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REVIEW

By Pete Peterson
Old Time Herald
Volume 12, Number 2 December 2009 – January 2010 

 
The Haints are three lovers of old-time music, two of whom are married to each other, and all of whom sing well together, play well together, and have combined their talents to create a very enjoyable CD. The usual lineup is: Erynn Marshall, fiddle; Jason Romero, banjo; Pharis Romero, guitar. Pharis and Jason share the lead vocals.
 
Good bands (I think I’ve used this line before) happen when the whole is more than the sum of the parts. Anybody who was at Clifftop 2008 to see and hear Erynn Marshall shatter the glass ceiling, becoming the first woman to win first place in the fiddle contest, knows (understatement alert) that Erynn is a good fiddler. In fact, she reprises one of her winning tunes with a solo performance of French Carpenter’s “Old Christmas Morning” on this CD. Jason Romero not only plays banjo, but builds some very nice ones too! (Check out www.romerobanjos.com) He seems equally at home with both clawhammer and fingerstyle banjo, and with guitar. Pharis Romero is a solid, understated backup guitar player. She is so good, and blends so well into the total band sound, that you hardly notice what she is playing. It is just there. Does a fish notice water?

This is a band that has used both their instrumental chops and singing to demonstrate respect for tradition, and show how they can build on it. For instance, Melvin Wine played “Eadle Alley” as a solo fiddle piece. Here it is arranged for string band, and it works! Another example: Jimmy Tarlton recorded “Lowe Bonnie,” his version of Child #68, as a solo with steel guitar. The Haints chose to use two guitars, harmony singing, and Erynn’s fiddle. They changed the melody so subtly that I had to go back to Tarlton’s original to convince myself that a change had been made. Similarly, Frank Jenkins recorded “Baptist Shout” as a banjo solo, but here it is with guitar and a banjo-uke keeping rhythm. They credit it both to Jenkins and to Kirk Sutphin- who plays it (on his CD Old Roots and New Branches, County 2711) with guitar accompaniment using Frank Jenkins’ old banjo! Jason’s three-finger style is clearly built on both Jenkins’ and Sutphin’s, but he has added a few licks which weren’t present back in 1927. Charlie Poole’s “Milwaukee Blues” is transposed to G so Pharis can sing lead, and one misses Odell Smith’s wonderful double-stop which opens the Poole recording, but enjoys the three-part harmony. For all these examples, this is not a criticism but rather an example of what is meant by simultaneously respecting tradition and building on it.
 
Respect for tradition also means digging to find some of the best old fiddlers and bands to use for sources. (It also means well researched liner notes, for which THANK YOU!) Sources here include, in addition those already mentioned, Hoyt Ming of Mississippi, the Cofer Brothers (in their incarnation as the Georgia Crackers) Land Norris, Henry and Buddy Thomas. I suspect that “Riley the Furniture Man” would make a good Rorschach test. Everybody hears the words differently. Pharis’ mellow voice seems perfect for Henry Thomas’ “Bob McKinney” and I like the edge she uses in “When The Good Lord Sets You Free,” but her true strength is blending and choosing harmonies, like she does for Lowe Bonnie.” That doesn’t take away from Jason’s lead, but a good singer will sound even better when there’s a harmony singer or two around.
 
Have I finished? No, I need to pick a few nits. While I am glad that there are 17 different tunes and songs on this CD, I don’t think putting two unrelated tunes together into a medley is necessarily a good thing. I would have made each of them into a separate cut. But that’s a personal preference. And I found one error in the liner notes – Burnett and Rutherford never recorded “Knoxville Rag”; the recording is by Taylor, Moore, and Burnett. (It’s on the Document “Burnett and Rutherford” CD so I can imagine how the confusion occurred)
 
I really enjoyed this CD and recommend it highly. The band is now separated by most of a continent – Pharis and Jason live in Cobble Hill, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, while Erynn has recently moved to Galax, Virginia. It will be harder, but I hope they make the time to see each other, dig in, get even tighter, and give us more music like this CD. If I’m not listening to dead guys, I would like to find more modern bands out there who can make music as well as the Haints.