CD Review

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Bill and Libby Hicks South of Nowhere
Review by Brenda Hough  

Songs:
Dog Passed A Ryestraw
Evenin' Breeze
Big Road Blues
Sugar Hill/Sally Ann
Reelin' Down
Anasazi Premonition
It Hurts Me Too
Turn Out the Lights
Ducks on the Millpond
The Island Rockers
Tear Stained Eye
Beautiful
John Henry
Uncle Charlie's Revenge

Copper Creek Records
P.O. Box 3161
Roanoke, VA 24015

CCCD-0193
c 2001

Personnel:
Bill Hicks fiddle, vocals, guitar
Libby Hicks guitar, vocals, piano
Anna Hicks vocals


Bill and Libby have been playing music together for 18 years and they have developed a synergy that supports each other's instrumentals and vocals. Bill spent many years learning from the traditional fiddlers like Tommy Jarrell in West Virginia. He was part of the Fuzzy Mountain String Band and the Red Clay Ramblers, two groups that were influential in old-time music and bluegrass. Libby's influences were the old bluesmen and she learned over 200 songs in duets with Lightnin' Wells. The CD is an amazing collection of original songs, old-time fiddle tunes and bluesy numbers with Libby's rumbling rhythm guitar and Bill's fiddle weaving around the vocal lines. Bill has four original tunes on the CD: "Anasazi Premonition", "Turn Out The Lights", "The Island Rockers" and "Uncle Charlie's Revenge", all singer-songwriter images of golden moments on the beach, a stolen moment in a motel, and dancing to a Telecaster.

Anna's blues vocals on "It Hurts Me Too" and "Big Road Blues" make these songs her own creation and the guitar work will rival any Mississippi Delta wanderer. Their daughter Anna joins them on several songs and their harmonies together are seamless and a joy to hear. This CD is like peeling and eating an orange; there are wonderous parts to be savored and it is worth the time to take each song and hear it over and over and extract the many nuances in each segment.

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