Three Tall Pines

January 2012

By W.J. Hallock

Three Tall Pines - All That's Left
Independent
Released: 2011

The four gentlemen in this band all should have been born about 100 years ago. Their melodies, lyrics, sound, feel, instrumentation and singing all hearken back to another place in time. The music on this CD is simple, spare, stark and austere….. but, authentic, honest and real. And the most impressive aspect of “All That’s Left” is the fact that all the songs presented here are originals. It’s very easy to take this music at face value, because there is nothing on the musical landscape that one can compare Three Tall Pines to. They are definitely one of a kind!

Very vivid images come into my head as I listen….. especially to the song “Black Sunday Blues.“ Pictures from the Ken Burns PBS series “The Dustbowl,” scenes from “The Grapes Of Wrath” by John Steinbeck, a snapshot I have of my Grampa Roy with his team of horses, Ted and Tug, building roads for the WPA after he lost his farm during The Great Depression.

I can even see my Mother as a little girl witnessing three inches of Oklahoma red dirt covering their Sunday dinner table after a wind storm had blown it eight hundred miles north all the way to the sand hills of Nebraska.

These songs are the grist of real life America in the 1930’s and ‘40’s. How did Joe Lurgio and Dan Bourdeau, the writers of these twelve songs, tap this well of early Americana so convincingly? Maybe, just maybe, their talent is that they can write so simply, yet expansively, that each individual listener’s memories and experiences are jostled loose, enhanced by the music and enjoyed all over again. Songwriters who can make the listener a participant in their compositions are truly gifted. Whether writing together, or separately, this CD tells me that Dan and Joe both DO have the “Gift.”

Recorded over a three day period at High & Dry Studios, Somerville, MA. in a live, everybody playing and singing at the same time setting, is part of the appeal and character of this CD. The recording process adds a patina of “old timey” fun and exuberance. Very few overdubs were used to complete the project.

The band had done their homework and knew just what they were going after in the studio, and with the aid of friends Avi Salloway and Charlie Rose, they slam dunked the work and came away with a first rate CD that sounds as unique and individual as they are. The magic ingredient here was FOCUS! Engineer Dan Cardinal did a wonderful job of putting all the pieces of the puzzle together technically so that the only thing the musicians had to do was create.

Mandolin player Joe Lurgio wrote and sings lead on two stand out cuts on the CD, “Lay Me Down” and “Hard Rain.” Guest banjo player Gabe Hirschfield sits in on “Hard Rain” and it sizzles! Joe nails the lead vocal! He also wrote the instrumental track “Rosebud.” He has a very tasty way of playing….. he’ll add little harmony lines to the fiddle or guitar lines that sparkle. Very Spartan, but classy!

Upright bassist Gian Pangaro, is one of the most fascinating bass players I’ve heard in years. His timing is impeccable, so that gives his adventurous and eclectic dexterity free rein to try just about anything. And he does! I find myself referring to him as the “Angry Bear.”

He will take off on a bass solo and attack it every way possible! I even had to ask an old friend what the term for using a bow was, just to help me describe him. He referred to it as “playing arco,” and Gian can definitely do that…. Listening to him play is like a roller coaster ride. Up, down, easy, hard, fast, slow, it is an emotional experience. He’s also a double threat. His dobro playing, on “Weary Traveler” and “Rosebud” show off his tender and melodic side, as well as his hot licks. To add him to the songs, engineer Dan had to do some of the rare over-dubs on this CD. Adding those tracks was well worth the effort.

Conor Smith is the violinist for Three Tall - No Depression

New CD from Three Tall Pines!
Posted on October 17, 2011 by admin

Three Tall Pines are proud to release their second full legnth album entitled “All That’s Left”. With many musical friends from Della Mae, Hey Mama, Billy Wylder, Barnstar, Flatt Rabbit to name a few helping out with production and studio work, and they can’t wait for y’all to hear it!!!

