th' Hillbilly Gypsies

th’ Hillbilly Gypsies - WPSU, State College, PA - 2007.

I was with Trae and Jamie Lynn Buckner in Fairmont, West Virginia when Katrina got the house and everything in it. They are some of the finest human people in the universe and I’m proud as hell that they are my friends.

I was recording an album in Trae’s studio, eating his Granma’s cooking, scratching Bo the dog behind the ears and just generally having a hell of a time. THe storm filled my life up with worry and anxiety. Trae’s family gave me comfort and let me be one of them…

One time, years ago, I asked John Jackson to say something nice about me for my presskit. He went away for a day or so and then called me back and said “Write this down, just like I tell ye…”

”I think he’s a real good musician and a real nice man to go with it. You couldn’t ask for any better. He is a wonderful person.”

So I wrote it down just like that. I thought a minute and said, “Can I put something in there about how you think I’m a genius and a folk-legend?”

He allowed as how he thought I should keep it just the way it was…

Over the years I’ve thought about the compliment John paid me a lot. So I want to say this about that:

Trae Buckner is a hellofa musician - he’s versatile and fluent and expressive on a number of instruments. He’s a patient sound engineer with an astonishing ear. He plays and sings with an exuberance and a joy that is all too often lacking in the musicians I hear working across all genres. And he’s a fine, compassionate, decent, wonderful man who is gentle with his son, loving with his wife and has approached the world with a sense of humor and mischief which infects his music and makes him a personal-pleasure to be around.

Jamie Lynne Buckner has a voice like a nuclear reaction. It’s full of emotion and empathy and it resonates a long time after she’s quit singing - like a well-tuned harmonium. Her phrasing is elegant and powerful. She is a beautiful, generous, quick-witted and wonderful woman who is kind to her husband, proud of her son and has approached the world with a sense of mischief and fun which infects her music and makes her a personal-pleasure to be around.

If you haven’t seen the Hillbilly Gypsies play live, you’ve wasted your life.

Photo by Roger or Regina Asti