New York, NY (Top40 Charts) American
Roots singer/songwriter Grant Maloy Smith digs deep into his family's roots on his latest concept album, APPALACHIA: AMERICAN STORIES, now available through most digital outlets, as well as on CD and vinyl with a 40-page book, from Suburban Cowboy Records.
Inspired by people, places and events relevant to Appalachia, the album features 12 original songs about the impact of coal, faith, family, the opioid crisis, and the call of the mountains.
Track 1, "The Coal Comes Up," honors coal miners by painting a musical portrait of their struggles, not just underground, but aboveground as well. ("Lately, doctor, it's getting hard to breath / I got the miner's lung like Daddy before me.")
"The Coal Comes Up" also touches on poverty ("...I've had mouths to feed since I was ten / That coal put three squares on our table...") and black damp (toxic methane), as well as the integration of miners during a period when most other industries kept workers of different races apart. ("...Hatred, he ain't got no place / There's just one color here; coal's on every face...")
Another coal-themed song, "By And By The Way," was inspired by the 1907 Monongah Mining Disaster of West Virginia, which killed at least 360 miners, and is regarded as the worst tragedy of its kind in American history.
"I had plenty of kin who were coal miners," Smith said. "They were before my time, but I heard stories, including one of my cousins who was killed in a mine accident, and another great-great uncle who was buried alive when a roof collapsed. I wanted to tell a very personal story about miners, looking through their eyes."
The maternal side of Smith's family hails from Eastern Kentucky, so it is not surprising that several of the new songs are based there. "The Red-haired Girl From Hazard" is a musical portrait of his late mother. "Lord, Take Me Home" is about a man driving down Highway 23, Kentucky's legendary Country
Music Highway, to visit his Grammy and mama. He's been working in Ohio and is terribly homesick. "We Got Mountains" is an anthemic tribute to Kentucky's natural beauty and family-centric culture.
The rest of the songs on Smith's album cover the entire region, which includes West Virginia, eastern Tennessee, and the western parts of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. "Down to Hatchabee Road" is a rousing celebration of an old-fashioned river baptism, which might take place anywhere in Appalachia or the South. Another song about salvation, "I Found Faith," features a guest appearance by the Rev. Janice Brown of Ebony & Ivory Ministries in East Tennessee. In "Boone's Five And Dime," Smith reflects nostalgically on the kind of mom and pop stores that were at the heart of every small town back in the day.
Though most songs on APPALACHIA: AMERICAN STORIES are serious, Smith finds humor with "Gas Station Chicken," a toe-tapping tribute to fried chicken and the cute waitress behind the counter. ("Oh, she love me / Oh, Lord, she treat me right / Gas station chicken gonna taste real good tonight...")
Co-produced and mastered by Jeff Silverman of Palette
Music Recording Studio in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, APPALACHIA: AMERICAN STORIES was recorded during the pandemic-lockdown, with participants working remotely and connected via Zoom so they could see and hear each other. Guest artists include Grammy winners Jeff Taylor (accordion) and Rob Ickes (dobro), Grammy-nominated Trey Hensley (acoustic guitar), the Grand Ole Opry's Matt Combs (fiddle), ACM award-winning Mike Johnson (pedal steel),
Jelly Roll Johnson (harmonica), Tim Lorsch (cello),
Frances Cunningham (mandolin, bouzouki) and Matthew Burgess (drums and percussion).
APPALACHIA: AMERICAN STORIES is the follow-up to Grant Maloy Smith's critically acclaimed, Billboard-charting 2017 album DUST BOWL: AMERICAN STORIES. The new album is available through most digital outlets. CDs and vinyl versions are also available through Suburban Cowboy Records. Each physical copy of the album comes with a 40-page, 11" x 11" book of lyrics, credits and stories behind the songs.
More information about the album and Grant Maloy Smith is available at Grant-Maloy-Smith.com.
APPALACHIA: AMERICAN STORIES Track List
1. The Coal Comes Up
2. Down to Hatchabee Road
3. The Red-haired Girl From Hazard
4. Gas Station Chicken
5. Sometimes You're The Holler
6. I Found Faith
7. Boone's Five And Dime
8. Must've Been The Moonlight
9. By And By The Way
10. In This Twilight
11. Lord, Take Me Home
12. We Got Mountains
Running Time: 43:01.
