Track Listing

1. Head
2. Lordy Lordy
3. Seven Story Mountain
4. Chains
5. Black Bear
6. Colorado
7. Real Love
8. Stillwater Getaway
9. Cold Water
10. Railroad Earth

Product Details

• Released on: 2002-05-21
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Customer Reviews

Be Amazed. Be VERY Amazed
In a world of cookie cutter music, copycat art, and been-there, done-that overfamiliarity, this band is more than a breath of fresh air-it's a hit of 100% oxygen.

I owned the second Railroad Earth CD, "Bird in a House" for three months before ordering "The Black Bear Sessions." I was waiting to grow tired of the former before sending for reinforcements. Then I realized I might never get tired of it.(I haven't).

I'm writing a review of this two year old album to explain what I believe makes Railroad Earth unique and worthy. I know CDs are expensive, and buying anything unfamiliar is a risk. Many with limited budgets stay with the tried and true. But don't worry about future schock. RRE is not so much a band that's ahead of itself, as one that blends great musical elements of the past into a new, intoxicating brew.

Critics have struggled to describe RRE. The most frequent comments include "jamgrass" or "kinda like the Grateful Dead during their American Beauty period." Try this one: "Railroad Earth is like a seventies psychodelic band with Southern rock attitude that's been put in the 21st Century and given acoustic instruments."

Let's analyze just two of the songs on The Black Bear Sessions, which give you a hint at the breadth and skills of these six musicians. The opening number "Head" sets the quality bar near the top right out of the gate. Before you even have your headset adjusted, a banjo drops in to say howdy. This is quickly followed by a high powered vocally-wailed series of "Ohhhhhs" to get your attention, before the rest of the instruments jump in with a fast paced bluegrass groove.

Rick-a-tick drums,thumping base, banjo, guitar and a fiddle soon join the vocals. But it isn't until the third minute of the song that Railroad Earth puts its stamp on the music.

I mentioned Southern Rock, which too often featured coke-fueled 10-12 minute instrumental breaks--but no worry about self- indulgence here. What follows is a three minute chunk of spot-on instrumntal virtuosity that will have your head bobbing and toes tapping.

While many bluegrass bands use their instrumental breaks for individual bursts of virtuosity while the rest of the band plays rhythm and waits their turn, RRE unleashes a full palate of intertwined, now-dueling, now-harmonic instrumental thrusts and parries. Nobody rests on a Railroad Earth song. The result is what might have happened if Wall of Sound pioneer Phil Spector had gone country.

On "head," it's mostly a fiddle and Mandolin pas de deux, calling and responding, challenging each other to even greater moments, before finally joining forces in a co-ordinated, precision picked assault. Each time you listen, you discover new subtlies and genius throughout the tune--and the album, for that matter.

But RRE is nothing if not unpredictable. The third cut on the album, an extraordinary workout called "Seven Story Mountain" will hit you with a rhythmic curve ball that rekindles thoughts of musical legends ranging from Ravi Shankar to Bo Diddley to the Byrds.

It starts with a smidge of arhythmic psychodelia, but before you have a chance to say, "whazzat?" a clean acoustic guitar picks up the rhythm, joined quickly by a fiddle riff that hooks you and holds you throughout. Soon tom-tom drums reminiscent of Mr. Diddleys' jungle-based rhythms-tho not the Bo Diddley Beat itself--join in. A Dobro provides accents and fills, and voices rise in sweet sweet harmony. Too soon the instruments depart one-by-one, as mysteriously as they arrived-but as the man once said-the melody lingers on. You won't believe it was six minutes long. The song is so powerful musically the lyrics may sneak past you. Don't let that happen.

Lead singer and the songwriter on the majority of RRE's music is Todd Shaeffer, blessed with envigorating ability to blend the familiar with the unexpected. His and other tunes sound precise and improvisational simultaneously, drawing from many influences. Shaeffer may be the SpongeTodd Unsquarepants of modern songwriting. He's absorbed it much music, filtered out the bad and given back extrordinary, hook filled music that wears better than a $$$$ suit. But he can't do it alone, and everyone else is up to the challenge.
I am no spring chicken. I was raised on rock and roll, came to country late, and moved to bluegrass almost fulltime when the charlatans took over Nashville. So I've heard and seen-if not all of it, most of it. And I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of bands that have flat out blown me away like RRE.

"Black Bear" creates a bear of a good time
The first exposure I got from this band was at the Telluride Blugrass Festival in 2000 and I thought they were great. About a year later I was pleasantly suprised to see a flyer advertising their appearance at my tiny liberal arts college in Oregon. I experienced this intimate performance which included all of the material from the "Black Bear" recordings. This album is fun and energetic. The artists in Railroad Earth are all very talented and they really enjoy what they do. This is not exactly traditional blugrass for it does have more of a rock quality. However, even if you are a die hard traditional blugrass fan you will still enjoy this. Also those who are fond of country rock, the Grateful Dead, and the Allman Brothers to name a few will find Railroad Earth to be a excellent companion.

Like nothing I've heard before!
I have to thank the previous reviewer for the words on this amazing album! I bought "Bird in a House" in the store and was checking around out here. I love the new one but still never heard "The Black Bear Sessions." If I hadn't read the previous review I might not have gotten it immediately.

This album is completely fantastic!! Sorry I'm no writer and don't know what else I can say except that it's a must have for any CD collection. For me it's up there with "American Beauty!" And that's saying a lot for this old Deadhead!