Check CDbaby.com, Amazon.com or iTunes.com
… Listen to song samples here…

Don’t be fooled by the name. Three Tall Pines is an award winning quartet –playing bluegrass and Americana from the heart of New England. Though their faces are young, the group’s timeless originals and interpretations of traditional songs persuade listeners that bygone eras were just a short while ago. Impressive instrumentalists in their own right, they transcend their diverse musical backgrounds to achieve soulful harmonies and sensitive performances that draw audiences in and leave plenty of space for the story to shine through.
Recently the band has caught the eye of many critics in their first few years together. Recently named 2011 Bluegrass Band of the Year in by the Motif Arts Magazine and winner of the Ossipee Valley Bluegrass Festival band competition, securing them a slot on the main stage in 2012.

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Record Review: Three Tall Pines
BY JULIE CERICK
Three Tall Pines

All That’s Left

Boston, MA

“Soulful bluegrass for moonshine sipping”

The force behind this soulful bluegrass quartet makes it clear why they were named “2011 Bluegrass Band of the Year” by Motif Magazine. Three Tall Pines have swept across the Northeast already, but their sound will make anyone across the country want to sit back under a clear night sky with a bottle of moonshine and kick their feet up. This is bluegrass at its best; a time travel back to simpler times.

Each song on their sophomore album, All That’s Left, has been meticulously crafted into melodic perfection – harmonies with unique twang are combined with grippingly raw and honest lyrics, providing the perfect quartet: a band that has fun but knows exactly what they’re doing. Any listener can sense the fleeting moments of cold, hard truths in “Tire Chains.” While some bluegrass can come across as messy and strung together, “Black Sunday Blues” is a near-perfect example of thoughtful and attainable new American country.

The pure voices are at the forefront of this band’s success, which each member is responsible for. Joe Lurgio lunges into each song with eager, dry vocals and pretty plucks on his banjo while the rest of the group (Dan Bourdeau, Gian Pangaro, Conor Smith) sings in unison while mastering their respective instruments. The beginning melody of “Metamorphosis” puts each member’s talent on a grand pedestal, proving to listeners that they deserve the recognition they’ve been receiving.

All That’s Left is about as close to the band one can feel without actually meeting them. While playing in a group of other talented folks can sometimes single out certain individuals, Three Tall Pines has done it right. Their colorful and strong voices mesh and intertwine together to formulate an old familiar sound that makes one want to sip that moonshine slow and take it all in. Good, heartfelt bluegrass has a tendency to do that. (Self-released)

Produced by Avi Salloway and Charlie Rose

Recorded at High & Dry Studios in Somerville, MA

Engineered and Mixed by Dan Cardinal

Mastered by Erick Jaskowiak at Monky Holler Studio

www.threetallpines.com - Performer Magazine

"In the way [Three Tall Pines] adopt the sun-soaked melancholy of a southern twang, their music is more a restoration than a new construction. Not Americana, not country and not bluegrass, it's more an attitude than an aisle in the music store. They are restoring to the process of making music something rural that was long ago appropriated by a machine that turns every vernacular into a trend and every trend into a profit...what they have made is the most intimate, most democratic form of art."
- G. W. Mercure

['Short While Ago is] a wonderfully vibrant piece of work...stunningy produced...Three Tall Pines make the most of their talents, to ply their trade as a robust combo...a massive talent with words and emotion."
- Peter J. Brown

"Sweet, dirty music...I will listen till the shine rubs off this disc!" - Kent Gustavson, composer and bluegrass musician, NY

"Eyes closed, Bourdeau and Lurgio drew the audience in...[they] had all of us tapping our feet together, breathing in rhythm with every song.  The fiddle swirled gently...mandolin and guitar notes wove their way...the bass, strong and heart-wrenching, travelled up from the floor, supporting the whole band.  They sang with wisdom, introspection, and emotion of octogenerians looking wistfully on their world...“
- Sarah Bidinger (fan), The Cowl, November 2008