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James Alan Shelton - Song For Greta

(Rebel REB-CD-1785) 2002

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James' first album for Rebel is another splendid collection of mainly instrumentals, with an emphasis on his fluid guitar melodies, and with most of the backing being provided by members of the CMB's.

Highlights of the CD include Song For Greta a finger-picked guitar tune which James' wrote for his wife. This has one of those nagging melodic hooks that stick in your head after a few plays.

North Fork Of The Holston, is another of James' own compositions on which he plays lead guitar / mandolin and had previously recorded as a guitar duet with Chris Jones on the New Standards In Flat Picking Guitar compilation.

Other standards include fiddle tunes Back Up And Push and Down Yonder; and a lovely guitar treatment of the old English ballad Scarborough Fair.

Three tracks feature guest vocals, which help to prevent the CD getting too 'samey'. Fifty Miles Of Elbow Room with Gillian Welch/David Rawlings was recorded by The Carter Family; Shady Grove features Tim Stanford; and the closing track Long Journey Home has Ralph II on lead vocal and John Rigsby on tenor.

When You And I Were Young, Maggie is a reproduction of the banjo/guitar pieces on the Stanley Brothers - America's Finest Five-String Banjo Hootenanny, which although fun, seems to interrupt the flow of the CD (probably 'cause except for it and Long Journey Home, all the other tracks start with guitar rather than a banjo kick-off).

The CD comes with song by song liner notes by James where he mentions that he, Audey Ratliff and Tim Stafford used to teach music out of a music shop in Kingsport, Tennessee about 20 years ago. Audey later stepped into the bass playing spot with Ralph and the CMB's including their last UK tour in 2009.

One track from the CD also appeared on the 'Putumayo Presents... Bluegrass' compilation CD (Putumayo World Music PUT 319-2) 2012, the liner notes to which say that James' grandmother taught him to play guitar when he was 12.