Don’t keep your day jobs

The crowd at the newly opened Market Café (formerly the Bean Scene) couldn’t have been happier, as Long Lonesome Road and Grammy Award winner Laurie Lewis (hanging in the back, modestly and adeptly plunking on her doghouse bass most of the night) turned out song after rootsy song for an almost-three-hour show (with a long intermission for socializing).

Longtime friends and musical cohorts (try 30 years) Ed Neff (fiddle), Randy Graham (mandolin/ vocals), David Parmley (guitar/ vocals), Dick Brown (banjo/backup vocals) and Chicoan Dick Wodrich (guitar) get together periodically, when they have time away from their regular bands and jobs; that’s when we are graced with music by the top-notch bluegrass band known as Long Lonesome Road. Neff, for instance, plays with California trad-bluegrass band True Blue, and Parmley and Graham are both members of award-winning bluegrass band Continental Divide.

Last Saturday was one such lucky night, made even more special by the addition of Lewis (bluegrass bassist, fiddler, guitarist and vocalist extraordinaire) as “one of the guys,” as one member of LLR put it.

Songs by the father of bluegrass, Bill Monroe, were in abundance—to the audience’s delight. Song No. 2 of the night was Monroe’s “Can’t You Hear Me Calling” ("Sweetheart of mine, can’t you hear me calling / A million times that I love you best / I mistreated you, darling, I’m sorry / Come back to me is my request … “). Graham sang the lead on this one, with Parmley and Lewis dropping in on the single (traditional bluegrass-style) mic to add harmony vocals.

It became a source of pleasure, and a teensy bit of amazement, to watch Lewis quickly swoop herself and her big bass front-and-center to sing backup into the microphone and then scoot back to the back of the stage again when she was done.

Third up was a song by Monroe’s daughter, Melissa, “Is the Blue Moon Still Shining,” on which Lewis sang lead—her crisp, beautiful voice made even more captivating with a little bit of yodel added to it. Graham’s mandolin solo and Neff’s fiddle solo on this one (just as throughout the entire night) were wonderful.

Banjoist Brown, a talented tall drink of water decked out in a purple shirt ("He’s come in his Barney outfit tonight,” joked Graham), stepped up to lead the group on the snappy “Earl’s Breakdown.” Parmley, whose dad, we were told, was the studio banjo player for the Beverly Hillbillies television show, sang lead on the next two songs, his lovely bluegrass voice at times showing touches of Merle Haggard’s buttery resonance on the lower notes. Parmley’s stage presence was so sweet and pleasant that CN&R photographer C. Moore and I both agreed that he was indeed adorable.

At one point, Wodrich requested that the band follow him on “Little Georgia Rose,” which he dedicated to the woman he was marrying the following day—again, beautiful three-part harmonies from Lewis, Graham and Parmley.

Surely one of the highlights—if not the highlight—of the evening was when Graham asked Lewis to sing his favorite song, Lewis’ “Who Will Watch the Home Place.” Lewis and Parmley switched instruments for this one, and Lewis proceeded to play guitar and lead the audience in a gentle sing-along of one of the prettiest and most moving songs around: “Who will watch the home place / Who will tend my heart’s dear space / Who will fill my empty place / When I am gone from here.” It brought tears to my eyes.

Hats off to the Butte Folk Music Society for hosting a wonderful evening of music, and to the owners of the Market Café for bringing back a comfortable, spacious music venue with such excellent acoustics.