The Way Home concluded its four-season run this week. For those unfamiliar with the family-friendly series, which airs on the W Network in Canada and Hallmark in the States, it’s a slightly convoluted time-travel drama set in a rural Canadian town. Time-travel fare can be tricky, of course, especially ones that find the protagonists jumping hither and yon, including into timelines that other future versions of themselves are in. (Think Back to the Future Part II.) I enjoyed The Way Home from the get-go, however, as—when it’s handled well, which it is—time travel spurs what I jokingly call “deep thoughts.”
Here’s one such thought: Listening to the eponymous 1977 debut from Boone Creek is akin to eavesdropping not just on history but a future that could have been. The bluegrass group featured Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Douglas, Terry Baucom, and Wes Golding; most music fans should recognize the first two names, and some may even have heard of the third, who was dubbed “the Duke of Drive.” The lesser-known Golding, for his part, was the impetus for the band—according to BluegrassBios, when his first choice for lead singer, Keith Whitley, said no, he turned to Whitley’s friend Skaggs. All four are considered bluegrass legends, these days. But back then?
Rounder Records rejected the group’s first stab at a record for being “too commercial.” (Ah, pesky success! Who needs it?!) To be fair, of course, genre fans can be overprotective of their cherished music, with chants of “sellout” raining down on those who dare buck the norm. In the case of Boone Creek, coloring the high lonesome sound with electric guitar, drums, piano, horns, and even synthesizers risked a backlash before the group was even known. So Skaggs, Douglas, Baucom, and Golding returned to the studio and recorded more traditional bluegrass fare to pair with their previous efforts. The album that was eventually released featured songs from both sessions, with the castoffs feared lost forever when the recording engineer left the studio with the master tapes. They were eventually recovered, decades later, but in sad shape: moldy and badly damaged.
This long-in-the-making reissue on HighTone Records rescues four tracks, tacking them on as bonus songs: “Hitchhiking to California,” “Misty Wind,” “Georgia Sunrise,” and “Dream Song.” Each serves as a hint of what could have been; they effortlessly blend the past and present, sounding much like the country-flavored soft rock that accents many ‘70s-themed compilations—and, too, modern Americana. The wistful “Misty Wind” features harmonies from Vince Gill, who was the group’s bass player for a spell.
The tunes that come before are as fun, balancing traditional and progressive bluegrass while occasionally stretching into more straightforward country. Skagg’s lead vocals routinely fly to the sky, while his bandmates’ harmonies are things of wonder. One highlight is their rendition of Charles Moody’s classic gospel ode, “Drifting Too Far from the Shore”; it sounds like a Louvin Brothers outtake, just about.
“Satisfy My Mind,” for its part, is one of the genre-expanding treats that made the original cut, conjuring to my ears the Randy Meisner-era Eagles, while “Sugar Daddy” adds a dash of ragtime—and horns—into the mix.
The music business is a labyrinth with no guarantees of success, of course, but the failure of Boone Creek to break through remains a head scratcher. That said, if things have broken the other way, Skaggs may not have joined Emmylou’s Hot Band or achieved solo success in the 1980s, while Douglas might never have become an in-demand session/band player (or played with the house band on TNN’s American Music Shop series, for that matter). That’s all to say, the original album remains a sterling work, a true lost treasure that’s well worth revisiting. Buttressed by the salvaged tunes, however, it’s now even stronger. Highly recommended.
The Old Grey Cat 