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CCL: A GATEWAY DRUG
Chatham County Line is the
type of band that appeals to a
unde swath of music fans.
On the surface, the bluegrass
elements are obvious, but dig
ging just a little deeper will
reveal plenty of alt. country,
roots and other Americana ele
ments.
The band released its fourth
LP, IV, this week and will give it a
proper celebration Friday at Cat’s
Cradle.
Assistant Diversions Editor Jamie
Williams chatted with CCL front
man Dave Wilson in advance of that
show about Tift Merritt, bluegrass
as a genre and the good manners of
Dutch audiences.
Diversions: with the new
record coining out this week, you
must be pretty excited.
Dave Wilson: I’m real
excited about this week. It’s time
to get back to work.
I’m getting ready to have a cold
beer and think about it.
Dive: Sounds like a lot of
cold beer goes into making your
records?
DW: Yeah man. why not?
Dive: That's how plenty of
bands start, right? Asa way to
drink beer with your buddies?
DW: One thing led to another,
and, as a big Gram Parsons fan. I
started playing some music with
some fellows and one thing led to
another.
We went on tour with Tift
Merritt for a while, and ended up
getting a record deal. It’s been a
great ride.
Dive: Speaking of Tift, it’s
pretty cool that you guys' record
comes out the week after hers.
DW: I know. I’ve listened to it,
and it is great. I love that girl. We
saw her on the Jay Leno show last
week. We’re still friends with all
them, and I thought it was great.
She really knocked it out of the
park.
Dive: I saw that, too. She's
really making waves.
DW: Totally, man. She's killin'it.
This record’s gonna do a lot for her.
Dive: What about you? Do you
have any goals for this record?
DW: We’re definitely in it for
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COURTESY OF YEP ROC RECORDS
Chatham County Line will bring its lively bluegrass-influenced music to
Cat's Cradle Friday in honor of the release of IV. The Everybodyfields open.
the long run. It started out as a way
to just hang out and have some fun,
but, man, then it turned into a job,
and we really enjoy it.
We just want to keep doing it
and making stronger and stron
ger music, adding to the legacy- of
the genre of music we make. It’s a
dream come true
Dive: You guys definitely have
bluegrass influence, but there is
plenty of other stuff as well. How
do you define the sound?
DW: You can t hide your influ
ence. I mean. I’d never heard blue
grass until college. I had no idea
what the deal was, no idea about
the genre, I spent a lot of years
hanging out with the guys in the
band, and w-e’ve all been in rock
bands.
Everything is gonna show up
when w-e hit record.
Dive: Do you think that draws
in more people who may not like
traditional bluegrass?
DW: That’s what we want.
We re the gateway drug for blue
grass.
Dive: What do you have
planned for the release show this
week?
DW: We re gonna try and get
some special guests out and learn
some weird songs to play. The
Cradle's the best. It's the place we
want to play. I know- we’re from
Raleigh, but the Cradle audience
is just awesome. They are really
respectful and really respect you.
Diversions
Di Ve: Do you have big touring
plans to support the record?
DW: We’re gonna head to
Texas for SXSW and then do a few
Heartland shows. We’re really here,
there and everywhere.
We’ll do festivals in Portland.
New York, over in Ireland. Norway
and some in Holland. We'll do a
w-eek in the U.K.
It’ll be a lot of pickin'.
Dive: How does the Dutch
bluegrass crowd compare to the
Cradle?
DW: They're good. They are so
respectful, and they don't yell out
during the show.
My first time there, I thought
we sucked because no one
responded. There were no rebel
yells or people getting excited,
but you learn from exposure that
they just don’t do that.
They are so polite, and they wait
until the end of the song and then
they pay their respects.
Dive: What do you prefer: the
raucous shows or the crowds that
sit back and just listen?
DW: A good balance between
everything is good. We love the
theater shows, and then we also
love the loud, drunken bar shows.
I mean, that's why we’ve done four
years of Christmas shows at the
Pour House in Raleigh. It's tight and
loud and smoky, but we love it
Contact the Diversions Editor
at dive@ unc.edu.
