James Alan Shelton - Walking Down The Line

(Sheltone SR-1961) 2007

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This is a fairly decent CD-R album on James' own Sheltone label, and in addition to the usual mix of instrumental material, it has the distinction of featuring James on lead vocal on three numbers. One such, the title cut Walkin' Down The Line, is a Bob Dylan tune which also was featured for a while at CMB concerts circa 2007, with James singing lead vocal.^[1] According to the 'song-by-song' liner notes however, James learnt the song after hearing The Country Gentlemen's 1971 'Live In Japan' album.

The majority of the banjo work on the CD-R is by Daniel Grindstaff who also worked with Jesse McReynolds, David Peterson, Marty Raybon, Charlie Sizemore, Bobby Osborne and the Warrior River Boys.^[2] He's pickin' style is in the 'Scruggs style, although CMB Steve Sparkman is present on four of the remaining tracks.

Other CMB's present include Dewey Brown on fiddle and James' old friend and noted Mandolin luthier Audey Ratliff.^[3]

Also included are instrumental versions of Simon & Garfunkel classic Sounds Of Silence; Roger Miller's Country Christmas hit Old Toy Trains; Nashville Blues and Fireball Mail via Flatt & Scruggs repertoire; and Bill Monroe's Methodist Preacher.

Judy Marshall (of The Marshall Family fame) also guests on the Carter Family's Motherless Children and Stephen Foster's Hard Times Come Again No More.

As with James' two Rebel albums, he provides a bit of information about each of the players and the song selection in the fold-out liner notes, explaining that the songs were picked "to explore some of the other music from various sources that have touched my life in some way over the years."

"I personally feel that good music, no matter the source. Whether it is a straight ahead, hard driving bluegrass fiddle or banjo number, a good country or gospel song, a flatpicked or pingerpicked guitar tune or an old folk song, I hope that you will find this all good listening music."

Other artwork / related images:

[1] eg. See the FLAC / MP3 files of Ralph Stanley concert at the Sheldon Concert Hall, St. Louis, MO - 16th Nov 2007 from https://archive.org/details/ralphstanley20071116
[2] https://bluegrasstoday.com/daniel-grindstaff-aprils-fool/ https://bluegrasstoday.com/daniel-grindstaff-leaving-marty-raybon/
and the CD liner notes.
[3] Audey spent about eight months helping the CMB's out on bass, after Jack Cooke had to retire due to ill health.