A man of notes: Early guitar purchase pays off
By Jim McGuinness

James Alan Shelton remembers his first guitar.

It was 3/4 size Fender model F-25 that his father bought him when he was 12.

There was just one catch: Shelton had to pay back every cent by working on the family tobacco farm in Yuma, Va.

“It was right around Christmas time, but it was no Christmas present,” Shelton recalls. “That guitar was $89.95 without a case, and I carried it out of the store in a plastic bag. And I remember him saying, ‘Boy, you’re gonna work next summer.’ And I worked that guitar off for a dollar and a quarter an hour until I had it paid off.”

It has proven to be a worthwhile investment. As guitarist for Ralph Stanley’s Clinch Mountain Boys, the Kingsport native holds a prominent role in one of the world’s most famous bands (that first guitar is now on display at the recently opened Ralph Stanley Museum and Traditional Mountain Center in Clintwood, Va.). Shelton also maintains a solo recording career, having released eight albums under his own name.

“I really have the best of both worlds,” said Shelton, who lives in Church Hill. “I get to play with Ralph, which is my dream job. And my own albums have been pretty frequent, so I always have something new at the record table when we’re on the road.”

Shelton’s most recent album came out on Rebel Records this summer. Titled “Half Moon Bay,” the disc mixes vocal tracks with a number of tastefully rendered instrumentals that feature cross-picking, finger-picking and flat-picking guitar styles. Because Shelton himself doesn’t sing, several friends were enlisted for the vocal tracks. The album, in fact, was built around two of those tracks: “Tupelo County Jail,” an old Webb Pierce country hit that Shelton learned from a Stoneman Family version, and Merle Travis’ “Dark as a Dungeon.”

 

Dan Moneyhun, an old bandmate of Shelton’s in the group Southern Grass, sings lead on the former. Blue Highway’s Shawn Lane, who played with Shelton in Blue Ridge back in the ’80s, handles lead vocals on the latter. Lane’s performance in particular captures the bleakness of the song’s lyrics.

“I knew Shawn, being from Southwest Virginia, could put the feeling into that song that I needed,” Shelton said. “I wanted him to put all that hardship and pain and struggle of being a coal miner into the song. And I think he did.”

The Clinch Mountain Boys assist on a spirited remake of the Stanley Brothers’ 1960 chestnut, “Little Bennie.” With Ralph Stanley II on lead vocal and John Rigsby on tenor, the track is distinguished by the elder Stanley’s high-baritone, which is mixed more prominently than usual.

“I knew if I was gonna do ‘Little Bennie,’ it wouldn’t sound right without Ralph,” Shelton said. “ It made that song sound the way it was supposed to sound. I mixed Ralph’s voice up pretty high in the mix because I wanted it to have that sound of the old Stanley Brothers records.”

Another highlight is a soothing adaptation of “Wild Mountain Thyme,” a Celtic-styled instrumental Shelton learned from a rendition by steel-guitar great Buddy Emmons.

Shelton also excels on an instrumental version of “Married Life Blues,” a song associated with East Kentucky balladeer Roscoe Holcombe. Shelton plays both guitar and mandolin on the sparsely arranged track, fleshing out Holcombe’s bare-bones treatment with a minor chord intro that accentuates the song’s strong melody, giving it a feel Shelton thinks is more in tune with his own personality.

“People expect me to play within a certain context,” he said. “So I can’t branch out real far from what they’re used to hearing. But at the same time, I try to come up with something that identifies me a little bit.”

The album has a decidedly local flavor. In addition to Shelton’s Clinch Mountain Boys mates, other musicians on the album include Kingsport natives mandolinist Adam Steffey (Mountain Heart), guitarist Tim Stafford (Blue Highway) and bassist Barry Bales (Union Station) along with fiddler Hunter Berry (Rhonda Vincent & The Rage) from Elizabethton.

Solo albums by instrumentalists in famous bands can be a tricky proposition. Because they don’t usually step out into the limelight, there’s often a tendency to attempt to dazzle the listener with speed and virtuosity. That’s not the case on “Half Moon Bay.”

“I don’t try to play hot and flashy to impress anybody,” he says. “I try to make my records listenable. I don’t play to impress other musicians. I just try to play good music.”

At the core of Shelton’s sound is the cross-picking style that has been vital to the Stanley sound for a half-century. It’s a tradition Shelton has respected since becoming a Clinch Mountain Boy in March 1994.

“When you join a band that’s established like Ralph’s, you’re expected to play within that style,” Shelton says. “I try to carry on the cross-picking guitar style that was laid down in the late ’50s and early ’60s by Bill Napier and George Shuffler. All the guitar players Ralph’s used over the years have had that style.”

In the course of his Clinch Mountain Boys career, Shelton has witnessed a renaissance in Stanley’s career. While the movie “’O Brother, Where Art Thou” revitalized interest in Appalachian and bluegrass music, Stanley clearly wound up as the film’s musical star.

“When that movie came out, it was the wildest thing,” Shelton said. “All of a sudden, people just latched on to Ralph. We’d go out and play shows and we’d turn people away because the places couldn’t hold the people. He always had his following in bluegrass circles, but when ‘O Brother’ came along he became a national icon.”

Shelton became familiar with Stanley’s music during a 1973 concert the Clinch Mountain Boys shared with Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys in Gate City, Va. From that point on he was a Stanley disciple, meticulously dissecting the licks of Shuffler and other Stanley guitarists. He eventually introduced himself to Stanley at a concert, professing his interest in one day being his guitarist. He became a temporary replacement for a vacationing Junior Blankenship in 1992, taking over full-time when Blankenship left the Clinch Mountain Boys two years later.

Playing alongside such a legendary figure has only enhanced Shelton’s own musical vision.

“His big thing is he wants you to play it like it’s sung,” Shelton said. “He wants the instruments to say the words, to make the same sounds that the voice is making. That’s what I like to play anyway. I feel like if you get away from the melody, then you’re not playing the song.”

“Half Moon Bay” can be ordered from Shelton’s Web site at www.jamesalanshelton.com. It also can be ordered by writing James A. Shelton, 129 Will Simpson Road, Church Hill, Tenn. 37642; calling 357-1623; or e-mailing jamesashelton@earthlink.net

CDs are $15 plus $1.50 for shipping. Personal checks or postal money orders accepted.

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Jim McGuinness is music writer for GoTriCities. E-mail him at jmcguinness@timesnews.net.