Lay Down My Burden – Grant Dermody & Friends

Released: February 2010

by Richard Sleigh–

Grant Dermody is a Seattle based harmonica player, music instructor, vocalist and song writer who has honed his skills over the years playing with acoustic bluesmen John Jackson, Guy Davis, Honeyboy Edwards, John Cephas and Phil Wiggins, Louisiana Red, bluegrass guitar wizard Dan Crary, and a variety of top notch old timey and folk / blues musicians. In recent years he has been touring with Eric Bibb and appears on two of his CDs "Spirit I Am" and "Booker's Guitar". He also plays in an acoustic trio with Orville Johnson and John Miller, in a duo with guitarist Frank Fotusky, and in the eclectic acoustic old-time band "The Improbabillies".

Lay Down My Burden is a recording that is drenched in the blues, and has some hard-core blues on it, but it is not a blues record. If you need a label, you could call it American Roots music. It is the music of immigrants who came to America for a new life, strangers in a strange land, freedom seekers, slaves, indentured servants, the lunatic fringe and the divinely inspired. They all brought musical traditions that collided and created a rich landscape of new musical expressions.

Grant dives deep into this musical landscape through his mastery of the diatonic blues harmonica, and a kind of blues that can seep into an Irish fiddle tune, a modal Appalachian melody, old-timey music, gospel music, and popular music of the last few hundred years.

This song cycle took form during a time in Grant's life when he lost of both of his parents, his wife Eileen, and a couple of close friends. You might expect dark, melancholy music to come out of a time like this, but instead what you have is music full of the joy that is the essence of the blues.

I heard a two-word phrase in an interview with Coleman Barks that nails this essence of the blues. Coleman translated thousands of poems by the Persian mystic, Rumi. He described the timeless quality that Rumi and his fellow Sufi mystics brought to their work with the phrase "ecstatic grief". Ecstatic grief sounds at first like an oxymoron, an impossible state, but it describes a wholeness that feels good, excludes nothing, is full of darkness as well as light. To feel the deepest emotions from sorrow to joy at the same time, and to live to tell about it.

As Grant puts it: "You just find yourself reaching down for strength you didn't know you had. Or if you thought you had it, you didn't know where it was. A lot of it is just showing up and doing what you have to do. You persevere, you look for joy where you can find it - and that's the blues."

There are two songs back to back on this recording that express the extremes of this ecstatic grief that is the blues.

"Hard Time Killing Floor Blues" has the late John Cephas on vocals and guitar, Grant on harmonica. This was John's last recording and he expresses the almost unbearable heartache and desolation of Skip James with an immediacy that could only come from a lifetime spent living the blues. Grant meets him right where he is with his Marine Band harmonica, following him note for note into this haunting sonic landscape.

There is an extra-long pause after this cut, and I assume it is there on purpose to give you a chance to catch your breath and let what just happened sink in.

What follows is an ecstatic romp called "Rain Crow Bill", two harmonicas chasing each other through a delirious version of an old-timey / blues harmonica instrumental by Henry Whitter. Fat chord rhythms, fox chase whoops and hollers, and melody lines with the exuberance of first graders pouring out of school for recess. Mark Graham joins Grant on this and somehow they manage to get through it without falling down laughing.

Grant recorded with twenty six of his friends on this project, people with incredible chops in a wide range of musical styles. The combinations range from duets to a full band with drums. Grant got his start working with other musicians at the age of 18 in Fairbanks, Alaska. Fairbanks was at that time a wild renaissance town, a creative outpost of folks building their own houses and going back to the land. They also had a vibrant music scene with a dozen places to hear live music on any given night. Everything from Blues to Bluegrass, Old Timey, Irish, to straight ahead Rock 'n' Roll. Grant found a way to play it all on the harmonica, how to back people up, how to learn things on the fly, when and how to take a solo.

There are many highlights on this recording: Grant sings lead vocal on 8 of the 16 songs, including the Reverend Gary Davis tune "I'll Be Alright" with Eric Bibb on guitar, a lonesome banjo and harmonica version of Dirk Powell's "Waterbound", and an a cappella arrangement of Stephen Foster's "Hard Times Come Again No More". Grant also wrote 3 of the tracks including the title cut "Lay Down My Burden" a riff tune that built into a full band arrangement. Grant's work as a harmonica sideman with blues greats John Dee Holeman, Louisiana Red and John Cephas is raspy, raw, and right in the pocket. There is also a righteous harmonica duet with harmonica master Joe Filisko, "Twelve Gates To The City", a gospel tune with a heavy dose of Sonny Terry style harmonica.

