Out of the ashes of a long hiatus comes one of the many Roots bands of almost twenty years ago, and one of my favorite bands from that community….. the mighty Carolina Still A lot of activity has been happening over on their Facebook page lately, and you damn sure bet it all caught my attention. Additionally, their website has been newly updated, including an often hard to find vinyl format of their second full album from 2011 called “Distiller”. You best believe I ordered a copy for my personal collection, and there are some new T Shirts as well.
Long gone are the good old MySpace days, where many of these bands began their assault upon our eardrums with all of their Metal and Country and Bluegrass Roots juxtaposed into one. Right about 2004,as I was coping with going through a divorce, I began finding many of these bands that bridged the gap of 90’s Country to bands like Cody Jinks and Old Crow Medicine Show.
I mean, I kept listening to Classic Rock, Classic Country, Mowtown, Thrash Metal and Classic Hip Hop, but bands like this and bands of their ilk were catching my ears with the sound of the music and the flow of the lyrics. To be honest, I was also drawn in by the simplicity of the playing. Now mind you, I am not calling them poor musicians, what I meant was these bands made some iconic albums without major production, and full of computer generated crap.
It was nothing more than honest, raw, down home talent accompanied with lyrics that spoke to me as an individual. This many years later a lot of the bands and artists that were prevalent during that time have moved on to other ventures, and some of them have passed away. And now there are many festivals that would combine Carolina Still with others from their own community lineups of their genre.
I chose that particular photo because they lost their drummer and fourth member Billy Smith in 2023. It kind of looks to me like they are looking up at him in Hillbilly Heaven. I’m really excited about this news I’m bringing you.
I have been talking to Justin Casey from the band itself, and apparently, they had a show this weekend that was cancelled due to circumstances beyond the band’s control. The band itself, which consists of J Alan Casey on vocals, guitar, and banjo. Robert Norman on vocals, fiddle guitar, and harmonica, and Adam Jones on upright bass. I was going to post some information about that show, so I shall include the next show on here.
As I stated before, this is the new show they have up, and this is directly from the website: “We are gonna be headed to the oldest town in NC on May 11th to play Bath Fest! We start at 11am on the front porch of the Bonner House in Historic Bath, NC”. #oldtimemusic #carolinastill #uprightbass #bluegrass #fiddle #countrymusic #banjo #hillbillymusic #bathfestnc
Let me take you my dear friends, to the good old times when many of these bands were at their pinnacle of their touring and activity. Many of us had some good times back then and had to sober up and make some lifestyle changes. I know for a fact back in 2012 I was having a party at some of these shows.
And now today I wanted to visit this article again and post a recent video of their performance. I just wanted to share this band with the world once again. I think without a doubt that this band has a bright future ahead of themselves.
