Clinch Mountain Boy Explores Bluegrass, Folk, Country, Gospel, Pop in 10th Album
NASHVILLE (May 19, 2010)—Acoustic guitar virtuoso James Alan Shelton will release his tenth solo album, Where I’m Bound, on June 1 on his own Sheltone label. Apart from his solo work, Shelton is the Grammy-winning lead guitarist of Ralph Stanley’s band, the Clinch Mountain Boys, a distinction he has held for the past 16 years.
“I decided to stretch out a bit on this album,” Shelton says, “and do some things that you wouldn’t normally expect to hear from a traditional bluegrass guitar player.” In this aim, he has succeeded magnificently, selecting and arranging songs that yield the sonic essence of several genres of music.
Although he is backed on this album by such luminaries as fiddler Dewey Brown (also a Clinch Mountain Boy), mandolinist Audey Ratliff and vocalists Savannah Vaughn and Dan Moneyhun, Shelton is the real instrumental work horse, providing both lead and rhythm guitar parts, bass, banjo, mandolin and vocals.
The 14 songs include the folk masterpieces “Where I’m Bound,” “Pastures Of Plenty,” “Catch The Wind,” “All The Pretty Little Horses” and “Danny Boy,” bluegrass- and country-tinged arrangements of “Rose Conley,” “Cherokee Shuffle,” “Home Sweet Home,” “Theme From Dillinger” (a variation of the Carter Family’s “The Old Gospel Ship”) and Shelton’s self-penned railroad tribute, “Riding On The Clinchfield.” Further enriching the musical brew is a spare and sprightly rendering of the immortal Buck Owens theme, “Buckaroo,” a Beatles classic, “I’ll Follow The Sun,” and gorgeous acoustic renditions of the seasonal favorites, “Do You Hear What I Hear” and “Auld Lang Syne.”
A native of the Yuma community of Scott County, Virginia, and now residing in Church Hill, Tennessee, Shelton earned a Best Bluegrass Album Grammy in 2002 for his part in the Jim Lauderdale/Ralph Stanley collection, Lost In The Lonesome Pines. His earlier albums are Blue In The Blue Ridge (1996), Road To Coeburn (1997), Clinch Mountain Guitar (1996), Standing Room Only (1999), Guitar Tracks (1999), Song For Greta (2002), Half Moon Bay (2004), Walking Down The Line (2007) and Gospel Guitar (2005).
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