The last track takes us to yet another level. As Grant put it "This started as a record I wanted to do with people I respect musically, and it turned into something cathartic, something healing, something to help Eileen and me during the hardest thing we ever went through. It was becoming a prayer and I thought what better way to end the record than with an actual prayer by my Buddhist teacher, Kilung Jigme Rinpoche."

Orville Johnson's dobro and Grant's harmonica meet this prayer with startling harmony.

This is a fitting end to this musical trip that will grow on you and with you every time you listen to it.

Lay Down My Burden – Grant Dermody & Friends

Released: February 2010

by Fabrizio Poggi –

Grant Dermody is a wonderful harmonica player, singer and composer, originating from Seattle in the state of Washington. Much appreciated also for his teaching, Dermody usually plays in an acoustic trio with Orville Johnson and John Miller, or as a duo with the guitarist Frank Fotusky, all of whom are present on this CD. Deeply influenced by harmonica players such as DeFord Bailey and Sonny Terry, in the course of his long career Grant has also appeared on stage with great bluesmen such as Honeyboy Edwards, John Cephas and Phil Wiggins, Big Joe Duskin and my friend Guy Davis; and he has worked with musicians of the calibre of Dan Crary. For some years he has regularly collaborated with another great friend of mine, Eric Bibb (who also appears on this CD) with whom he has often duetted. His sweet and full-sounding harmonica can be heard on two of Eric's albums: "Get on Board" (released in Europe as "Spirit I am") and "Booker's Guitar". Dermody has also worked with Eric's father, the great folk singer Leon Bibb. This is his third solo effort since the notable "Crossing that River" of 2003.

The disk has 16 tracks in which Grant plays the best of acoustic country blues with occasional forays into folk and old time. Dermody's music is fresh, delicate and gentle but never over the top, and executed with few but telling instruments: a guitar, a violin, a banjo and little more. From a mixture of classics, traditional and original compositions what comes across is not just the skill of Grant on the harmonica, but also and above all his philosophic approach to life made up of simple values, like the relationship with family and friends and respect for nature. The guest performers join in to great effect: the above-mentioned John Cephas (present on the last track, an extraordinary version of "Hard Times Killing Floor Blues" by Skip James), Eric Bibb and Orville Johnson are joined from time to time by Darick Campbell, Rich del Grosso, Rich Hill, Joe Filisko, Mark Graham, John Dee Holeman, Louisiana Red, Del Rey and many others. The most striking songs were: "I'll Be Alright" by Reverend Gary Davis, "It's My Soul" a splendid reworking of a beautiful song by Ronnie Earl, an exquisitely poignant "Amazing Grace", "Hard Times Come Again No More" by Stephen Foster - sung a cappella, "Waterbound" by Dick Powell, the traditional "Twelve Gates To The City" and "David's Cow", the evocative "Evening Train" (written by Dermody himself), the touching "So Sweet", "You Don't Have To Go" by Jimmy Reed and "Vajra Gura Mantra", a subdued Tibetan supplication.

This is a recording of great spirituality, which Grant dedicated to his own parents and to his wife Eileen who died not long ago. A life partner who one day wrote a few lines imbued with wisdom which summarised the significance of existence, when she said: "Our life is a poem, a prayer and a love song". Divine words, words which warm the heart just like the tracks onthis small marvellous CD.

Lay Down My Burden – Grant Dermody & Friends

Released: February 2010

by Vicente Zumel –"La Hora del Blues"

El nuevo trabajo acústico del cantante y armonicista Grant Dermody es un pedazo de disco, además de un proyecto ambicioso, en la medida de que en él han participado un considerable número de músicos de gran categoría y prestigio. Todo ello ha redundado en la calidad intrínseca del álbum, con un puñado de dieciséis canciones variadas, intimistas, sobrias y creíbles, porque ciertamente Grant Dermody cree en lo que hace y que no es otra cosa que blues sin contemplaciones, y sin concesiones a otros géneros. Entre los más de veinticinco músicos que participan quiero resaltar a Eric Bibb, John Cephas, Rich Del Grosso, Joe Filisko, Louisiana Red y Del Rey. Este disco es una auténtica celebración, con mucha sustancia musicalmente hablando y estoy seguro que cuando lo escuchéis, vuestra alma y vuestro espíritu se enriquecerán enormemente y daréis las gracias por haberlo descubierto. MUY BUENO.

I can only tell you the new acoustic work of singer and harmonica player Grant Dermody is an amazing cd, besides an ambitious project, A good number of musicians of great status and prestige have been involved on it, which has been decisive for the final album quality. Sixteen varied, intimate, restrained songs, performed with honesty, as Grant Dermody certainly believes in what he is doing, that is nothing but real blues, without concessions to other genres. More than twenty musicians have been involved on the cd, so let me only mention such great names like Eric Bibb, John Cephas, Rich Del Grosso, Joe Filisko, Louisiana Red and Del Rey among others. The album is a true celebration, with lot of musical substance. When you listen to it, your soul and your spirit will be pleasantly surprised and you will be thankful to have discovered it. GREAT.

