With the latest preview of his upcoming album Earl Jam: A Tribute To Earl Scruggs, the “father of modern bluegrass” according to New York Times, Tony Trischka, has assembled yet another mind-blowingly talented group of pickers and singers to take on one of the gems of the American songbook, “Bury Me Beneath The Willow.” The lonesome fiddle double-stops in the song’s intro? Well, that’s IBMA and Grammy Award winner Michael Cleveland. The soaring tenor voice taking the lead on the tune’s unforgettable verses? That’s unmistakably country music icon Vince Gill.
Backed up by Trischka’s banjo, Brittany Haas on 2nd fiddle, Dominick Leslie on Mandolin, Mike Bub on bass, and Jeff White on harmony vocals, Gill’s voice and powerhouse rhythm guitar drive the tune. “This is the first song the Carter Family recorded for Ralph Peer at the storied Bristol Sessions in 1927,” says Trischka who asked Cleveland to add the song’s slow fiddle intro in a different key. “The result is achingly beautiful!”
“Bury Me Beneath The Willow” is the latest single from Trischka’s upcoming project honoring the man himself in what would’ve been his 100th trip around the sun. Earl Jam: A Tribute To Earl Scruggs, which is due out on June 7th on the newly-formed Down The Road label, is a collection of reimagined tunes culled from long-lost jams between Scruggs, the late, great John Hartford, and many others. Pre-order or pre-save Earl Jam ahead of its release right here.
Listen to “Bury Me Beneath The Willow” today at this link and don’t forget to check out “Dooley feat. Molly Tuttle” and “Brown’s Ferry Blues feat. Billy Strings”—the first single from Earl Jam which Rolling Stone called a “fiery salute to Earl Scruggs”—at their respective links. A list of Trischka’s tour dates can be found below or at tonytrischka.com/calendar.
More About Earl Jam: A Tribute To Earl Scruggs: When banjo extraordinaire Tony Trischka opened his mail one afternoon during the height of the Covid lockdown, he certainly wasn’t expecting to get a visit from his old pal, the late great Earl Scruggs. Of course, it wasn’t Earl at the door, but a mysterious thumb drive full of rare recordings of Scruggs jamming with John Hartford, mostly taken from private gatherings at Earl’s house during the 80s and 90s. Naturally, Trischka began pouring over the more than 200 songs, transcribing the all-new solos, tones, and tricks from the man he’d been studying for over half a century. Inspired, he featured a number of these pieces as part of an overview of Earl’s career, premiering the concept at the venerable Joe's Pub in New York City. When Down The Road’s Ken Irwin heard a recording of the show, he and Trischka agreed there should be an album of this unique material.
Naturally, Trischka couldn’t wait to get his friends and colleagues together to flesh out this new material in the studio, and it wasn’t long before Earl Jam: A Tribute To Earl Scruggs came to be. “Whether or not you’re a banjo player, if you play bluegrass, you’re influenced by Earl. So it was easy to get world-class players on board,” says Trischka. Names like Stuart Duncan, Ronnie McCoury, and Darol Anger fill the album liner notes next to those of Molly Tuttle, Brittany Haas, Dominick Leslie, and Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, creating a cross-generational, genre-spanning band of, let’s face it, a heaping of the best pickers alive today.
Catch Tony Trischka’s Earl Jam On Tour:
Apr. 20 - Rock Hall, MD - The Mainstay
May 3 - Boothbay Harbor, ME - The Opera House at Boothbay Harbor
May 4 - Groton, MA - Groton Hill Music Center
June 7 - Amherst, MA - The Drake
June 8 - Cambridge, MA - Club Passim
June 13 - New York, NY - Joe’s Pub
June 16 - Palisade, CO - Palisade Bluegrass & Roots Festival
July 20 - Oak Hill, NY - GREYFOX Bluegrass Festival
June 28 - Old Saybrook, CT - The Kate
June 29 - Great Barrington, MA - The Guthrie Center
June 30 - Bethlehem, PA - Godfrey Daniels
Aug. 30 - Brunswick, ME - Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass Festival
Aug. 31 - Clarendon, VT - Kingsley Grist Mill National Historic Site
Sept 7 - Remus, MI - Wheatlands Music and Arts Festival
Sept. 21 - Louisville, KY - Bourbon & Beyond Festival
October 5 - San Francisco CA - Hardly Strictly Bluegrass
October 12 - Big Stone Gap, VA - Blue Highway Festival
