Chatham County Line recorded their second album, Route 23, gathered around one microphone, letting the natural tendencies of sound waves in air take care of mixing for them. Their process hasn't gotten a whole lot more complicated since then. Though the microphones have proliferated in the studio, they still record their harmony-heavy bluegrass in live takes, and apart from the occasional steel guitar, it's all acoustic. Producer Chris Stamey, known for well-produced power pop, both on his own and with the dB's, basically lets them do their thing, keeping the sound basic and earthy with just a few choice overdubs.
Dave Wilson's songwriting has a very distinctive harmonic feel-- his chord sequences seem chosen for their relative lack of resolution, and the banjo, mandolin, fiddle, and guitar parts seem to float around on the rhythm. Opener "Chip of a Star" is even kind of spacey, with bassist Greg Readling's pedal steel additions heightening the song's cosmic country feel. Wilson also has his moments lyrically. "Country Boy/City Boy" isn't quite the typical boosterism for the rural life you hear on albums like this-it's really more about how we all wish we could experience another life. "If I was a country boy, I'd wish for the city lights/ If I was a city boy, I'd wish for a quiet night," he sings, taking the air out of the country/city divide that modern country music plays so heavily on.
Outside of Wilson's strengths as a songwriter, he simply has the right voice for the music, a soft tenor with a bit of a twang and accent that never fails to be melodic. Even on "Birmingham Jail", a darker, more intense song than any of the ones around it he dips and dodges around John Teer's searing fiddle part with ease. That sense of interplay between the band members is evident all over. The dynamics of the gently bouncing "The Carolinia" feel natural and unstudied, with the mandolin and banjo practically having a conversation around the lead vocal. The band lets that interplay loose on banjoist Chandler Holt's brief instrumental "Clear Blue Sky", a too-brief showcase for the band's old-time mountain music leanings. The other instrumental, "Paige", is a gorgeous mandolin fantasia by Teer that owes a little something to Bach is its delicate chords.
IV is the most rewarding offering from Chatham County Line to date. It's a little bit bigger and a little more elaborate than its predecessors, but it's an incremental step toward something more expansive. It still retains the best elements of the band's music-- its separation from the moment. This music isn't a product of its era, but nor is it married to a bygone one. It's essentially timeless, both in terms of era and when I find I can listen to it. That's a quality any band would be happy to claim.