Lay Down My Burden – Grant Dermody & Friends

Released: February 2010

by Mike Regenstreif

I was quite impressed, in 2003, with the debut album by Grant Dermody, a Seattle-based singer and harmonica player. As I wrote in Sing Out! magazine, “Despite the diversity of the collaborations, the tastefulness of Dermody’s harp, his relaxed vocals and a good choice of material, make for a nicely cohesive album...I’m looking forward to hearing more of Dermody’s playing on future projects.”

Earlier this year, in a review of Eric Bibb’s great album, Booker’s Guitar, I said, “the only other musician is harmonica master Grant Dermody. Grant’s playing is always creative – I especially like his use of chromatic harmonica on “Flood Waters” – and complements Eric’s singing and playing beautifully. Eric and Grant’s playing together is some of the finest guitar-harmonica duo work since Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee were in their prime.”

Lay Down My Burden, Grant’s second solo album, is also a fine effort in which he and various collaborators offer fine examples of various blues and gospel styles and also occasionally delve into old-timey country music.

The album opens with one of my favourite tracks on the CD, a sweet version of the Reverend Gary Davis spiritual, “I’ll Be Alright,” which kind of picks up where Grant and Eric left off on Booker’s Guitar, except that it’s Grant singing the lead vocal on the gentle, optimistic song along with Eric’s sublime fingerpicking and some equally sublime harmonica playing by Grant.

From there the album moves on through a series of other collaborations ranging from full band settings to unique combinations with one or two other musicians to several tracks in which Grant backs up older bluesmen John Dee Holeman, Louisiana Red and the late John Cephas.

A couple of the most interesting tracks are harmonica duets. “Rain Crow Bill,” sees Grant and Mark Graham trading harp licks and whoops in the tradition of Sonny Terry (in fact, I have a recording of “Rain Crow Bill” from the 1940s in which Sonny and Woody Guthrie are trading harp licks and whoops). On “Twelve Gates to the City,” the second harmonica is ably played by Joe Filisko.

A few of the other highlights include “David’s Cow,” a playful guitar-fiddle-harmonica hoedown; a sad version of Dirk Powell’s “Waterbound”; and a beautiful a cappella arrangement of Stephen Foster’s “Hard Times Come Again No More” in four-part harmony.

Most of the songs on this album – whether drawn from the traditional repertoire or from Grant’s own song bag – feel timeless.

Lay Down My Burden – Grant Dermody & Friends

Released: February 2010

Harmonica World review
by Pat Missin

Grant Dermody has been one of my favorite harmonica players for some time.
His ensemble playing with the wonderful old timey group The Improbabillies, his accompaniment work with singer/guitarist Eric Bibb and his first solo album "Crossing That River", have all demonstrated his ability to play within tradition yet still sound fresh and inventive.

This album was recorded during a rather difficult period in his life, losing several close friends and family members within a short time, so he could be forgiven for making a sorrowful introspective set of songs. However although at times there are touches of sadness to the music, there is also a lot of joy, celebration and hope.

This is not a harmonica album as such, although the harmonica is present on almost every track. The album seems to be more about the musical interaction between Grant and his guest musicians - and there is no shortage of guest musicians here!

More than two dozen other singers and instrumentalists lend their skills to the project, including guitarists Eric Bibb, John Miller, and Del Ray, mandolinists Orville Johnson and Rich Del Grosso, fellow harmonica players Joe Filisko and Mark Graham, banjoist Richie Stearns, bluesmen Louisiana Red and John Cephas, plus Grant's late wife Eileen on vocals on a particularly poignant a cappella version of Stephen Foster's "Hard Times Come Again No More".

From a blues harp point of view, the standout tracks have to be the harmonica duets - with Mark Graham, on a spirited rendition of Henry Whitter's "Rain Crow Bill" and with Joe Filisko on a Sonny Terry-derived "Twelve Gates To The City" - but I think my personal favorites are are the string band romp through "David's Cow" (which blues harp buffs will probably recognize as being DeFord Bailey's "Davidson County Blues", originally inspired by Cow Cow Davenport's "Cow Cow Blues") and Grant's beautiful vocals on the banjo-accompanied old-time tune "Waterbound".

Despite the sheer number of guest musicians and the wide range of musical styles - from blues and old-time country, through gospel and even a Buddhist prayer chant - Grant ties everything together to give a strongly cohesive feel to the whole album, making it much more than a collection of individual tunes.

Deep emotions and superlative musicianship are all too rare these days, but "Lay Down My Burden" has both in abundance.

