J.P. Harris Teams with Chance McCoy for New Album
This could be a really cool project.
Honky-tonker, songwriter, and master carpenter J.P. Harris has been at or near the top of the heap of cool independent country guys for years, and now he’s decided to delve deep into his roots of traditional Appalachian mountain music for his next album entitled Don’t You Marry No Railroad Man, and teamed up with none other than Chance McCoy previously of Old Crow Medicine Show in a collaborative project he calls, J.P. Harris’ Dreadful Wind & Rain.
To be released on Free Dirt Records on June 25th, J.P. Harris says about it, “For many years prior to my country career, I built and played fretless old time banjos, finding community in the somewhat-forgotten world of Appalachian stringband music. One of the enduring friendships from those days is with my dear friend Chance McCoy, who engineered, produced, and fiddled on this album, at his homestead in the remote mountains of southeastern West Virginia in the summer of 2020.”
“This is old time music,” J.P. continues.“It’s not polished or pitch-perfect, it’s not tailored for radio airplay…this is me at my truest and rawest, singing songs of death, deceit, and the devil from the 18th and 19th centuries, playing an archaic and outdated style of banjo. Some of y’all may like it and some of y’all won’t, but it’s honest.”
This is what you get in the album’s first track and video, “Closer to the Mill (Going to California)” filmed with Chance McCoy at Cook’s Old Mill in Greenville, WV (see below), which is not far from the Hunter Springs Studio in Greenville where the album was recorded.
“The lyrical portion of this I heard on an unlabeled cassette tape years ago, later to learn it was an album titled ‘Cornbread Willie’ by The Bristol Brothers. The instrumental arrangement is from a tune recorded by banjo master Reed Martin titled ‘Off To California,’ from the Young Fogies album compiled in the 1980’s by The New Lost City Ramblers.”
The whole album was recorded solely using fretless banjo, McCoy’s fiddle, and vocal harmonies—a far cry from the punchy and sometimes punk-infused honky tonk of J.P’s previous projects, but a welcomed detour to J.P.’s roots of underground fiddle gatherings where he cut his teeth.
The album is now available for pre-order.
TRACK LIST:
1. House Carpenter
2. Closer to the Mill (Going to California)
3. Mole in the Ground
4. Country Blues
5. Last Chance
6. Old Bangum
7. Barbry Ellen
8. The Little Carpenter
9. Otto Wood
10. Wild Bill Jones
April 23, 2021 @ 9:10 am
Great to see Chance McCoy’s name pop up on this project! Looking forward to it!
April 23, 2021 @ 9:25 am
JP is so good. I caught a show of his in a basement bar up in Toronto and he absolutely slayed. I”m surprised more people aren’t on to him. Looking forward to this new record!
April 23, 2021 @ 9:27 am
Can’t wait
April 23, 2021 @ 9:32 am
I love that. I’ve been listening to a ton of Matt Heckler, Benjamin Tod, and The Local Honeys lately and this fits into that genre perfectly!
April 23, 2021 @ 12:13 pm
Local Honeys are so good
April 23, 2021 @ 11:10 am
You never know what to expect from JP, but I didn’t expect this. Not normally my type of music but I’ll check it out. Thanks
April 23, 2021 @ 12:48 pm
I have seen JP a couple times in concert, he puts on a great show!! Great guy! Like what I have heard thus far!
April 23, 2021 @ 1:08 pm
If you like this kind of old-yime music done by honky tonk people, check out Victorian Bailey’s fiddle player Philip Glenn. He has a fantastic album of old time fiddle with some normally electric country players involved. It’s the thing I recommend to people who discover old time music by way of Tyler childers for instance.
April 23, 2021 @ 3:10 pm
Maybe my wheelhouse is bigger than it used to be as I really enjoyed that. I watched the documentary ‘Slim & I’ last night about traditional Australian country music legend Slim Dusty and his wife, songwriter extraordinaire Joy McKean, which was very enjoyable, so it may just be a traditional weekend.
April 23, 2021 @ 9:48 pm
New JP? Shit, gimme gimme gimme
April 24, 2021 @ 12:31 am
JP is the Iggy Pop of country music, always shirtless and always good!!
April 27, 2021 @ 7:36 am
I immediately placed my pre-order, vinyl of course, JP Harris, is my favorite of the last 10 years, I find it really excellent, a solid vocal, a homogeneous instrumentation. Although this album changes style, I can’t wait to receive it.