There is a scene in the movie Cold Mountain where they’re sitting around a campfire playing music. It was good music but I wanted more from the scene. At the time, I wasn’t sure what was missing. To a greater extent, I loved the movie O’ Brother, Where Art Thou? and I loved all the music in the movie, but when I got the soundtrack I was underwhelmed. I was all like, really? Three versions of “Constant Sorrow”? Really?
Anyhow, I mention all of that ‘cause this cd from The Iron Leg Boys brings it all back to memory. The Iron Legs’ debut cd is exactly what you’d imagine a night in the mid 1800’s in the South sounded like, so it should come as no surprise that The Fox Hunt has something to do with this recording. The Iron Leg Boys are Ben Townsend & Matt Metz of The Fox Hunt, joined by Andy Fitzgibbon hypnotizing you on fiddle throughout the cd. Andy and Ben have played together for quite a few years through miscellaneous funk and punk bands, but somewhere along the way they figured out they were really awesome together as a string band and I am not one to disagree.
Don’t get worried if you’re unfamiliar with the track listing as that’s by design. To quote Ben, “When it came to song selection, we tried to pick some of the more obscure tunes from our source recordings, pretty much everything on here is something that was recorded casually by a West Virginia fiddler solo that no one to our knowledge has done as a band. If the tunes are popular tunes, they’re included as specific, less known versions.”
Also, don’t get to worried if you don’t hear vocals, as that too is by design.
The Iron Leg Boys – Natchee On The Hill
The Iron Leg Boys – The Bear Chase
The Iron Leg Boys – Grey Eagle
The Iron Leg Boys – West Virginia Highway
You can buy The Iron Leg Boys’ self-titled cd off Bandcamp. And, if you like what you’re hearing here may I suggest you check out The Fox Hunt’s album, America’s Working So We Don’t Have To.