Lay Down My Burden – Grant Dermody & Friends

Released: February 2010

The Sunday Night Blues Project

Grant Dermody plays harmonica and sings. On "Lay Down My Burden," his third solo recording, he brings together a wonderful set of acoustic country blues songs and a great group of players. The mood is gentle, but the playing is top-notch on every song.

It's a Sunday afternoon kind of set, and it is Sunday afternoon as I write this review. The talent of the guests here is mind-blowing, and includes John Cephas (his last song is a great cover of Skip James' "Hard Times Killing Floor Blues") Eric Bibb, Darick Campbell, Rich Del Grosso, Rich Hill, John Dee Holeman, Orville Johnson, Louisiana Red, Del Rey, and a host of others.

The songs range widely as well, from Rev Gary Davis' "I'll Be Alright" to Steven Gomes & Ronnie Earl's "It's My Soul" to a very nice cover of "Amazing Grace" to Stephen Foster's "Hard Times Come Again No More" (done a cappella in 4 part harmony) to Jimmy Reed's "You Don't Have To Go" and a Tibetan prayer "Vajra Guru Mantra" with a few traditional songs and three Grant Dermody originals. Louisiana Red sings and plays guitar on his original "Where Is My Friends?" There are a grand total of two songs here which feature drums--played quite well by Dale Fanning. Instead of the drums most of the time there are a few instruments, a few voices, and these great songs come to life.

I think the best things here are a great spin on Dick Powell's "Waterbound" with Richie Stearns on banjo and Grant's harp and voice, and the traditional instrumental "David's Cow," with very fine violin by Scott Meyer, guitar by Forrest Gibson and Grant on harp. Both of those songs are as good as anything done by anybody I have heard this year.

The cd is engineered by Garey Shelton and produced by Orville Johnson, who also plays dobro on "Amazing Grace" and "Vajra Guru Mantra" and mandolin on "Evening Train" and "First Light." Liner notes are by Phil Wiggins.

This is a terrific cd, full of humanity and dignity and art. Every time I play it I am reminded of the beauty of music played well.

You can buy it at http://www.bluebeatmusic.com/

Lay Down My Burden – Grant Dermody & Friends

Released: February 2010

Jerome Clark

A Seattle-based harmonica player who usually tours with rooted singer-songwriter Eric Bibb, Grant Dermody was cutting this album when his wife Eileen died after a two-year battle with cancer, two months following Dermody's mother's passing. One would expect Lay Down My Burden to be tinged with sadness, and it is, but against manifest odds it manages not to be bleak and despairing. Endurance and an unsentimental sense of hope are the prevailing emotions in this austerely beautiful, mostly acoustic recording, which draws from folk, blues, hymns, gospel, originals and contemporary sources.

Though he considers himself primarily a blues musician, Dermody wisely does not attempt to mimic the downhome vocal styles of an earlier generation of African-American performers. He sings comfortably in his own satisfyingly expressive voice, bringing to mind other first-rate blues-influenced Euro-American folk musicians such as Geoff Muldaur and Paul Geremia without sounding like either or, really, anybody except himself. Occasionally, vocal duties are handed over to the likes of blues veterans John Cephas (on Skip James's 1931 classic "Hard Time Killing Floor"; on the new version, Cephas, who died in 2009, made his last recorded appearance), John Dee Holeman (in a gritty version of Jimmy Reed's "You Don't Have to Go") and Louisiana Red (on his own "Where Is My Friends?" -- no typo, by the way).

Working alongside a host of notable guests (at least by the standards of current blues and folk artists) such as Bibb, Del Rey, John Dee Holeman and Mark Graham, Dermody puts down a succession of sterling arrangements. On occasion the material is much traveled, two obvious examples being "Twelve Gates to the City" and "Amazing Grace," the latter a stunner in a harmonica-led instrumental arrangement. Dirk Powell's eerily conceived rewrite of the traditional Appalachian lament "Waterbound" is -- deservedly -- something of a modern folk standard. Stephen Foster's "Hard Times, Come Again No More" has been a frequent, never unwelcome presence in the roots repertoire since the Red Clay Ramblers pulled it from obscurity in the 1970s. If something like warhorses, they're all done with sincerity and conviction, and even the most cynical listener will be hard-pressed to object to hearing them again. Dermody balances these with relatively more obscure, invariably interesting songs.

Lay My Burden Down, which has the appeal of the sort of old-fashioned folk-revival recording some of us grew up with, carries the hard-won wisdom the tough take from tragedy. This will surely be ranked among the essential roots albums of 2010.

Lay Down My Burden – Grant Dermody & Friends

Released: February 2010

Simon Field

Cards on the table. This is only the second harmonica album I have ever bought. That said, calling it a Harmonica album doesn't do it justice or properly describe it. This is a country blues album, with a huge cast of fantastic musicians, in which the focal point happens to be a fine harp player and singer. There's barely a shuffle in sight, and you certainly won't find any 72 bar harp solos.

