Washington, D.C., used to be a bluegrass hotbed, but Dead Men’s Hollow is somewhat of a modern anomaly. There’s still a (Seldom) scene in the District, you just have to dig a little deeper to find it. This sextet makes the effort worthwhile.
Dead Men’s Hollow is not your typical hillbilly high-lonesome bluegrass band, despite the usual acoustic instrumentation; the sound is more Civil War-era traditional Appalachian balladry than ’40s hot picking and strumming. The women in the band outnumber the men four to two, with Caryn Fox on mandolin, Belinda Hardesty on clawhammer banjo, Amy Nazarov on rhythm guitar, and Marcy Cochran on fiddle (played more in a violin style), mando and viola. Mike Clayberg plays lead guitar, Jared Creason plucks the doghouse bass, and everybody writes.
There’s an overarching theme that weaves through the songs – death, to be sure, but as it applies to our volatile times. The songs share fluid melodies and pitch-perfect harmonies grown strong and tall on Celtic roots. The plaintive “Until The End Of Time”, the country-fried “Don’t Break My Heart”,” the light-hearted “Marianne” and the bouncing title tune capture a singularly tight unit of like-minded musicians.
The one traditional tune on the disc is “Bonaparte’s Retreat”. In the liner notes, the band cites the late John Hartford’s suggestion that the tune itself is a battle; they strengthen that image with their rendition, piecing it together into movements that symbolize marching soldiers, cannon fire, retreat, and a battlefield haunted by the dead. Chilling.
