Recorded during two fruitful weeks in the mountains right outside the Colorado town which gave the album its name, Durango is the fourth and best “alt-bluegrass” album by ex-Long Ryder Sid Griffin’s outfit, The Coal Porters. This highly anticipated follow up to 2007’s Turn The Water On, Boy! is a clear country-mile step forward. Featuring the amazing fiddle of Carly Frey, the banjo of Europe’s best five-string picker Dick Smith, the songs and mandolin of author/broadcaster Sid Griffin as well as the witty songs of Scotland’s fine guitarist Neil Robert Herd ’tis no wonder Durango is one of the choice musical highlights of the year. Which is why Mojo, Uncut and Q have given it four star reviews!
Produced by the great Ed Stasium (Ramones, Smithereens, Jeff Healey Band, Belinda Carlisle, etc., etc.) the album features two key guest appearances: the first being Tim O’Brien who plays a wild mandolin solo on Roadkill Breakdown and the second being Peter Rowan who duets with Miss Frey on his own song Moonlight Midnight. This is the sound of a bluegrass Clash, of a Bill Monroe for the 21st century, of a folk Goddess, two ex-punks, an Americana founder and …errr…a London lawyer making the best music of not just their careers but their lives. Read what the critics have already said about Durango:
“Griffin’s breakneck bluegrass band has made the album of their career”
**** (four stars) Q magazine
“a feast of highly crafted ensemble playing with the odd virtuoso turn”
**** (four stars)Uncut
“the audio equivalent of a feel-good movie”
**** (four stars) Mojo
“a wonderful achievement by a band that is going from strength to strength”
**** (four stars) Country Music People
You can buy Durango now at the Sid Griffin Store or via amazon.co.uk or amazon.com
In the fall of 1975 and spring 1976, Bob Dylan led a traveling retinue of musicians around America on the two legs of the Rolling Thunder tour. Along for the ride were Joan Baez, Roger McGuinn, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, David Blue, Kinky Friedman, T-Bone Burnett, Allen Ginsberg, Sam Sheppard, Mick Ronson, and dozens more musicians, friends, family and hangers-on.