Crucially (and perhaps unusually) Grant Dermody's harp never dominates the songs here; it serves them tastefully. Perfectly even. Its all about the songs.

Back to the huge cast- the CD kicks off with Eric Bibb on guitar, delivering a subtle finger picked rendition of Gary Davis' I'll Be Alright to accompany Grant's gentle vocal and laid back harp.

Amazing Grace is a standard (and perhaps a cliché) but hits the right spot. Full of atmosphere but somehow unsentimental, the track features Orville Johnson's unique dobro sound, partnered with lap steel and held together by John Miller's acoustic guitar. The smooth beginnings grow into an unexpected crescendo and a good deal of life is breathed into what is a very familiar old hymn.

John Cephas' last recording, a rendition of Hard Time Killing Floor, sees Grant take a back seat to Cephas' vocals and guitar, but as ever the harp is perfectly measured and exactly compliments the song.

Waterbound deserves a special mention. Sparse banjo and a beautiful haunting melody, delivered by Grant with passion and intensity. I'm not familiar with the song, but its one of those tunes that sounds like I've probably known it forever, without happening to realise it.

What I quickly realised on listening to this music, is just how much I enjoy Grant's vocals. He readily switches from soft to booming, but the latter is never ill judged or overdone. The tone is pure and absolutely natural. There are no affectations here, no attempts to try to sound like an old black bluesman. Just Grant Dermody singing loud and clear, from somewhere deep down in the gut.

First Light is another early favourite for me. A Dermody original with an agreeable thumping groove (driven by acoustic bass) and infectious rhythmic mandolin from Orville Johnson.

Notable further contributors to the generous 16 tracks include Frank Fotusky, Louisiana Red, Rich Del Grosso and Del Rey, among many others.

I can do no better in summing up the essence of this CD, than to borrow Grant's quote from the sleeve:

Eileen said to me once that our life is a poem and a prayer and a love song. Not too surprisingly, so is this recording.

Hugely enjoyable and highly recommended.

Lay Down My Burden – Grant Dermody & Friends

Released: February 2010

Mark S. Tucker

Grant Dermody is one of the few blues cats who, beyond singing, plays harmonica and only harmonica. This concentration has allowed the cultivation of a rich palette of inflection, tone, and breadth. Because of that, he reaches beyond the narrower confines of the genre, landing more fully in Norton Buffalo territory cross-sliced with a very generous tang of John Mayall (and if you want a companion piece to John's celebrated Room to Move, bend an ear to Rain Crow Bill here). In fact, along with Buffalo, he's one of the very few players whose skill argues for the inclusion of the harp as an unusual orchestral instrument—were we only to have a Ferdi Grofe or William Russo type composer still around.

For back-up on this disc, Dermody recruited an armada of skilled players, some very well known: Del Rey, Louisiana Red, John Cephas, and others. The sound is mostly stripped down, nailing an open sky atmosphere, and his voice carries a bit of John Sebastian but tends to the monotonic. The entirety of the CD is acoustic and frequently dips into folk and gospelly airs, though the title cut is surprisingly patina'ed with folk-rock and light jazz. Much of the entire enterprise is an elegy to Dermody's late wife Eileen, who sings alto on the a capella Hard Times Come Again No More, and to his mother, who passed two months after Eileen, who was battling cancer.

The lama Kilung Jigme Rinpoche apears on the closing track, in a dreamy rendition of the trad Vajra Guru Mantra, standing as a reminder that the entire world has lament musics, not just American blues. Lay Down My Burden is an extremely well wrought tapestry of roots musics crafted in Dermody's mode of syncresis resulting in a CD that treads ground alongside those he admires—people who, in the words of liner writer Phil Wiggins, "keep moving forward". Thus, it closes the chapter on tragedy quite nicely while opening the door to new days and the future without diminishing either.

Lay Down My Burden – Grant Dermody & Friends

Released: February 2010

Mark Hoffman

Sacred harp—not the shape-note kind, but the three-hole draw kind, filled with deep, spiritually rich blues, gospel, and old-time music. That’s Grant Dermody’s new CD. He’s accompanied by 26 top roots musicians, including Eric Bibb, Darick Campbell, Joe Filisko, Mark Graham, Rich Del Grosso, John Dee Holeman, Orville Johnson, John Miller, Louisiana Red, Del Rey, and others. Also his mentor John Cephas, whose last recording is here: an ethereal version of Skip James’s Hard Time Killing Floor Blues. Dermody knows a lot about hard times. Within the last year, his wife, Eileen, and both of his parents also passed away. He threw himself into this CD with a passion, and it shows. The arrangements of these traditional and original songs are stately and elegiac, and his rich-toned, soulful harmonica elevates every syllable. Treasures abound, such as a spritely version of “Twelve Gates to the City” propelled by Dermody’s and Filisko’s whoppin’-and-hollerin’ harps. An original, “Evening Train,” that chugs along on the driving wheel of Del Rey’s metal-body guitar and Dermody’s huffing harp. An a capella “Hard Times Come Again No More” featuring Dermody’s late wife. Even a Tibetan prayer chanted by his Buddhist teacher Kilung Jigme Rinpoche. The CD was mixed by Michael Bishop, a nine-time Grammy winner. All in all, this is the kind of deeply felt, gracefully played CD that can ease any burden.

Lay Down My Burden – Grant Dermody & Friends

Released: February 2010

Bob Tilling -

There are twenty six guest appearances on this set and often when I see long lists of guests it makes me feel apprehensive that the album may be a little too diverse in style - but I am pleased to say that I was completely wrong about this set, especially as among the guests are John Cephas, John Dee Holman and Eric Bibb. I enjoyed every moment of this very entertaining set where Dermody is very much the front man while allowing his guests to express their own personalities

Seattle, WA, based harmonica player and vocalist Dermody has been touring and recording with Eric Bibb for some while now, and on the opening, Rev. Gary Davis title, I’ll Be Alright they work sympathetically together. The lyrically delicate guitar picking from Bibb is a perfect match to the rich textured harmonica tone from Dermody making this a perfect start to this sixteen track session.

Dermody has a range of musical styles and influences where the blues play an important role and this is very evident on the second title It’s My Soul, from the Steven Gomes and Ronnie Earl stable, which powers along at a great pace after the successful lilting opener. It was a real delight to hear John Cephas join Dermody on Skip James’s 1931 classic Hard Time Killing Floor Blues and is one of the most compelling moments of this highly recommended set. This is a rare recording of Cephas recording with another harmonica player other than with his long time musical partner Phil Wiggins. Cephas is one the best exponents of James’s material and the duo here certainly capture the eerie quality of the 1931 original to perfection.

I have never been much of a fan of harmonica duo’s but the two here have helped me change my mind! The first with Mark Graham entitled Rain Crow Bill was composed by the legendary Henry Whitter and drives along with a timeless feel, suggesting at times, the style of the harp maestro Sonny Terry, and on the traditional Twelve Gates To The City, Dermody with Joe Filisko gives this much recorded classic a fresh and engaging outing. On Jimmy Reed’s You Don’t Have to Go Dermody plays some gritty harp alongside the gutsy guitar picking and vocals from, the National Heritage Fellowship award winner, John Dee Holeman. The vocals from Louisiana Red, on his own composition Where Is My Friends?, have a warm and weathered quality and the dexterous mandolin from Rich Del Grosso add to the infectious tension.

This beautiful, balanced album was produced by Orville Johnson, a long time fellow recording and performing partner of Dermody, and appears on four tracks playing both mandolin and Dobro. His Dobro playing on the evergreen Amazing Grace adds tremendous class as does the refined guitar picking from John Miller. There is a sense of Blind Boy Fuller’s jaunty style on So Sweet with some strident guitar from Frank Fotusky all adding to the enjoyment. It is not possible to mention all of the guests on this album but everyone involved has given a fine contribution on this beautifully recorded and balanced set.

There are three intriguing originals where Dermody illustrates that he is willing to wear his heart on his sleeve. I particularly enjoyed Evening Train which hits a hypnotic groove helped along by the confident guitar picking of Del Rey while the vocals from Dermody are natural and engaging. The past three years have not been easy for Dermody, in particular with the loss of his wife Eileen who passed away last year during the recording of this album. This is a very strong outing from a gifted and highly respected performer and teacher, and the sincere notes from Phil Wiggins all add up to make this a disc worth adding to any serious collection.

Lay Down My Burden – Grant Dermody & Friends

Released: February 2010

Cathi Norton -

It’s hard to sum up this record. It would never fit into a category, for it is a journey— a story gently told by instruments and voices, old and new. This album came together over a period Grant describes as one of the toughest of his life, when his world was shaken by the passing of several loved ones central to his world. “It could have turned out to be a dirge, but it didn’t,” he said almost in wonder. He’s right, instead of a dirge it is a work of singular power, a testament given by Grant and his many friends to musical healing.

Old-time traditional musical styles—country blues, bluegrass and folk—seem to have largely fallen out of popular favor in recent years, though many students have followed the trails left by genre masters and spent time learning to replicate their styles. What drove past styles to greatness was the feeling and soul with which they were created. If the musician—or the listener—does not feel or understand that, the songs sound lifeless and stale. Rare are musicians who can hear, understand, and express that “feeling” and bring it once more to life. Rarer still are the ones who can add something to old styles that combines respect for and attention to what has gone before, yet adds something delightful and “true” to carry them even further. This disc is a wonderful example of that melding.

Listening is a fading art. Grant’s adventures in music are diverse yet he clearly listens to learn and savor. His harmonica work testifies to this. Never does he “step on” or “step out in front” of the music to its detriment. He’s a team player who cannot help but be noticed—because his harmonica playing supports when it should, is technically stunning, and always adds to the whole. No mishmash of instrumentation here…spare, yet tasteful accountings of each style grace every song. On a single disc we hear Eric Bibb’s soulful guitarwork, Rich Del Grosso’s mandolin, three lowdown blues tunes with wonderful old-timers John Cephas, John Dee Holeman, and Louisiana Red, a stellar harmonica duet with harp-maestro Joe Filisko, plus the wonderful work of Del Rey, Orville Johnson (who also produced the disc) and many other great players. Grant and friends move seamlessly between bluegrass, country, and blues, as the listener is joyfully propelled along Grant’s musical/life adventure. For goodness sakes we even hear an a capella Stephen Foster tune—and the collection ends with a Tibetan prayer/mantra voiced by Kilung Jigme Rinpoche— accompanied by Grant on harp and Orville Johnson on dobro!

Grant’s vocals themselves sometimes waiver, yet somehow always meld in with the “true-ness” of expression that characterize the work of his fellow musicians and the journey of this album. What delights are seen (and heard) along the way if we but look and listen. Like recognizing an old friend on a foreign street when you’ve been too long from home, Grant’s CD really is—as Phil Wiggins says in the liner notes—a welcome “banquet that feeds the spirit. “ To me, it also clearly relates the story of a man’s journey, his loves, losses, and the music—that like love—sustains us all beyond time. .

Deceiving Blues – Johnson, Miller & Dermody

Released: 2006 Orb Discs ORB 1007

Tom Peterson - Victory Review

When three of the finest musicians in the Pacific Northwest go into a room, pull up chairs around a microphone, and let fly, it’s hard not to be prejudicial about the results. Of course, Deceiving Blues is terrific: must have, automatic, get it today, etc. What makes it SO good, though, is that local legends Orville Johnson, John Miller, and Grant Dermody have pushed each other into new places and spaces, drawing out sounds and abilities for this record that they’ve not achieved before. Johnson, already acclaimed as the King of Mongrel Folk and as such a seemingly endless repository of different old-timey styles, puts on a tour de force, trying a little something extra and astonishing on each tune. He can go from chirpy highs to guttural lows, and weave and bend every note in between. He’s never doing it just to show off, though: he’s complimenting his own Dobro, and playing against Miller’s guitar and Dermody’s supple harmonica. The well-known Johnson, however, is not the album’s greatest revelation. That would be Dermody. The harpist had the area’s album of the year a couple back (Crossing That River), on which he displayed a sly, tempered light baritone on the vocal cuts. This time, his buddies urge him to a menacing growl on “Soul of a Man” and “Depot Blues” that really works. Meanwhile, the musicianship is uniformly fantastic. Miller says that the group was looking for ways to stretch out, relax, and find something new in a mix of classics and originals, and they’ve succeeded. The group lays back some on the traditionally brisk “Stewball,” but then pushes the laconic “Polly Put the Kettle On.” This is the sound of genius at work: THAT’S why this is a must-have.

Deceiving Blues

Bob Tilling

This Seattle based acoustic trio, of Johnson (guitar, mandolin, dobro, washboard and vocals), Miller (guitar and vocals) and Dermody (harp and vocals), have been working together for over ten years but this is their first time in the recording studio for a full album, which is performed with great confidence and consummate skill. All three men are well known in their own rights both as performers and teachers, working sympathetically together giving each other plenty of space in which to express their own individual personalities.

The choice of material is fascinating, including titles from the likes of Charlie Patton, Memphis Slim, Tampa Red and Rev. Gary Davis, with a number that I have not heard recorded elsewhere for some while. I was, in particular, interested to hear Leadbelly’s Stewball where the vocals are led by Miller with some driving and intricate mandolin from Johnson. The harp from Dermody is quite superb throughout this set and he has a tone very much of his own and on Memphis Slim’s Mother Earth his distinctive break is one of the highlights of this highly recommended set.

I have enjoyed Miller’s guitar playing since I first heard him back in the late sixties when he recorded for the “legendary” Blue Goose label owned by the late Nick Perls based in New York City. He is a clean and accurate player capturing the feel of many of the early players while adding much of his own personality. On the Son House classic Depot Blues he is particularly tight creating a perfect foil for the heartfelt vocals from Dermody. The dobro from Johnson on Sonny Boy Williams’ Springtime Blues sets him apart from many of his contemporary players while his vocals throughout are natural and impressive. His singing, in particular, on Rev. Gary Davis’s emotional original I Will Do My Last Singing is awesome capturing much of Davis’s intense honesty.

This is not a recreation of historic recording but a very personal and entertaining interpretation of some carefully selected material all performed with integrity and skill. This is a heartfelt outing by three serious and committed musicians performing naturally and without any pretensions and long may it continue!

Deceiving Blues

Pat Missin–Harmonica World Magazine

I loved Grant Dermody's solo album "Crossing That River", an eclectic blend of old time Americana, blues, jazz and calypso released a couple of years ago, so I expected that I would enjoy this album too. I was right. This CD finds Grant teamed with guitarist John Miller and Orville Johnson on mandolin, Dobro and washboard, all three of them taking turns at vocals. Any one of these musicians could make a great album by themselves, but the three combine to form something greater than the sum of its parts. The material covered on the CD is mostly straight ahead country blues, but they've avoided slavish recreations of the classics in favour of more personal interpretations, enhanced by recording the album "live" with no overdubs or studio trickery, making it sound almost like the musicians are right there in the room with you. There are a few well known tunes, such as "Trouble In Mind" and Henry Thomas's "Bull Doze Blues", but there are also some lesser known gems including a beautiful version of Charlie Patton's "Some of These Days". Throughout the whole CD, Grant's harmonica playing shows a keen sense of appropriateness - at times introspective, at other times playful, always perfectly in keeping with the mood of the song and the feel established by the other musicians. For this reason, I would highly recommend it to harmonica players as a text book example of how to integrate the harp into a small acoustic ensemble. More importantly, I would highly recommend it to roots music fans as an album of great music well played.

Deceiving Blues

Mark Hoffman

Lyin’, cheatin’, and sneakin’: the blues is rank with falsehoods and double-dealing. But there’s no deception on this disc. What you hear is the genuine article, direct from three titans of Northwest acoustic blues: Orville Johnson, John Miller, and Grant Dermody. Johnson is well-known for his innovative slide guitar and dobro playing and unbridled singing. Miller is renowned for his clean, complex fingerpicking in a variety of genres and styles, and for his guitar teaching credentials and many instructional tapes and DVDs. Harmonica player Dermody is less well known, but based on the evidence here and on his debut solo album last year, “Crossing That River,” he should be internationally famous. He has technique and tone to spare, and an easy intimacy with the subtleties of blues music that’ll make you think he started blowing harp about when he learned to walk.

The three bluesmen first played together a few years ago when they were on staff at the Centrum/Port Townsend Blues Workshops and enjoyed it so much that they kept getting together on occasion, though they maintain separate careers. Their first CD together is a romp through twelve acoustic blues classics by Memphis Slim, Charlie Patton, John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson, Leadbelly, Tampa Red, Blind Willie Johnson, Son House, Gary Davis, and others. Like all classics, these tunes are full of the kind of mysterious yet somehow vaguely familiar lyrics and melodies that sound like they were not so much crafted as unearthed in a musty oak trunk of unknown provenance. They sound centuries old—ideal for the grand, old-time whoopin’, wailin’, moanin’, and hollerin’ that Johnson, Miller, and Dermody specialize in. Their arrangements, playing, and singing are superb throughout.

Prime cuts are the old warhorse “Stewball,” with Johnson and Miller’s wildly syncopated mandolin and guitar, Miller’s slap-your-knees funny vocal, and Dermody’s luscious harp solo. “Some of These Days,” associated with Charlie Patton (but based on a pop tune first recorded by Sophie Tucker in 1911), with Dermody’s slick harp and vocal and Johnson’s tasty mandolin. The sly, jazzy title tune, driven by Johnson’s dynamite dobro. (No wonder they call him a King of Mongrel Folk!) Johnson’s clever vocal on “Polly Put the Kettle On,” accompanied by Dermody’s tight, rhythmic harp. A propulsive version of Blind Willie Johnson’s famous “Soul of a Man” that’s pushed into hyperdrive by combined guitar, mando, and harp. Miller’s string-snapping guitar work on “Depot Blues.” Johnson’s moving vocal and Dermody’s beautiful harp on Gary Davis’s “I Will Do My Last Singing in This World Somewhere.”

In fact, all these songs are keepers. No lie—this is a great acoustic blues CD!

Crossing that river

Released: 2003

"The buzz in Seattle the last couple of months has been: check out Grant Dermody's CD. The session ace and perennial mouth harp coach at Blues camps was out with his own sound, backed by top local talent and a couple of out of town ringers. The buzz is right."

Tom Peterson - Victory Review