the Beachcomber
Dread Clampitt's 'Hillbilly Newgrass'
Narrows the Generation Gap
January 2-15, 2003 by Chris Manson
Check out the extremely diverse crowd at Destin's Funky Blues Shack on Friday nights and you might suspect that a Top 40 band is playing. Stick around for the sounds of Dread Clampitt and you'll hear something completely different.
Dread Clampitt's Balder Saunders (mandolin, vocals) describes his trio's sound as "hipbilly - which takes roots music in bluegrass format and gives it an original spin." Kyle Ogle (guitar, vocals) says their music is "heartfelt and honest music that frees you."
"With traditional bluegrass, people get bored," Justin Price-Rees (fiddle, vocals) said. "We play a funky, jazzy bluegrass. We have fun playing, and people get up to dance."
The trio owes much of its success to the man Olge refers to as the group's godfather. "My teacher, Duke Bardwell - who played bass with Elvis Presley in the 70s - with bringing Dread Clampitt together.
"I told Duke that if Kyle wanted to come down, I had room for him at my place," Saunders said. "He said Kyle was looking for a place in Grayton Beach. It's pretty weird how it came together."
Price-Rees won the first of three Australian National Fiddle Championships at age 14. He toured with a bluegrass band before a mutual friend, Max Tillman, introduced him to his current bandmates. "I told Max I was looking for a fiddle player, and Max said, 'this is Justin, he's looking for a band!'" Saunders said.
Ogle, Price-Rees and Saunders have been playing together for roughly two years. In addition to their wildly popular Friday night gig at the Funky Blues Shack, they appear at Capo's in Santa Rosa Beach Thursday nights and at Jezzebelle's in Grayton Beach on Wednesdays. "Newgrass" fans young and old can enjoy a Dread Clampitt brunch at the Red Bar on Sundays from noon until 3pm.
With the success of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? sound track and the Dixie Chicks, bluegrass is no longer an obscure art form. "Two years ago, I was playing for free food and sausage sandwiches," Saunders said. Now, club owners realize that the music Dread Clampitt loves has been validated. "It's real music. I've been doing it since I was seven. Justin's been playing since eight."
The trio keeps things fresh with a repertoire of their own compositions and original spins on classic songs. "We feel the crowd out. If they look like they wanna rock, we'll rock, If they just got a divorce, we'll play sad songs," Saunders said.
Ogle and Saunders have penned 15 songs together, notably Stars Over Walton County. "The song is about how if you're leaving Walton County and start heading east or west, the stars slowly disappear because of all the development," Ogle said. "the stars are all in Walton county."
"Life is worth living if you take a minute to look at the stars - what you've got, what you threw away," Saunders said.
Ogle observed, "As they develop Walton county, we hope we don't have to start singing Stars WERE Over Walton County!"
Saunders thinks the key to Dread Clampitt's popularity is the band's humor. The original tune Blue Ball Blues is sung from the point of view of a beach traveler who "wonders why I haven't scored."
Price-Rees - once seen dressed in a "Proud to Be American" T-shirt on the Funky Blues Shack stage - loves his new home. "It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor or where you come from. People are very friendly here. I love the architecture, and there are a lot of great clubs and bars." Among the fiddle ace's musical influences are ubiquitous session man Stuart Duncan, multi-instrumentalist Mark O'Connor, Aubery Haney, and Kenny Baker.
New Orleans street musician Franco "Washboard" Jackson is another hero of the group. He lived above the famous Tipatina's and played with the who's who of the city's musical giants. Suanders recommends that fans of Dread Clampitt's sound check out John Hartford, the father of "newgrass" music, and the groups Bluegrass Alliance and New Grass Revival. "Anyone whose songs we play," Price-Rees added.
A recent Friday night performance at the Funky Blues Shack included Ry Cooder's slow blues Tamp 'Em Up Solid, John Hartford's Up on the Hill (Where They Do the Booogie). Sam Bush's Same Old River and the catchy Dread Clampitt original What a State I'm In. Waylon and Willie's Luckenback, Texas was the most familiar song of the opening set, but it was Crooked Island that stood out most. The late Potter Brown - a mainstay of bluegrass music in this area in the 70s and 80s, as well as Saunders' uncle- wrote that one.
Just before 9:30, an attractive young woman introduced herself, mentioning that she had come all the way from Memphis to hear these guys play. "That's what makes it all worthwhile," Ogle said. "A smile and a wave, that's what gets you through the day."