Album Review: Various artists, ‘Julia Belle: The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project Volume 2’
In 2018, John Hartford’s daughter, Katie Hartford Hogue, along with fiddler Matt Combs and musicologist and musician Greg Reish, compiled and published John Hartford’s Mammoth Collection of Fiddle Tunes, an anthology of 176 of Hartford’s original compositions, many of them previously unpublished, drawn from 68 journals full of Hartford’s handwritten fiddle tune charts. In 2020, The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project, Volume 1, a collection of 17 of these tunes, was released, and featured artists from Sierra Hull, Ronnie McCoury, Noam Pikelny, and Chris Eldridge, among many others offering their interpretations of these Hartford originals.
Now, Hogue, along with Sharon Gilchrist and Megan Lynch Chowning, have produced Julia Belle: The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project Volume 2, a stunning collection of 13 of Hartford’s instrumental fiddle tunes and versions of five of his songs, available on CD and vinyl. Julia Belle features a stellar cast of female artists including Rachel Baiman, Phoebe Hunt, April Verch, Vickie Vaughn, Missy Raines, Alison Brown, and Brittany Haas, among many others, who interpret these songs and tunes in their own vibrant musical styles.
The album kicks off with the sprightly Celtic reel “Irish Familiarity,” led off by Chowning’s slowly unfurling fiddling before launching into a up tempo jaunt featuring the notes of Robbie Lynn Hunsinger’s oboe, Maddie Denton’s octave mandolin, Allison de Groot’s banjo, and Kaitlyn Raitz’s cello wheeling and diving over and around the tune’s central theme. Baiman’s banjo strums introduce the toe-tapping ballad “The Julia Belle Swain,” celebratory paean to the steamboat of the title. Deanie Richardson’s flying fiddle runs propel the scampering dance hall tune “Availability,” as Rainy Miatke’s sparkling mandolin, Gena Britt’s boisterous banjo, Mary Meyer’s shimmering guitar runs, and Maddie Dalton’s high-octane bass dash and dart around Richardson’s lead lines. Taking a page from Hartford’s performances, Verch taps her feet as she fiddles her way through the lilting and celebratory “Merry Christmas,” while the hoe-down country rambler “Learning to Smile All Over Again” features the vocal harmonies of Ginger Boatwright, Kathy Chiavola, and Betty Hartford-Gilbert. Leanna Price’s mournful fiddle guides the glistening melancholy of “Royal Box Waltz,” which also features Lauren Price Napier on mandolin, Sami Braman on rhythm guitar, and Mary Meyer on rhythm guitar.
Maddie Witler on mandolin and Natalie Haas on cello offer a classical bluegrass suite on “Gasoline Alley No. 1.” Alison Brown leads off Hartford’s classic “Steam Powered Aereo Plane” with her spry banjo licks, providing a brisk pace for the song as Kathy Mattea joins on lead vocals. As the song develops, each musician—Sierra Hull on guitar, Brittany Haas on fiddle, Megan Lovell on Dobro, Missy Raines on bass—stretch out and explore the song’s musical lines.
Every track on Julia Belle: The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project Volume 2 reveals new facets of Hartford’s music as well as these artists’ innovative interpretations of his tunes and songs.
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More information about Julia Belle: The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project Volume 2 is available HERE
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