Blue Mountain
Blue Mountain Living and playing in Oxford, Mississippi since the late eighties, Blue Mountain has been a part of the same musical confluence that shaped a number of great American musicians, from Elvis to Tammy Wynette to Robert Johnson to Alex Chilton. The five hundred miles from Nashville to New Orleans is a fertile musical crescent with Memphis and North Mississippi firmly in the curve between the Delta and the foothills of Appalachia. Cary Hudson and Laurie Stirratt, who grew up listening to gospel, country and bluegrass, often heard the late bluesman Son Thomas play around Oxford, and any Sunday night they could drive out to Junior Kimbrough's juke joint in Chulahoma and hear Kimbrough or R.L. Burnside play in their distinctive north Mississippi blues style. It was here, deep in the American South, that Blue Mountain learned how compelling and visceral a live show could be. Joined by drummer Frank Coutch, Hudson and Stirratt created original songs written in a traditional spirit, but with the hard edge of rock 'n' roll. An early example is the foot-stomping anthem "Jimmy Carter" from their first release, Dog Days (1995), a song that became an immediate favorite with the band's growing audience. With the release of Homegrown (1997) and Tales of a Traveler (1999), Blue Mountain received worldwide acclaim for hard-rocking songs like "Bloody 98," "Generic America," and "Sleeping in My Shoes," as well as for Hudson and Stirratt's sweet harmonies on "When You're Not Mine" and "Myrna Lee." Their last studio album, Roots (2001), was entirely traditional - plain, but emotionally rich songs about drinking, sex, longing, and death. Even plaintive Old English songs like "Young and Tender Ladies" and "Rain and Snow" were interpreted in Blue Mountain's earthy, sinewy style and perfectly captured the sensuous, raw energy of a Blue Mountain performance. Serving as a retrospective for a career defined by songwriting brilliance and emotionally charged live performances, this album was recorded live at Schuba's Tavern on March 11, 2001 in Chicago - an evening which turned out, as the title says, to be the night of now or never. With Ted Gainey on drums, Laurie Stirratt on bass, and Cary Hudson on guitar, Blue Mountain treated their faithful fan base to a rollicking show of hard-driving classics. This is Blue Mountain's first and last live album - they disbanded shortly after that night. Luckily for us, with this DCN recording, the music lives. -Lisa Howorth