They’re back! One of Old Time Music’s most powerful and dynamic duos, David Bass and Frank Lee, have resurrected the Freight Hoppers and I expect that many in the Old Time community will be glad to hear it. Mile Marker is a rebirth, of sorts, for the band that once headlined festivals and concert billings from coast to coast. It is also an example of artistic maturity for Bass and Lee.
Frank and David began their road together back in 1993 when they took a gig together playing for tourists riding the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad, and thus the Freight Hoppers legacy was born.
As many will remember, the Freight Hoppers reached national acclaim in 1996, with the release of the first of two recordings for Rounder (“Where’d You Come From, Where’d You Go?”) and an appearance on National Public Radio’s Prairie Home Companion. They followed the success of that release with a second Rounder recording in 1998 called “Waitin’ on the Gravy Train.” At that time, David Bass’ remarkable driving fiddle and Frank Lee’s unique banjo style were backed up by the vocals and guitar of Cary Fridley and a series of upright bass players.
In 1999, Fridley left the band to pursue a solo career and shortly thereafter, David Bass left to celebrate the birth of his first child. During Bass’s hiatus, his already weak heart gave out. He was told that his heart wasn’t up to performing or traveling. After nearly a year of hospitalization and worry, Bass was given a new heart, and Old Time Music was given a new pulse.
In the mean time Banjoist Frank Lee worked on a several recording projects and continued to sharpen his skills as an interpreter of old time tunes. Traveling both solo and with several fiddlers he continued to tour and to teach banjo. In 2007, with Bass’s health back and Lee’s desire to record and tour as a band again returning, they formed the new Freight Hopper lineup with well known local Bryson City, North Carolina musicians, and returned to both playing for the Smoky Mountain Railroad and delighting audiences at concerts and festivals.
The new Freight Hoppers lineup gets a huge boost from the singing and guitar playing of Isaac Deal and the solid bass playing of Bradley Adams. All of these musicians are great performers in their own right, but after three years of playing together they have perfected the tightness that was once the hallmark of the sound that brought the Freight Hoppers to the attention of traditionalists as well as younger audiences.
The CD starts off with proof that David Bass and Frank Lee are up to the challenge of retaking their legacy as audience favorites. They match each other note for note on one of the most upbeat recordings ever made of the Leake County Revelers’ “Been to East Been to the West.” Lee and Deal lay down some fine vocals and the familiar Freight Hopper groove comes on strong.
Highlights of the album include a wild remake the blues tune “Scandalous and a Shame” which somehow convincingly combines the best of recordings from the 1920’s by both traditional blues singer Blind Willie McTell and legendary fiddler Gid Tanner. Although everyone knows Bass can fiddle fast, he can also stylize to get great moods on the fiddle which he does on this homage to the sins of drinking moonshine.
I suspect Frank Lee’s remake of a Fiddlin’ John Carson song, “Taxes on the Farmer Feed Them All” is going to become an anthem for many young bands. Written in the 1920’s this tune about the plight of small farmers may be even more meaningful today than it was when it was written. Although Lee has recorded this on his solo project “Artseen” a few years back, the tune is given great life here by Lee’s guitar playing, Bass’s soulful fiddle and the addition of a tasteful Hammond B-3 organ.
There is a great mix of familiar festival favorites on this CD, like the Freight Hopper’s warp 10 speed take on John Hardy to a beautiful, soulful version of “Going Across the Sea.” However, the real standouts are new discoveries, mined from Frank Lee’s love for old spirituals and blues. “Everybody’s Down on Me,” for example, is a fantastic discovery originally recorded by Eddie Head and family. On this track Lee shows his talent for slide guitar on a great sounding National resonator guitar, while Isaac Deal’s very righteous singing makes you want to get right.
Fans who love the Freight Hoppers ability to kick old time tunes into high gear won’t be disappointed either. There is are rousing, dance speed versions of “Hell Bound for Georgia” and Frank Hutchinson’s “The Train that Carried my Gal from Town.”
Bass and Lee show their incredible talent for speed, precision and power in a hypnotic fiddle and banjo duet of Ohio Fiddler Arnold Sharp’s Hound Chase. For old time purists, this is a cut worth owning this CD for. You won’t find two musicians who can play together better, note for note.
Often, upright string bass players are overlooked in their importance to great old time sounds. When a band plays at the frenetic pace of the Hoppers and wants to retain its precision it takes a powerful and skillful bass man to make it over “fool’s hill.” Bradley Adams has no problem taking the rhythmic reigns of these boys and does a fine job of it on every cut.
In the past, some have wrongly thought that the Freight Hoppers were trying to be purists. As this CD proves, what they have really been trying to do all along is to put the fun and the drive back into Old Time Music so that it can reach a wide audience today. As fiddler Bass once put it: “It all comes down to a simple question: Are you out there really raising hell and having fun with the music, or are you trying to get a master's degree in musicology?"
The project was masterfully mixed at the Rubber Room Studio in Chapel Hill, NC, and is beautifully packaged with great liner notes that include sources for every tune. The whole production is professional done without losing the old timey edge.
This wonderful CD is full of new discoveries and old chestnuts played by four outstanding musicians. The Freight Hoppers are riding again and I can guarantee that nearly everyone in the Old Time community will be on board with them. Don’t miss this CD. Highly recommended for all levels of Old Time interest.
To Purchase: CD Baby or email franklee6@yahoo.com
Malcom Smith (Dec 8, 2010)