For
generations of American boys raised in the cities and
suburbs, the ultimate fantasy has been to become a
professional athlete and play for the hometown team.
For James Alan Shelton, the musical version of that
dream came true in 1994 when he signed on as the lead
guitar player for Ralph Stanley’s legendary bluegrass
band, the Clinch Mountain Boys.
In 2003, Shelton shared a Best Bluegrass Album Grammy
Award with the Clinch Mountain Boys for their work with
Stanley and Jim Lauderdale on Lost In The Lonesome
Pines.
Born in Kingsport, Tennessee and raised on a tobacco
farm across the state line near Gate City, Virginia in
Scott County, Shelton grew up steeped in the music of
the Stanley Brothers, the Carter Family, Flatt & Scruggs
and Bill Monroe. In fact, he was raised within 15 miles
of the homeplace of Carter Family patriarch A. P.
Carter. When Shelton was 12, his maternal grandfather
taught him his first licks on guitar. A year later, he
began learning to play the banjo. Like many young guitar
pickers, Shelton had become fascinated by the sonically
complex "cross-picking" guitar style developed by North
Carolina native George Shuffler, who backed the Stanley
Brothers during the 1950s and ‘60s.
Now 46, Shelton and his wife, Greta, live in Church
Hill, Tennessee, just a few miles from his birthplace.
His lifelong love of bluegrass and country music has
given him the opportunity not only to perform and record
with Stanley but also to record projects on his own.
His latest is the solo release Walking Down The Line
on his own Sheltone Records label. His previous
album, Half Moon Bay, released on Rebel Records,
was nominated in 2005 for Best Instrumental Album Of The
Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA).
In contrast to those guitarists who view a song’s melody
as "marker notes"—between which to squeeze in as many
notes as possible—Shelton’s melody-oriented playing
emphasizes his love and respect for the way a tune is
supposed to sound. He also strives for a rich, full
tone on his guitar. His main performing instruments are
a 1946 D-28 Martin “Herringbone” and a custom-built
“James Alan Shelton” signature series guitar from Huss &
Dalton Guitars in Staunton, Virginia.
In his thirteen years and counting with Ralph Stanley's
band, Shelton has become much more than the guitar
player. For nearly 50 years, Stanley had handled
virtually all of the band's business affairs, and it
serves as an impressive vote of trust and confidence
that for several years, he turned over most of the
chores of booking, publicity and road management to
Shelton. Although Stanley is now booked by a Nashville
based agency, James Alan Shelton continues as guitarist,
road manager and ambassador for the band as they travel
at home and abroad, bringing their old-time mountain
style of bluegrass music to fans all over the world.
###
Morris Public Relations
James Alan
Shelton Debuts Album of Classics
Ralph Stanley’s Lead Guitarist Picks With Some Famous
Friends
Nashville
(May 29, 2007) - James
Alan Shelton, the veteran lead guitarist for Ralph
Stanley’s Grammy-winning Clinch Mountain Boys band, will
debut Walking Down The Line, his ninth solo
album, on June 19, 2007.
Walking Down The Line,
on Sheltone Records, is a collection of folk,
bluegrass, and country classics that finds Shelton
mixing it up with some of most renowned musicians in the
business.
Included in this all-star lineup are bassist Barry Bales
of Alison Krauss’s Union Station band and mandolinist
Adam Steffey, a Union Station alumnus
now with Mountain Heart,
acclaimed gospel and bluegrass vocalist Judy Marshall;
banjo wizard Steve Sparkman and fiddler Dewey Brown,
both of the Clinch Mountain Boys; rhythm guitarist and
mandolin-maker Audey Ratliff; and traditional-style
banjoist Daniel Grindstaff,
of Jesse McReynolds’
Virginia Boys. It is a
pickers Paradise.
“I’ve chosen songs that
represent a specific place and time in my own
development as a musician,” Shelton explains. “I feel
that good music is good music whatever the source.”
Shelton’s choices and
executions are dazzling. The album’s title song is a
Bob Dylan composition that has become much beloved in
bluegrass circles. Then there are the hallowed folk
tunes and parlor ballads that everybody knows (by sound
if not always by title)—“Soldier’s Joy,” “Fair And
Tender Ladies,” “Salt Creek” and “My Grandfather’s
Clock.” Here also is Stephen Foster’s wistful mid-19th
century lament, “Hard Times Come Again No More.”
Shelton dips into the Carter Family, Bill Monroe and Roy
Acuff archives, respectively, for “Motherless Children,”
“Methodist Preacher” and “Fireball Mail.” Moving
forward on the calendar, he covers Roger Miller’s
tenderly paternal “Old
Toy Trains”; “Nashville Blues,” from the Nitty Gritty
Dirt Band’s epochal Will The Circle Be Unbroken
album; and Simon & Garfunkel’s majestically forlorn
“Sounds Of Silence.” Rounding out this treasury is the
Tony Ellis homage, “Stephen,” on which Shelton plays
both lead guitar and banjo. In
this age of rapid fire machine gun-like guitar players,
Shelton’s melody oriented style of playing is a breath
of fresh air.
Enhancing the value of
this album are the Shelton-penned liner notes, which
describe the backgrounds of the songs and players in
rich and personal detail.
The album will be available at CDBaby, County Sales,
Music Shed or you may order directly from
the Lonesome Records Catalog/Store
or
www.jamesalanshelton.com.
For more information, go to
www.jamesalanshelton.com .
Contacts:
James A. Shelton
jamesashelton@embarqmail.com
Phone: 423-357-1623
Norma Morris
Morris Public Relations
norma@morrispr.biz
Phone: 615 952-9250
Page 1 |
Page 2
Return to Lonesome Records & Publishing, BMI
|
