Stately Mansion

Stately is the word to describe the music on Kate Lissaeur’s third album, which features no less than 17 songs recorded and engineered by Jim Martin at Jim Martin Productions in St. Albans, West Virginia, and Josh Clark at Get Real Records in Bath. Currently residing in England, Lissauer is a world-class fiddler, banjo picker, square dance caller (with her band, Buffalo Gals), clog dancer, teacher and living library of traditional American folk, bluegrass and old-time music.

Most of the songs on Stately Mansion are rooted in the Blue Ridge Mountain region, which cradles Lissauer’s home state of Maryland. The lone exception, ‘The Last Shot Got Him’, is a blues ballad arranged by Lissauer based on recordings by the Mississippi Possum Hunters and Mississippi John Hurt. In addition to wielding a wickedly swinging fiddle on tracks such as ‘Falls of Richmond’, Lissauer applies her rich contralto to sublime effect throughout the session, most notably on ‘Old Smokey,’ an arrangement inspired by Roscoe Holcomb, the late, great North Carolina high priest of the ‘high lonesome’ singing style.

Lissauer’s decidedly refined interpretation of the Americana songbook might not resonate as deeply with listeners who would prefer a more gutbucket approach. Which is not to say there’s a shortage of string-bending, foot-stomping, tune playing going on. It’s just that Lissauer and her compatriots, which include longtime collaborators Dave and Tim Bing on guitar and banjo respectively – along with brother Woody and daughter Katrianne providing backing harmonies – are more focused on delivering a more distilled, more elegantly aligned listening experience than one might encounter at casually raucous backyard picking party.