CHATHAM COUNTY LINE’S FOURTH
CHATHAM COUNTY LINE put the finishing touches on its fourth studio album Monday afternoon, meeting with producer CHRIS STAMEY in Chapel Hill to finalize track order and to decide between including 12 or 13 tracks. Fiddle and mandolin player John Teer describes the albumtitled either IV or Sweet Evictionas a big move forward for his Raleigh quartet.
“There’s a lot of sounds on this record,” says Teer. “It’s really different from anything we’ve done. It’s us evolving.”
Those sounds include an increasing pedal steel, piano and Hammond organ presence from upright bassist Greg Readling, as well as touches of electric guitar from frontman Dave Wilson. Another new sound for this record (set for release by Yep Roc on March 4) is Caitlin Cary, who sings harmonies on two tracks and takes lead vocals for part of another. Wilson wrote 10 of the album’s tracks, while Teer contributes what he describes as a classical piece for the mandolin, and banjo player Chandler Holt adds a banjo instrumental and a song for which he takes the lead.
The band will play several tunes from the album at its show at Cat’s Cradle Thursday, Oct. 25. It will be the band’s last local appearance for some time: They’ll be in Norway backing folk star JONAS FJELD until December; they’ll then take a short break from touring and recording. The band’s collaboration with Fjeld, Amerikabesøk, went Gold in Norway and sold through its initial run quickly. The album will be reissued by Sony-BMG in time for this latest spate of shows.
TROIKA’S PINS
More than 80 bands are on the books for TROIKA MUSIC FESTIVAL, now in its third year as Troika but sixth as Durham’s annual music festival. Once again, the PIN PROJEKTwhere bowling pins are decorated or deconstructed by musicians and artists from around the Trianglewill serve as Troika’s prelude. Jennifer O’Connor will headline at Duke Coffeehouse with support from Clint Michigan and three Triangle singer-songwriters taking solo turns on the stage: Bellafea/Un Deux Trois’ Heather McEntire, The Rosebuds’ Ivan Howard and Hotel Lights’ Darren Jesse. The party starts at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 27.
MONK’S END
Duke Performances’ Following Monk series ends Sunday night with a solo performance by Barry Harris entitled “Professor Bebop.” Like many of the series’ performances, tickets for all studentsfrom those in elementary school to doctorate programsare $5.
“The series has sold less tickets than we anticipated it might, though my expectations might have been high,” says Aaron Greenwald, director of Duke Performances, who instituted the system several shows into the series. “So it’s been a method to get folks to purchase more tickets.” Greenwald says, as a whole, the series has seen increased attendance numbers over the past several years of Duke Performances, and, as he’d hoped, the crowd’s demographic has been mixed.
