Uncle Earl

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Uncle Earl
Uncle Earl; from left to right: Rayna Gellert, Abigail Washburn, KC Groves and Kristin Andreassen
Background information
Origin	United States
Genre(s)	Americana Old-time music
Years active	2000–Present
Label(s)	Rounder
Associated acts	Sparrow Quartet Sometymes Why Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble
Website	uncleearl.net
Members
Kristin Andreassen Rayna Gellert KC Groves Abigail Washburn
Former members
Jo Serrapere Tahmineh Gueramy Amanda Kowalski Sharon Gilchrist Dan Rose Eric Thorin Kyle Kegerreis Sally Truitt Erin Coats Youngberg Alana Rocklin Mary Lucey Laura Cortese

Uncle Earl is an American old-time music group, formed in 2000^[1] by KC Groves and Jo Serrapere. They are an all-women-band and often they refer to themselves as the g'Earls. Their fans have also been nicknamed as g'Earlfriends.^[2]

The band has released five records. The members live in different parts of the United States.

Their last CD, Waterloo, Tennessee, was released in March 2007. John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin fame produced the 16-song CD.

Contents 1 Name 2 History 3 Bass players 4 Discography 4.1 She Went Upstairs 4.2 Going to the Western Slope-EP 4.3 Raise A Ruckus (EP) 4.4 She Waits For Night 4.5 Waterloo, Tennessee 5 External links 6 Footnotes

[edit] Name

KC Groves mentions in an interview how the band got its name: "We just thought it would be a funny name for an all-women's group," she says. "But we are fans of Earl Scruggs, Steve Earle, and Uncle Tupelo. It did come up in our discussion that there's some important Earls in this business. And uncles." ^[3]

[edit] History

KC Groves and Jo Serrapere started the band in 2000.^[1] The Uncle Earl biography, however, states 1999 as founding year. Originally they had no real intention to start a band. They wanted to promote a CD with traditional material they had recorded and thus put together a small band to play a few shows. Since the shows went very well they kept on going.^[4]. Until the end of 2003 the line-up of the band had changed several times. Amongst the members in this period where Tahmineh Gueramy (fiddle, vocals), Amanda Kowalski (bass, vocals), Casey Henry (banjo, vocals) and Sally Truitt (bass, vocals) ^[5].

Jo Serrapere left in 2003 and plays now with the Willie Dunns.^[6]

By the end of 2003 the current line-up had fallen into place. All the band members are co-vocalists. It consists of KC Groves on mandolin and guitar, Abigail Washburn on banjo, Rayna Gellert on fiddle and Kristin Andreassen, guitarist, fiddler, and clogging. Currently there is no permanent bass player.

[edit] Bass players

For nearly four years Amanda Kowalski played upright bass with Uncle Earl. Sharon Gilchrist joined the band in late 2004 and can be heard on the seven song EP Raise a Ruckus^[7]. There is a rather long list of other bassists with whom Uncle Earl have performed. On their website they mention Eric Thorin, Sally Truitt, Erin Coats Youngberg, Alana Rocklin, Mary Lucey, Bryn Davies, Laura Cortese, Kyle Kegerreis, Missy Raines, and Dan Rose, with whom they have recorded their album She Waits for Night^[1][8]. Youngberg and Thorin play bass on the album Waterloo, Tennessee.

Sharon Gilchrist left the band in early 2005 to play mandolin in the Peter Rowan and Tony Rice Quartet.

[edit] Discography

[edit] She Went Upstairs

January 2002 (Jo Serrapere)

1. Charlie He's a Good Ol' Man
2. The Blackest Crow
3. Orphan Train
4. Dream My Girl
5. Rubber Dolly
6. Where the Soul of Man Never Dies
7. Baby
8. Lost Child
9. Over in the Glory Land
10. The Fox
11. Snow White Dove
12. Feight Train

[edit] Going to the Western Slope-EP

July 2004 (Uncle Earl)

1. Coffee's Cold - Tater Patch
2. Pale Moon
3. Backstep Cindy
4. Going to the West
5. Coon Dog
6. Keys to the Kingdom

[edit] Raise A Ruckus (EP)

December 2004 (Uncle Earl)

1. Raise a Ruckus
2. Stacker Lee
3. Little Annie
4. Julianne Johnson
5. Walker
6. Keys To The Kingdom
7. The Izze Jingle

[edit] She Waits For Night

July 2005 (Rounder Records)

1. Walkin' in My Sleep
2. There Is A Time
3. Sugar Babe
4. Warfare
5. Pale Moon
6. Booth Shot Lincoln
7. Willie Taylor
8. Sullivan's Hollow
9. How Long
10. Old Bunch of Keys
11. Sleepy Desert
12. Divine
13. Ida Red
14. Take These Chains

[edit] Waterloo, Tennessee

March 2007 (Rounder Records)

1. Black-Eyed Susie - (trad., arr. Uncle Earl)
2. The Last Goodbye - (Ted Piney & Uncle Earl)
3. One True - (Kristin Andreassen, Eric Merrill & Abigail Washburn)
4. Wish I Had My Time Again - (trad., words & arr. Uncle Earl)
5. My Little Carpenter (trad., arr. Uncle Earl)
6. My Epitaph - (Ola Belle Reed)
7. Buonaparte - (public domain, arr. Uncle Earl)
8. Bony on the Isle of St. Helena - (trad., arr. Uncle Earl)
9. Sisters of the Road - (Rayna Gellert, arr. Uncle Earl)
10. Streak o' Lean, Streak o' Fat (a.k.a Hongshao Rou) - (music: trad., words: Abigail Washburn & Jon Campbell, arr. Uncle Earl)
11. D & P Blues - (Uncle Earl)
12. The Birds Were Singing of You - (A. P. Carter)
13. Wallflower - (Bob Dylan)
14. Drinker Born - (Rayna Gellert, arr. Uncle Earl)
15. Easy in the Early ('Til Sundown) - (Kristin Andreassen & Uncle Earl)
16. I May Never - (K.C. Groves, Carol Groves & Uncle Earl)

[edit] External links

• Uncle Earl's official site
• Uncle Earl's myspace site
• Uncle Earl at Allmusic

[edit] Footnotes