A common thread

The Biscuit Burners: Take Me Home

In their third album of self-styled “fiery mountain music,” one of America’s hottest acoustic bands gives a fresh Appalachian twang to bluegrass back roads and lonesome highways. Take Me Home includes the heartfelt harmonies and heartbreak ballads you’ve come to expect, along with some rich treats like “Sujan Re,” a Bengali folk song from India. There’s genuine, old-time storytelling in “Drank Up All the Whiskey” and “Annie Oakley,” old-world fiddle-and-banjo dancing in “Grasshopper,” and spitfire spunk in “Sweet Red Wine.”

Since debuting with a self-titled album in 2004, The Biscuit Burners have gone through a few reconfigurations. The current line-up includes Mary Lucey on upright bass and vocals, Odessa Jorgensen on violin and vocals, Dobro virtuoso Billy Cardine and guitar extraordinaire Dan Bletz. Former member Wes Corbett adds banjo to several tracks as well as mandolin wunderkind Josh Pinkham. The Biscuit Burners have played at MerleFest, Bonnaroo and Mountain Stage (to name a few) but still treat their hometown fans to small-venue shows. In October, they’ll be touring in Denmark, Sweden and Ireland, but look for Western North Carolina watering holes to host a few shows before Christmas. www.thebiscuitburners.com

Page Gallimore: Gallimore Road...Relocated

Celtic folk musician Charles de Lint once said, “It’s not so much which road you take, as how you take it.” When it comes to the “road” from Western North Carolina to Australia, singer/songwriter Page Gallimore is happy to indulge her audience in the gifts of the journey rather than the promise of the final destination. Gallimore, who grew up in Brevard, N.C., and wrote her first song for the piano at the age of 12, later moved to the land down under, where she continued to create, blending the palette of her musical roots in bluegrass, gospel, country, and folk songs. 

In this debut album named after a road in Brevard that shares her name, she stretches a lyrical talent across latitudes and moods from the bluesy, “Bad Investment” to the Celtic-charged “Emma’s Spring” to the lovely lullaby “In Madeleine’s Eyes.” By the album’s last track, “The Song,” Gallimore rejoices in the power of music and awakens the traveler within us. 

Her journey becomes our own. Her soulful sojourns become life’s soundtrack. Her songs remind us that no matter how far we stray from home, there are always roads to connect us. www.sonicbids.com/pagegallimore

Public Outcry 

Protest songs find a chorus when enough people from diverse backgrounds come to realize the danger of ignoring the truth. Such is the case with mountaintop removal, a method of coal mining that chops off mountains, extracts coal, and dumps the leftover sediment downhill into surrounding streams and rivers. It’s literally changing the landscape of traditional Appalachian communities like Eastern Kentucky. In addition to dirty wells, landslides and lost ecosystems, the devastation — done largely by massive machines — has actually cut jobs in the coal-mining region. And it goes on largely unnoticed by mass media and the general public. However, a band of singers and writers have joined voices to sing about this plight. Mournful and mindful, Public Outcry offers a plea to be heard before it’s too late. With songs like “We All Live Downstream” and “Gonna Tear Down a Mountain,” they create tender folk ballads and Appalachian anthems out of tragedy. Public Outcry features a talented cast of singers, songwriters, musicians, poets, and authors including Silas House, George Ella Lyon, Jason Howard, Jessie Lynne Keltner, Kate Larken, and Anne Shelby. The album concludes with a final roll call — “Which side are you on?” — and if you’re still not convinced, check out www.ilovemountains.org.