The biography of JP Harris reads more like the rugged lifestyle of a character out of a Jack London novel…you don’t see many artists, let alone people, with a job description that includes a sheepherder for a group of Navajo elders, sheet metal scrapper, orchard worker, farmer laborer, luthier, heavy equipment operator, logger, and historic restoration carpenter. He still works at the latter and has built himself a well-respected reputation as one of the best carpenters in Nashville.
He’s also described as a quasi-mythical bearded figure known for rolling through underground picking circles, fiddler competitions, and string band contests with his powerful banjo playing on handmade instruments.
Don’t You Marry No Railroad Man is his debut recording of traditional music under the moniker JP Harris’, on which he is joined by fiddler Chance McCoy (formerly of Old Crow Medicine Show) who also produced the album. Like his biography, there is nothing ordinary about the making of this album. There’s an authenticity to his music that burrows down deep inside of you. Anyone that has listened to old-time music will appreciate where I’m coming from and there’s nothing but respect for the music as mentioned in the press:
He played detuned banjos built by his own hand, and slowed the music down from its square dance roots to draw out the stories in the songs. These are songs of murder, of devils come to tempt, of adoration and love lost, some dating as far back as the 17th century, and learned either through oral tradition or tattered antique songbooks.
The press also mentions how the melodies he has chosen “seemed out of touch with time”. In this fast-moving world, it sometimes pays to get off and step back from it all…there’s a growing trend to go back to older and simpler ways, to disconnect…that shift has also seen a rise in interest of old time music. In one interview, JP told how from the time he was sixteen until his relocation to Nashville, he lived in various remote cabins without electricity or running water for nearly 13 years. He knows all about slowing down and his music has a timeless charm that I’m sure will resonate with many of you. In the liner notes, he talks of the difference between Old Time and Bluegrass, describing the former as more arcane, less refined, and somewhat hypnotic. He demonstrates all those attributes on Barbry Allen on which he tells us “I learned this tune from recordings of the legendary Jean Ritchie; while experimenting with different tunings, I settled on my own arrangement with a slightly altered melody and cadence.” It’s a beautiful rendition, simple but all the richer for it.
This is just one gem of many and I urge you all to check out this album which is out on June 25 on Free Dirt Records.
Pre-order Don’t You Marry No Railroad Man: http://lnk.to/railroadman
Photo Credit: Libby Danforth