Rose Maddox – $35 And A Dream / Arhoolie CD-428

Description

CD 428

Rose Maddox – vocals; with Byron Berline – fiddle and mandolin; John Jorgenson – guitars and mandolin; Herb Pedersen – rhythm guitar and banjo; Jay Dee Maness – steel guitar; Bill Bryson – bass; Steve Duncan – drums; with additional vocals by Herb, John, Bill, & Rick Cunha.
Except #13 & #14: Rose Maddox – vocals; Merle Haggard – harmony vocal (on #13 only); Fred Maddox – talking (on #13 only); Tim Howard – electric guitar; Jim Howard – steel guitar; Larry White – drums; Donny Maddox – bass; Norm Hamlet – dobro; Steven Grahn – mandolin & guitar.

1994 recordings with Byron Berline and members of The Desert Rose Band plus two selections recorded in 1990 featuring Merle Haggard on harmony vocal and members of his band.

1. Fried Potatoes
2. I Wonder Where You Are Tonight
3. Falling For You
4. Sin City
5. We’re Gonna Let The Good Times Roll
6. Blood Stained Hands
7. Blueridge Mountain Blues
8. $35 And A Dream
9. Cajun Lady
10. Where No One Stands Alone
11. The Place Where Love Comes From
12. Old Train
13. Dusty Memories
14. I Wonder Where I’ll Find You At Tonight
15. Tonight I’m On Stage
16. A Comment From Johnny Cash On Rose Maddox

REVIEW

“When she took the stage at the Grass Valley Bluegrass Festival in California this past June, it was pouring rain “Don’t blame me,” she said “It’s been real nice in Oregon.” And it has the pristine coast, the lush forests, Multnomah Falls, Crater Lake, Rose Maddoxthese are some of Oregon’s treasures.

Rose lives in Ashland, where her brother Don has a cattle spread. But she travels the state, the country and Europe performing her dynamic, inimitable style of bluegrass and country music. Now on the south side of seventy, Rose has been performing since the age of 11, starting with her five brothers on radio in Modesto, California during the Depression. After the war, The Maddox Brothers and Rose became hugely popular and were known as “America’s Most Colorful Hillbilly Band.” Their lively music and rollicking humor endeared them to their generation When Rose plays shows these days, members of the audience will approach her timidly afterwards for an autograph and a memory of an earlier perforance, and Rose graciously remembers them all.

In the fifties, her brothers left the music world Rose continued as a solo, recording and performing with Buck Owens, Johnny Cash, Bill Monroe, and Don Reno. She became one of the great ladies of Country Music, in the pantheon wiith Molly O’Day, Wilma Lee Cooper, Patsy Cline, Rose Lee Maphis, Patsy Montana and Kitty Wells.

In the seventies andd eighties she enjoyed a kind of renaissance playing bluegrass festivals throughout the country. Late in the last decade, however, on her way to a concert in southern California, she suffered a heart attack. After seven bypasses and three months in a coma, she was given a 10 percent chance of surviving. But she rallied and persevered, relearning to walk, talk and sing and returned to the stage, as strong as ever. Rose recently returned from a return engagement tour in Austria and was the featured performer during the September 23-24 Myrtle Creek Bluegrass Festival in Myrtle Creek, Oregon. “$35 and a Dream” is her latest release. This CD is an excellent collection of bluegrass and country classics and originals, demonstrating Rose’s remarkable versatility of style and content. Her enthusiasm is showcased by a stellar collection of backup musicians including Byron Berline and Merle Haggard. Rose’s late brother Fred describes the family odyssey from Alabama to Califomia, and Johnny Cash concludes the album with a wonderful statement about Rose. The album jump starts with swinging fiddle, yanking you back in time to one of those dance halls packed with fans of the Maddox Brothers and Rose. “Fried Potatoes” was one of Fred’s popular novelty tunes, but it had never been recorded commerciallyuntil now. It sets a jubilant tone for the high quality of musicianship and the joyousness of this recording. “Fried Potatoes” is followed by bluegrass standard “l Wonder Where You Are Tonight,” followed by a couple of Buck Owens’ hits, “Falling For You” and “We `re Gonna Let The Good Times Roll.” But before the good times, Rose delivers a somber ballad of contemporary life, “Sin City” by Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman. “Blue Ridge Mountain Blues, ” a traditional country song, really soars with Rose’s relaxed confidence, Pedersen’s sparkling banjo, Maness’s simmering steel and Berline’s flashing fiddle. At first it’s a little disconcerting to hear a legend singing about herself, but “$35 and a Dream,” the title cut, is a loving song describing the archetypal journey from poverty to wealth. The lyrics focus on the Maddox family’s trip from Alabama through the Depression and the Dustbowl to California, the land of opportunity where six siblings really did make a name for themselves. Rose met Texas song writer David Price in Austria and was so taken with his songs she was anxious to record them! Price also wrote “Blood Stained Hands,” a gospel, and “Tonight I’m On Stage,” Rose’s concluding song on this record, and so right that it could become her signature song. Rose heard Carl Kaye’s “Cajun Lady” in Austria, and she scares up a spicy Jambalaya fresh from the bayou. Are there alligators in Vienna?

A change of mood and tempo delivers the plaintive, haunting traditional spiritual ” Where No 0ne Stands Alone.” In another direction, Rose glides through “The Place Where Love Comes From,” a charming melody by southern California songwriter Rick Cunha. But she doesn’t linger long; she’s off on “Old Train, ” Herb Pedersen’s song and a favorite at bluegrass festivals. The next two songs were recorded at Merle Haggard’s studio. Haggard wrote “Dusty Memories” for Rose, and he sings harmony on this historical ballad. Fred Maddox, somewhat out of character, provides serious commentary. Rose stirs up things with Haggard’s honky tonk odyssey, “I Wonder Where I’ll Find You At Tonight.” Then she concludes with the aforementioned “Tonight l’m On Stage,” a life-affirming statement, paying homage to her legend and asserting her continuing presence as an extraordinary singer and entertainer. Johnny Cash’s voice comes as a surprise, albeit a pleasant one. Cash puts a generous and graceful postscript on the album. He speaks of sharing the stage with Rose and concludes, “I thought there was and still think that there’ll never be a woman who could out-perform Rose Maddox. She’s an American classic.”

-Burney Garelick, Bluegrass Breakdown