An apple review from the Big Horse Creek Farm website:
“A long-time Southern favorite, Carolina Red June is believed to have originated in the early 1800’s in Tennessee. This apple has long been highly valued for its early ripening qualities. Unlike most early season varieties which fail to develop a full balance of flavors in their short ripening period, Carolina Red June has a high quality flavor making it a first choice for fresh eating and pie making. The tree is very productive and has an unusual habit of occasionally blooming twice in the same season, producing a second, smaller crop of apples in the fall. Fruit is small to medium with smooth, dark red skin and is quite oblong or conical in appearance. The tender, fine-grained flesh is white and sometimes stained with red when eating. Ripens June to July and only a fair keeper.”
It may seem strange to open an album review with the description of an apple, until you find that the band carries the apple’s name and shares many of the same characteristics, especially “full balance of flavors” and “high quality.” Since the band hails from Asheville, NC, and has been busy touring the circuit from there, I guess they also qualify as a “southern favorite!”
“Bittersweet”
Beauty Will Come is this trio’s follow up album to 2010’s well received Remember Me Well, which was voted the #1 regional release by the listeners of WNCW, the southeast’s premier independent radio station.
The band is Will Straughan on resonator guitar, guitar and vocals, John Cloyd Miller on mandolin, guitar and vocals, and Natalya Weinstein on fiddle and vocals, and they’re been making their mark blending old-time, bluegrass, county, and roots music into something that could rightly be called “Appalachian Acoustic.” When you take their great songwriting and combine it with sweet lead vocals and even sweeter harmonies, then add their instrumental inter-play that perfectly compliments those vocals, you get a winning combination. The band has developed such a strong style of their own, a sound that is both familiar and fresh at the same time, that picking out their musical influences is a bit interesting; somewhere in the story telling I find a bit of John Prine – simply written lyrics that evoke complex images. There are other threads of influence, but I suspect it would be much more interesting for each listener to pick them out on their own.
“I’m Willing To Try” may be the best introduction to the band, an a cappella gospel tune that shows off their beautiful harmonies. “Connor’s/Scott’s (Reels)” would be the flip side, an instrumental that shows off their great playing. They cover the whole spectrum between these two songs with style and grace.
I’d put this album in my “Sunday Morning” collection, it would be perfect for back porch listening… all the more so if your porch happened to overlook an apple orchard.
So, the only thing in the apple description that doesn’t fit is the last line – this one is definitely a keeper 🙂
Red June Records
