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Buddy & Tina Wright Band
Live in Holland
Strictly Country Records SCR-54
By Marianne Ebertowski
 Buddy and Tina Wright
are 16 and 14 years old, they're from Lubbock, Texas and they
play bluegrass. Probably, not many Texan teenagers play bluegrass.
The story gets even more exceptional, because Buddy (fiddle,
banjo, lead guitar and vocal) and Tina (fiddle, mandolin, vocal)
who are getting some help in their band by pop Ray on guitar
and mom Pat on bass and harmony vocal, are African-Americans.
After all, the weird and wonderful world of bluegrass is very
much a white man's world, so what's the attraction for a bunch
of black kids?
Obviously, music is almost never "white" or "black."
Certainly in the case of American traditional music, there has
always been cross-pollination; there is a common cultural heritage.
Buddy and Tina Wright's blend of bluegrass is heavily influenced
by string band, old-time and gospel music which they learned
from their grandmother in South Carolina. Mother Pat recognized
the musical interest of the kids at a very young age and found
them a classical violin and piano teacher for as long as the
money lasted. The kids took it from there themselves. It was
Buddy who recruited father Ray for the band and taught him how
to play the guitar. Pat joined on bass and harmony vocals and
the Buddy and Tina Wright Band could go on the road. In the States
they played churches, they played festivals and last year, the
European World of Bluegrass was happy to invite them over and,
as this album shows, they had the time of their lives, band and
audience alike.
The Live in Holland album was recorded on June 9, 2003
at the Big Bear Festival, the closing event of the European World
of Bluegrass, in Zuidlaren, Netherlands. Produced by American
expat Liz Meyer, it demonstrates Buddy and Tina's musical skills
as much as their youthful charm with which they bewitched the
Dutch audience. It just makes me wish I could have been there
which is exactly what a live recording should be all about.
Those kids swing and rattle their bows with such enthusiasm,
it gives you goose bumps. There is something so wild and reckless
about the Wrights' fiddling, instrumentals like "Ragtime
Annie, "Lee Highway" or "Orange Blosom Specials"
leave you dizzy and struggling for breath. Classical violin
genius Yehudi Menuhin once said, "The violinist is that
particularly human phenomenon distilled to a rare potency
half tiger, half poet." In that sense, the young Wrights
are kittens; you can hear their claws growing when they play
their fiddles. Sometimes their youthful playfulness and enthusiasm
lacks the poetry there are so many notes, it gets crowded
("Blue Moon of Kentucky" and "Tennessee Waltz.")
There's still a long way to go from nursery rhymes to haiku's,
but they have the talents to get there on a fast train.
What is almost more impressive than their instrumental skills,
are their gospel-tinted voices. Tina's warm vibrating voice
makes her sound at least double her age, especially in religious
songs like "My Lord Keeps a Record" and "Swing
Low, Sweet Chariot" - with chilling harmonies provided by
the rest of the family. It gets even better in Frank Devine's
"When the Leaves Have Turned Bron Again," where both
youngsters perform a stunningly beautiful duet with Buddy on
lead. Buddy's voice, wavering between tenor and baritone, eerily
reminds me of A.P.Carter's. Somehow, it is almost shocking that
this is a 16-year-old boy singing. I am sure Buddy's heart wrenching
rendition of Huddie Ledbetter's "In the Pines" would
have impressed Bill Monroe and Kurt Cobain alike.
The Wrights show great respect for musical tradition, but
are self-confident enough to do everything their way. Perhaps
the best proof for their self-confidence is a wonderfully fresh
interpretation of Ralph Stanley's "I Hear a Choo-Choo Coming",
with terrific vocals by Tina and Buddy who also takes the liberty
to prove his pretty mean banjo skills. And above all, these kids
know how to court an audience with great showmanship: the way
they make their fiddles sound like birds'voices in "Listen
to the Mockingbird" would fool a cat or two.
Buddy and Tina Wright's musical skills may still need maturing,
but what they lack in experience, they make good in sheer enthusiasm.
African-American county-singer Stoney Edwards once said, "I
never really got into country music. Country music got into me."
It's probably the same with Buddy and Tina and bluegrass. I
hope that, unlike Stoney, they will achieve the acceptance and
success they deserve.
www.buddyandtina.com
Contact Marianne Ebertowski at ebertowski-at-rockzilla.net
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