Stelling.Bill Emerson plays and endorses Stelling Banjos, Osborne banjos and D’Addario strings

Lyrics

Rural Rhythm Records