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The Hot Seats Present: Travis Randy - Smooth as Silk

by The Hot Seats

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Chilly Winds 01:41
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Fortune 02:03
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Rattletrap 01:35
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June Apple 02:35
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about

Hello World,

PF Hot Seats here, writing from the confines of my kitchen, where I have been since March.

On January 1st, 2020 - what seems like, in the most cliché sense, to be a lifetime ago (in fact, as of this writing it is roughly 300,000 lifetimes ago, not to be too morbid) - a small crew of us packed into the cabin at Jones Landing Fish Camp, intent on busting down for an evening and capturing it for our own enjoyment. We had been picking a bunch of late, as our beloved Benny Belcher was in town from Alabama. Much like a precious fuel, when you have a little bit ‘o’ Benny time, you cradle it and squeeze out all of the sweet sweet juice you can - gather ye roseBens when you may, says the old poem. Anyway . . .

The woodstove was cranking, there were libations and gyrations, and when it was all said and done, we had laid down a couple of handfuls of tunes and a couple songs, all with a pretty singular purpose - to express our love of hard driving old time tunes with rolling banjo backup. We think this is well communicated.

This is not your traditional Hot Seats album - there is no scrub board, no raggy I-VI-II-V turnarounds, no double entendre, no wailing or gnashing of teeth, and no ironic eye-rolling. Importantly, there is also no Ed. Just mashing, lots of mashing. For these reasons, we aren’t calling it a Hot Seats album - instead we are merely using our massive platform (literally hundreds of people. I mean, how many people even exist? Like . . . 750?) to introduce you to a new band - Travis Randy. (We have other names in the hopper for future releases. We shall see.).

Those who are looking for well-sourced stories and ethnography of tunes and songs should look elsewhere, as should those overly concerned with playing in a traditional style. These tunes are ones that Willie Moore brought with him, and we play ‘em like we wanna. Will has been a friend of the Hot Seats for many years, first accompanying us to the Galax Fiddlers’ Convention when he was the ripe old age of 16 or 17 (he DOES have loving parents, we swear) and somewhere along the way also became a rip-roaring fiddler. His playing is a joy to back up. Also new to many of your ears is JM Nobile on the mandolin. A staple of the RVA bluegrass scene for many years, we are corrupting his chop with our insistence on the driving old time mandolin strum.

The rest you already know - Ben Belcher on 3 finger banjo and harmonica, Josh Bearman on guitar, and Jake Sellers on the bass. Like well-worn slippers or a disgusting baseball cap you’ve had for years, we have the sound that fits just right.

credits

released December 31, 2020

W.A. Moore - fiddle, lead vocals on Who’s Gonna Shoe . . .
Ben Belcher - banjo, harmonica, harmony vox
Josh Bearman - guitar, vox
JM Nobile - mandolin
Jake Sellers - bass

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The Hot Seats Richmond, Virginia

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