Published: July 24, 2008 03:35 pm         

Performance by former Terre Haute resident masterful on new Grascals album

TERRE HAUTE — Steve Martin once joked that it’s impossible to play a sad song on a banjo.

It’s true. Pain songs usually sound wistful in acoustical bluegrass, but downright depressing in electrical country.

Terre Hauteans may feel a bit wistful about The Grascals’ new album “Keep On Walkin’.” It’s not the lyrics of plaintive tunes like “Feeling Blue,” “Sad Wind Sighs” or even the tearjerker “Remembering.” Instead, it’s the knowledge that the album is a Grascals swansong for original fiddler and former Terre Haute resident Jimmy Mattingly.

His performance on this disc illuminates the significance of his departure since it was recorded for Rounder Records. The contributions by Mattingly, who attended Franklin Elementary School in Terre Haute as a young boy, equal those of a lead guitarist in a rock band. He opens the album with a full-bow burst on “Feeling Blue” and sets up the lines of nearly every other song for vocalists Terry Eldredge and Jamie Johnson.

Fittingly, the 12-song collection ends with Mattingly’s most masterful performance as a Grascal. Solo, he begins and closes “Farther Along” with an ethereal, almost classical riff.

As the band wrapped up “Keep On Walkin’,” Mattingly left to join Dolly Parton’s band. As a founding member of The Grascals, Mattingly saw the group, which formed four years ago, quickly rise to the top of bluegrass music. Their first two albums — “The Grascals” in 2005, and “Long List of Heartaches” in 2006 — earned Grammy nominations. Two years later, “Keep On Walkin’” is destined to do the same.

Mattingly isn’t the only reason. Another Grascal with even deeper Vigo County roots, Eldredge, is at his best on “Walkin’.” The West Terre Haute native delivers emotional vocals, blended like coffee and cream with Johnson’s voice. Eldredge also handles guitar in a lock-tight lineup with bassist Terry Smith, banjoist and guitarist Aaron McDaris (making his Grascals debut), Danny Roberts on mandolin and Mattingly (who’s since been replaced by Jeremy Abshire).

They work out some familiar material, some from a country angle — “The Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line” (a Waylon Jennings cover), Merle Haggard’s “Today I Started Loving You Again,” and George Jones’ “Choices,” sung by Eldredge, and some from the Americana roots genre — “Rollin’ In My Sweet Baby’s Arms” and “Farther Along.” Still, the freshly written songs glow, especially those penned by Harley Allen, who wrote The Grascals’ breakthrough single “Me and John and Paul.” Allen teamed with Johnson to craft “Indiana,” a, yes, wistful glance back at growing up free-spirited in the Hoosier countryside. It’s best line is, “Daddy took a job as a garbage man in town, ah, but he didn’t raise no trash.”

The wistfulness continues on “Remembering,” a paean to a grandfather who survived World War II, but came home hardened.

The finale, “Farther Along,” puts a perfect coda on The Grascals’ Jimmy Mattingly era. Before he plays that sweeping closing solo, Eldredge, Johnson and Roberts sing — at times in an acappella reminiscent of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young on “Find the Cost of Freedom” — the final lines, “Cheer up my brother, live in sunshine; we’ll understand it all by and by.”

The Grascals’ next album has some pretty big shoes to fill.



Mark Bennett can be reached at mark.bennett@tribstar.com or (812) 231-4377.