The Ebony Hillbillies 5 Miles From Town

The Ebony Hillbillies
5 Miles From Town
EH Music

One of several African-American string bands to emerge over the past few years, The Ebony Hillbillies have gone from Manhattan street corners to the stages of Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center and TV appearances on the BBC and ABC's Good Morning America. This colorful ensemble is comprised of Henrique Prince - violin and vocals; Norris Washington Bennett - banjo, mountain dulcimer, guitar and vocals, Gloria Thomas Gassaway - Bones (percussion) & vocals; William (Salty Bill) Salter - acoustic bass; Allanah Salter - shaker (percussion) & vocals; Newman Taylor Baker - washboard percussion; and A.R. (Ali Rahman) -(Cowboy) percussion. The best-known member of this group is William Salter who is a co-writer of such legendary pop hits as "Where is the Love" and "Just the Two of Us."

The music on this CD varies from the lively opening fiddle tune "Hog Eyed Man," a lively skittle band cover of "Wang Dang Doodle," an old-timey styled "Darling Corey," and a heartfelt, intimate reworking of "I Can't Make You Love Me." "Carroll County Blues" is an instrumental blues with some outstanding violin from Prince with the percussion enlivening the performance. "Another Man Done Gone/ Hands Up Don't Shoot" updates a traditional blues in light of contemporary police shootings of black men. There is "Fork in the Road," which comes off a string band adaptation of a doo-wop styled ballad, and the old-time gospel of "Where He Leads Me (I Will Follow)."

The album closes with the spirited title track that evokes a square dance performance. It concludes a lively, engaging mix of pop, blues, folk, old-timey country, and jazz that has entertained the streets of Manhattan and concert halls around the world.

I received my review copy from a publicist. This review originally appeared in the January-February 2019 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 382). I was not regularly posting at the time this review was written and published. I just found out that Norris Bennett has just passed away. Here The Ebony Hillbillies perform "Liza Jane."