![]() A year later, the band amicably disbanded with a large farewell tour and a Grammy-nominated release, Take It Home, featuring perhaps their biggest hit ever, Colleen Malone, winner of Song of the Year from IBMA. With the unexpected success of two of O’Brien’s original songs landing high on the country charts in the late 80s, a career in country music called the lead singer, and led to a contract with RCA Records. The Colorado foursome made regular visits to A Prairie Home Companion, The Nashville Network’s New Country and Nashville Now with Ralph Emery shows, and in 1987 scored a high-profile appearance on Austin City Limits. Hot Rize’s broad appeal made them the most media-exposed bluegrass band of the 1980s with the possible exception of the Father of Bluegrass himself, Bill Monroe. Their Sugar Hill albums Traditional Ties (1985), Untold Stories (1987), and Take It Home (1990) contained numerous bluegrass radio hits and garnered accolades from album of the year selections to a 4-star review in Rolling Stone. Soulful original material helped establish the band in the hearts of the bluegrass community, with standards such as Nellie Kane, Hard Pressed, Walk the Way the Wind Blows, Just Like You, Shadows in My Room, and Midnight on the Highway popping up in jam sessions far and wide. Not just a spoof band, the Trailblazers would earn wild appreciation for both their music and their onstage antics, with an array of guest artists who often looked surprisingly like Western-outfitted familiar bluegrass personalities. Always clearly pointing out that “this is a band of older fellas that travel with us”, Hot Rize would leave the stage and be replaced by the quartet of talented but daffy exponents of “old electric music”… the sounds of Hank Williams and Bob Wills brought to life on vintage instruments, led by the smooth baritone of Red Knuckles himself. Not the least of Hot Rize’s attractions was the regular appearance on their shows of an unpredictable “Western music” band known as Red Knuckles & the Trailblazers. Boys, the Tony Rice Unit, Peter Rowan, and John Hartford, who collectively sowed seeds for new trends in bluegrass that have extended well into the 21st century. The band took its place as a central fixture in the vibrant 1980s scene including important new talents such as the New Grass Revival, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, the Johnson Mt. Plane travel entered the picture increasingly in later years as the band answered invitations to perform in places as far-reaching as Japan, Australia, Finland, Ireland, and throughout Europe.īy 1982, Hot Rize had released two acclaimed albums on Flying Fish, toured Europe twice, appeared on the Grand Ole Opry, and became a leading client of influential agent Keith Case. and Canada at first in a 1969 Cadillac Sedan deVille, and upgraded in 1980 to a converted 1957 Greyhound, visiting 47 states in style over the next decade. The onstage harmonies, banter, and instrumental interplay mirrored the functioning of a tight team who stuck together through 12 years of international touring and recording. Among the four were a sound-system guru (Sawtelle), a booking/management whiz (Wernick, a Columbia Ph.D.), emcee, driving and merchandising expertise (Forster), and Eagle Scout, multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter (O’Brien). Part of the band’s success was based on a remarkable complement of skills, both onstage and off. Sawtelle’s guitar eccentricities earned him the title of “the Bluegrass Mystery” while Forster’s electric bass underpinnings helped forge a modern-yet-traditional sound that earned fans from hard-core traditionalists to a younger progressive-minded audience. ![]() The deep respect of the band for the roots of bluegrass, combined with an offbeat style featuring vintage suits and ties when “stage casual” was the rule with young bands, helped set the band apart. The group jelled as a partnership, developing original material by O’Brien, Wernick and Forster, and a stage show that became known as “the greatest show in bluegrass." With the departure of Scap early on, Sawtelle switched to guitar and multi-instrumentalist Nick Forster completed the band to usher in a 12-year period of full-time work as Hot Rize, that took them to virtually every state and four continents. In short order, O’Brien’s clear, soulful tenor and Wernick’s creative banjo approach set a direction toward a unique and exciting identity. The name Hot Rize was chosen as a nod to a long-time sponsor of bluegrass music, Martha White Flour, whose secret leavening ingredient, Hot Rize, came to symbolize a new force in the music.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |