Mama Said
Runnin' With Scissors
Little King Records LKR2002

by William Michael Smith

Mama Said is a folksy alt-country band from Shelby, North Carolina that favors the mountainy, bluegrassy side of the genre. All of the band members are singers and multi-instrumentalists, giving them a great flexibility in manufacturing specific sounds to fit the moods and needs of different songs. On one end of their repertoire they have banjos and mandolins and those Southern mountain harmonies and at the other end they have a more urban, steel guitar driven country sound with electric guitars and drums. Coupling their considerable musical abilities with some direct, unpretentious songwriting, they have assembled a fine first album, Runnin' With Scissors.

With much of the grassier material, like "Mavis," "Just Say When," and "Live 'til I Die," the band shows some well-honed acoustic chops and the tight harmonies that bluegrass demands, while tunes like "Dance Opus" have a more experimental, progressive bluegrass sound akin to some of the work Sam Bush does. But Mama Said also excels on tunes like "Water Under the Bridge" and "I Forget You Every Day" that lie more in the country genre while "Blueridge Road" is distinctly alt-country. The band even ventures into Cajun country sounds on their hard-charging composition "Bayou Mud" and on the imminently danceable "Zydeco Ball," co-written with folk legend Ramblin' Jack Elliot.

Produced by Greg Hils and recorded by Josh Sacco and Jim Zerbe at Jay Howard Studios in Charlotte, there is a unity demonstrated in the playing on Runnin' With Scissors that indicates the members of Mama Said are all on the same page and striving for a cohesive group sound rather than any egotistical individual brilliance.

"What I love about these guys is their honesty," Hils said. "They don't pretend to be alt-country - they just are. They weren't jumping on any bandwagons or trading in their identities to join the No Depression movement."

All of the members of Mama Said ­ rhythm guitarist Nancy Owen, bassist Sandy Carlton, singing drummer Phil Ruff and guitarist, mandolinist, banjo picker Randy Saxon ­ are songwriters and each has contributed some choice material to Runnin' With Scissors.

"They all write and they write a lot. As the album took shape," Hils noted, "they kept coming in with new material. I finally had to say enough. We're going to go with these songs and save the rest for later. All four of them are tireless workers. When I asked for a better harmony or guitar line, they dug down and gave it their all."

Some members of the band have suppressed their personal preferences in order to advance the band and the sound.

"Sandy Carlton has taken on the role of bass player because it needed to be done. He is the unsung hero and a songwriting machine, " Hils said. "And Phil Ruff, like Sandy, left his primary instrument, guitar, and picked up the sticks because that's what was required." Hils noted that although Ruff is now drumming, "Phil's sense of harmony and melody are essential to the group's sound."

Mama Said describes itself as "rural alternative" and their lyrics are earthy and practical and, on "Live 'til I Die," full of common sense wisdom.

I've been workin' in the sun, I've got a farmer's tan
I've got no retirement, no hospital plan
Oh but I'm not worried, here's the reason why
I've made up my mind, I'm gonna live till I die

When they work closer to honky tonk side of country, they know how to script a song that hits the right emotional buttons. "I Forget You Everyday" is a real tearjerker with some fine turns of phrase.

You might have heard some rumors from those friends of mine
That I cry a lot and I think about you all the time
But don't think I can't forget you, don't believe those things they say
I forget you everyday

It's true I haven't been out
With anybody else
It's true I haven't slept too much
Since the night you left
But don't think I can't get over you
I'm gonna be okay
I forget you everyday

Ms. Owen's heartbreak vocals on "Water Under the Bridge" have a natural sad sweetness that works perfectly with the story and Saxon punctuates the tune with some very deft picking.

We were in love but it's all over now
It's just water under the bridge
Our passion was like a raging flood
Now its water under the bridge
And I'm drowning, I'm drowning
In the water under the bridge
I'm drowning, yes I'm drowning
In the water under the bridge

The band lets it out on "Blueridge Road" and Saxon gets plenty of space to show his virtuosity on twangy electric guitar. Even though this is obviously a tune about the Smoky Mountains and the North Carolina countryside, there is a bit of a neo-Texas vibe in the pace and the sound. This is the most electrified and electrifying cut on the album.

Mama Said is another of those regional bands toiling away in the underpaid salt mines of the Americana movement that deserves a wider audience. Their songwriting is witty and down home, their playing is soulful and full of back porch joy, and their approach is precise, sincere, exuberant and extremely unpretentious. Listening to Runnin' With Scissors one never gets the impression that Mama Said is trying to intentionally impress or that they are looking for a radio hit or CMT fame, and that is a very unusual and refreshing attitude to encounter in today's musical commercial jungle.

* Your Mama said to go to www.mamasaid.net and get her some of that good old time mountain music by those nice young people in that band called Mama Said. Can't get that stuff on the radio, don't you know?




Contact William Michael Smith at: wms-at-rockzilla.net

 
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