Sunday, March 1, 2015

Jody Wisecup Natural Energy dB 1978

Jody Wisecup Natural Energy dB 1978 CAT# dB 027S

Fairly certain that although this album was recorded in St. Louis, MO, Jody Wisecup is a Kansas City guy. He performed primarily with Mitch and Mike O'Roark in the area as their banjo player. Sure he gigged around with some other guys, but his name shows up on almost all the O'Roark releases.

I assume this LP was scratched out while performing at a festival in or around St. Louis. Maybe it was the only way the O'Roark brothers could convince Jody Wisecup to go, in exchange for his time on stage, they'd help him track out an album. Unfortunately, it's not a terribly exciting LP and does appear hurried based on song selection. With the exception of one song, it's all covers with no vocals. Sure, it has Natural Energy, but no high energy like other regional bluegrass albums. In comparison, it's pretty tame.

It is a competent set of songs and it's not like it's un-listenable. The only question is, was anyone ever going to listen to it again? There's nothing here that hasn't been done before, so there's really nothing you'd need to come back for. But, again, solid players, talented group of guys, just, meh.

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