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CCL gives tradition a kick
BY JORDAN LAWRENCE
STAFF WRITER
Traditionalism is a hard flag to
fly.
When playing traditional forms
such as bluegrass it’s diffi
cult to strike a balance between
vivacious artistic expression and
reverence to the time-honored
expectations of the craft.
Chatham County Line manages
to accomplish both on its fourth
long-player.
Taking exquisitely-played con
temporary bluegrass and garnish
ing it with other country instru
mentation (namely, steel guitar,
harmonica and organ), the band
creates a product that’s warm,
inviting and invigorating.
Captured in wonderful clarity,
/l 'keeps enough familiar bluegrass
elements to lasso the listener right
in.
But thanks to the band's musi
cal creativity and solid songwriting.
Racy ‘Boleyn Girl’ lacks substance
BY DAVID BERNGARTT
STAFF WRITER
Natalie Portman and Scarlett
Johansson star in the racy period
piece about the adulterous King
Henry VIII and his sibling mis
tresses.
Full of sex, cheating, backstab
bing, and yes, even incest. “The
Other Boleyn Girl" still comes off
the Hollywood production line
feeling empty.
Portman succeeds as the manip
ulative and powerful Anne Boleyn,
while she's juxtaposed by her
sweet and unassuming sister Mary
Boleyn (Johansson).
The two are thrown into both
the king's bed and his politics as
- tries to conceive a male heir
and satiate his lust.
Portman is the best talent in
“The Other Boleyn Girl." She's
seductive and treacherous but still
show-s a chord of vulnerability. Her
lines, however, fail to give her a
chance to shine.
The utilitarian script really just
ties the action together rather
than artfully w-eaving dialogue
which is an opportunity- the genre
so easily offers.
The production is the quality
you’d expect from an A-list period
piece.
Chatham County Line also creates
a record that remains interesting
on repeated listens.
Principal songwriter Dave
Wilson delivers tunes full of
delightful country wisdom as
comfortingly obvious as a rock
ing chair and a glass of ice-cold
lemonade on a hot Southern
afternoon.
“You can't thank nobody for a
romance with a postcard." Wilson
wryly jokes on “Thanks" with such
an audible air of good-heartedness
that he might as well have begun
the line w-ith, “Well, bless your
heart.’
Wilson is just as convincing
when he challenges the listener to
match his level of desperation in “I
Got Worry."
But it's the barnstorming social
commentary of "Birmingham Jail"
that exemplifies what Chatham
County Line does best.
Harnessing a fiddle-banjo duel
Great costume work by Academy
Award winner Sandy Powell and
adequate sets do their jobs, trans
porting the audience to 16th cen
tury England.
But the cinematography and
set work leave something to be
desired.
The overly-tight camera shots
and cramped, darkly-lit settings
give a low-budget feel to this big
budget film.
In turn, the few sweeping shots
simply look out of place and make
you wonder why- “The Other
Boleyn Girl" doesn’t offer anything
more aesthetically pleasing than its
young starlets’ cleavages.
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FREE PLAY
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thursday, march 6,2008
MUSIC RE VIEW
CHATHAM COUNTY LINE
IV
UUICRASS. COUNTRY
full of so much fire that it feels as
though it’s been going on forever,
Wilson lashes out with brimstone
laden fury against the racist history
of the South.
‘Birmingham Jail" takes grand
ole bluegrass traditions and plays
them with such perfection that the
song becomes timeless.
With such performances, IV
proves that bluegrass music is one
of those things that just never gets
old so long as it’s delivered with
the confident craftsmanship and
reverence that Chatham County-
Line displays.
Contact the Diversions Editor
at dive@unc.edu.
MOVIE REVIEW'
THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL
The movie could be given kudos
for the interesting and risque plot,
but the real credit belongs to the
truth of history and the book it was
based on.
While it maintains interest, “The
Other Boleyn Girl" is really only as
entertaining as a good history lec
ture on the actual story.
Contact the Diversions Editor
at dive@unc.edu.
7