AVAILABLE NOW! BAD FOR YOU: Lyrics, Liner Notes and Credits

The Steeldrivers | Notes on Bad For You

Craig Havighurst

The first two times I saw The Steeldrivers in live performance, it struck me I’d never heard such an explosive reaction to a bluegrass band. Bluegrass fans are appreciative, reverent, dedicated and enthusiastic, but they rarely go, you know, bonkers. At these particular shows, one in a cavernous Chattanooga music hall and the other in an actual cave venue not far away, the audiences were what we might call bluegrass-plus. There were rock and roll people, country music people, soul music people, pop music people. Some were likely people who’d never paid to see a bluegrass band before in their lives. But they were unified in their feeling that the all-acoustic Steeldrivers rock hard.

These memories harken back to the first and second editions of this important Nashville band – that is to say the initial lineup with mandolinist Mike Henderson and Chris Stapleton and the second lineup after Stapleton had been replaced by lead singer Gary Nichols. Most readers will know that Stapleton hit a breakout with his solo album Traveler and a key CMA Awards performance to become one of the most credible, successful and extraordinary singer/songwriters of modern country music. That The Steeldrivers could recruit and integrate a singer just as powerful and nuanced in Nichols (not without work and patience) is testimony that something more foundational is going on than the identity of a front man. And when you study the story, you find that’s true.

Richard Bailey (banjo), Tammy Rogers (fiddle), Mike Fleming (bass) and Brent Truitt (mandolin) have been musical colleagues and friends for more than three decades, which is to say nearly all of their adult lives. They were bringing their instrumental, vocal and songwriting skills to various bands, ad hoc gigs, picking parties and recording sessions long before The Steeldrivers first came together. That happened in 2005 when Henderson and Stapleton had co-written a batch of songs that felt like they needed bluegrass instrumentation and voices. So they invited Bailey, Rogers and Fleming to workshop the tunes. It went so well that the band was formed. The stunning new material, including “Drinking Dark Whiskey” and “If It Hadn’t Been For Love,” plus the experience and skill of the musicians, got them signed immediately to historic bluegrass label Rounder Records. On the strength of a stellar debut album, they were named New Artists of the Year at the 2009 International Bluegrass Music Association Awards.

But again, bluegrass is too limited a frame to understand The Steeldrivers. Tammy Rogers has said that the ensemble thinks like the Rolling Stones on acoustic instruments. They’ve pulled off an unprecedented fusion of traditional blues, country soul and southern rock. And this synthetic thinking has transcended the kinds of personnel changes that have sent other bands off the tracks. Henderson needed to step away after two albums and his mandolin role was adopted by Nashville veteran musician and producer Brent Truitt. He’d been in a long-running band with Bailey and needed no references or transition training to be fully integrated. More challenging was the recent change of lead singer.

Just after The Steeldrivers won their first Grammy Award, in recognition of their Muscle Shoals Sessions album, Gary Nichols announced his departure. Having established a sound built around a soul singer’s grain and passion, the search for a new lead vox wasn’t easy. Until Tammy’s daughter heard a guy on YouTube singing a Chris Stapleton cover. It turned out that Kelvin Damrell, 25 years old from Berea, KY, had almost no bluegrass experience. He was a rock and roller who loved metal. But it was the kind of out-of-the-box chemistry that fit the Steeldrivers’ game plan. Over a year of settling in and live shows, the band worked up a new batch of original material as it approached album number five.

That leads us to Bad For You, a collection that pulls off that impressive trick of giving us exactly what we love about a favorite band while adding new nuances, new emotional depth and fantastic new songs. For the first time, with the exception of one Bailey-composed instrumental, the repertoire comes entirely from the pen of Tammy Rodgers. She’s written key Steeldrivers songs in the past of course, and she’s been a prolific Music Row composer as well. Here, she called on some of the band’s favorite and longstanding co-writers and cooked up more than 50 songs to woodshed. Guided by their years of collaboration and the ideas of their talented new vocalist, they sifted those songs into a tight set that builds on the rock and soul legacy of the band. The opening title track is a dangerous-sounding howl in the moonlight. There’s the haunted anxiety of insomnia in “12 O’Clock Blues,” sweet country love in “I Choose You” and devastating emotional truth in “Falling Man.” We’ll be hearing these as standards in the years to come.

No bluegrass fan will fail to take note of the instrumental mastery at work here either. Bailey’s banjo is nimble and propulsive, supporting the song (that’s the Steeldrivers’ credo) in rhythmic synchronicity with Fleming’s anchoring bass lines. That stands out on the album’s only instrumental, composed by Bailey, called “Mama Says No.” Also there, we can really hear Brent Truitt’s fluid and efficient mandolin, distinguished by rich woody tone and clean lines worthy of a bebop player. Kelvin is relatively new to bluegrass guitar, but with his ear on the influence of Tony Rice and a lot of hard work, nobody can tell.

“I love these instrumentalists,” says Fleming. “These are some of the best you’re going to hear in the business. We’re known for our songs, but I wish people would know more about these pickers here. And they’re all great timekeepers.” This, spoken by the anchor of the band’s legendary swing and pulse. A bluegrass band can’t be great without a great bass player, and Fleming is just that. Perhaps most specific of all to the Steeldrivers musical attack is Rogers’ fiddle. She’s been a Nashville mainstay for years, in demand for sessions because she can lay back in sympathetic support and then snap forward like a bullwhip to evoke the crisp bluegrass virtuosity of Benny Martin or Kenny Baker.

