The Chillbilly Band

[mrdreamjeans]

I just received a big surprise through the mail, a CD made by a few of my peers who got together during their spare time on the “Evita” tour. They've done some inspired sittin’ and singin’, pickin’ and playin’ and put together a terrific CD of original tunes. They call themselves The Chillbilly Band and the title of the CD is “Back Home”. The lead singer is Bradley Dean, the original Che on our tour, and the primary writer is Billy Dietrich, Bradley’s understudy, though both share writing and singing credits. Incidently, Bradley’s currently one of the stars in the tour of the Broadway musical “Spamelot” .

Two of our guitar players, Nick Dickerson and Michael Pearce, our drummer Dave Harris and our conductor Elaine Davidson on keyboards, worked with them to shape the material. Many of the singers and dancers in “Evita” provided background vocals. You might call it a theater family project. I’d call the tunes country, but there are strong influences of blues, rock, folk and bluegrass. Bill may be from Georgia, but callin’ his work “country” doesn’t do it full justice. It’s a unique sound and there are 16 outstanding tracks.

You won’t hear more beautiful harmonies on a CD than on “Back Home”. Bradley and Bill’s voices blend seamlessly; the background vocals are excellent. This is a CD with some spectacular singing. (Yes, I’m prejudiced, but I’m also picky and wouldn’t say this unless I believed it to be true.) It also has some funny material, especially “Big Cob Queen”. I think my personal favorites would have to be “Three Nights in Decatur, Georgia”, “Today I Chanced to See a Hummin’bird” and “Cowboy Waltz”.

My small part in the project was an accident. We had a birthday party in Toronto in May 2005 during which the guys debuted the first songs. I snapped a few pictures and one of them is used on the tray portion, where the CD rests. (I know there’s a specific name for it, but I can’t think of it:) I’m really proud they asked to use the photo and that they’ve given me credit in the liner notes.

I wrote Billy a couple of days ago and asked if the CD was available on amazon.com. He said that right now it’s only available on their website, www.thechillbillyband.com and www.myspace.com/thechillbillyband. I’d like to invite you to check it out and let me know what you think.