It all combines like some exotic, pharmaceutical grade molecule – the right elements bonded together with a mysterious multiplier effect. The Steeldrivers aren’t trying to do bluegrass as they inherited it, though their respect for their forebears and the bluegrass fan base is beyond question. What’s special is the way they carry themselves and the questions they ask about how the genre might sound in a 21st century context. This aspect is one of the best catalysts for growing the bluegrass fan base that’s come along since Alison Krauss. It evokes the expansive influence of the Country Gentlemen, the Seldom Scene and the New Grass Revival in past decades. And As Kelvin discovered when he got invited to listen, these musicians are independent thinkers, virtuosos and students of the blues roots who will appeal to anybody with a heartbeat and ears. The title of the new album notwithstanding, the Steeldrivers are unambiguously good for you and great for American music.

Bad For You Credits

Produced by The SteelDrivers

“Innocent Man” Co-Produced by John Paul White

Recorded by Sean Sullivan at The Butcher Shoppe

Additional recording by Brent Truitt at The Cave

Mixed by David Ferguson and Sean Sullivan at The Butcher Shoppe

Photography: Anthony Scarlatti, assisted by Shane Hobley

Styling: Trish Townsend

Make-up: Amanda Burnett, assisted by Bryce Laing

Package Design:

Richard Bailey – banjo

Kelvin Damrel – guitar, lead vocals

Mike Fleming – bass, harmony vocals

Tammy Rogers – fiddle, viola, octave violin, harmony vocals

Brent Truitt – mandolin, octave mandolin, baritone guitar

John Paul White – guest harmony vocals on “Innocent Man”

John Paul White appears courtesy of Single Lock Records

Thank you:

Richard: Special thanks to Clara Sue Bailey, Melinda, Bruce and Amanda Buchanan, Ron Kimbro, All the Garagemahalicks, Santa, Angie and all the Ice Cold Pickers

Kelvin: Thanks to my beautiful wife Sara, my boys, Levi James, and Grady Lee; Tim Godwin and Devin Malone at Taylor Guitars and a special thank you to the savior of my soul, Jesus Christ

Tammy: Thanks to Jeff and Delana, Josh and Liz, Jamie and Andy, my mom, Wanda Rogers, Fred Carpenter and everyone at the Violin Shop, Tim Godwin at Taylor Guitars, To Jules Wortman and everyone at Wortman Works and Conway Entertainment. To our favorite crew guys, Daniel Rice and Mike Copelin

Ben Truitt: Thanks Kathy and Jake Truitt

Mike Fleming: Thanks to Lois Ann, Emily, Brynn Fleming and my Mom

The SteelDrivers would like to thank:

Conway Entertainment (Tony, Brandon & Cody) Wortman Works (Jules, Conner, Melissa and Kim) Daniel Rice (Sound) & Mike Copeland (Road Manager)

The following musical companies: Taylor Guitars, D’Addario, Gibson, Chadwich Folding Bass, Ear Trumpet Microphones, Grace Design Preamplifiers John Prine & Bill Murray – for their immeasurable friendships and random acts of kindness that are so entertaining

The SteelHeads – our fans that we never take for granted

The Grand Ole Opry – for asking us to perform on Country Music’s most prestigious

This recording is dedicated to the late Wanda Rogers and Mike Farrell.

Artist Representation/Management: Jules Wortman, Wortman Works

Booking: Conway Entertainment Group, Brandon Mauldin

thesteeldrivers.com

rounder.com

LYRICS

Bad For You

Look a here what’s caught in my smoke

Trying to play it off like I don’t know

You’re thinking ‘bout love

Thinking you can handle me

Ooo little girl, didn’t your mama ever warn you

I’s a full grown man the day you were born,

yeah, you’re definitely a little too naive

I’m Bad for you, I’ll put the hurt on you

Like a midnight, all night, blowing through the crossing lights,

Don’t mean nothing to a bullet train

If you know what’s good for you, you’ll just step aside and let me roll on through

Cause I’m bad for you

You want your tender heart tore all to hell and back

You wanna fall apart, baby, I’m good at that

Think you can hang, girl, I’m pretty sure you can’t

And ain’t it kind of me to tell you the truth

I’m Bad for you, I’ll put the hurt on you

Like a midnight, all night, blowing through the crossing lights,

Don’t mean nothing to a bullet train

If you know what’s good for you, you’ll just step aside and let me roll on through

Cause I’m bad for you

I’m Bad for you, I’ll put the hurt on you

Like a midnight, all night, blowing through the crossing lights,

Don’t mean nothing to a bullet train

Like too many cigarettes, too many shots of that whiskey, it’ll get ya

If you know what’s good for you, you’ll just step aside and let me roll on through

Cause I’m bad for you

Oh baby, I’m bad for you

The Bartender

He comes here to drown out the ghost of her goodbye

Looking for redemption in his Jameson on ice

I wipe down the bar but I can’t wipe away his past

So I just pour another shot of whiskey in his glass

Some may call me a sinner

But when it’s all said and done

I don’t pull the trigger

I just load the gun

Now I’ll look at her picture and agree she done you wrong

I’ll be the one you lean on, I’ll be here all night long

I’m just here to listen, brother, I ain’t here to judge

As long as you’ve got the money, I’ll just fill it up

Some may call me a sinner

But when it’s all said and done

I don’t pull the trigger

I just load the gun

Some may call me a sinner

But when it’s all said and done

I don’t pull the trigger

I just load the gun

12 O’Clock Blues

Every morning the first thought that comes

The list of everything I haven’t done

Keeps getting longer and it’s not even noon