August 2, 2024 — For his latest Mountain Home Music Company single, ace mandolinist Danny Roberts serves up an original tune to remind listeners that, even as he continues his role with traditional-leaning bluegrass favorites, The Grascals, his individual tastes and talents range more broadly. With its languid opening, atypical chord structure and smoothly flowing solos, “The Drifter” offers a sparkling contrast to Roberts’ previous releases like “Jesus Satisfies” and “West Virginia Red.”
“When I started writing ‘The Drifter,’” Roberts recalls, “I was inspired to compose something to pay tribute to one of my all-time favorite mandolin players, David Grisman. I feel like this song has that vibe, though nobody can play that style like Dawg. The song title is in honor of my late brother-in-law, Mike Mullins, who wrote a book called ‘The Drifter’ before he passed away; that title just seemed to fit this song.”
After Roberts’ opening reveal, banjo, fiddle and guitar take turns in negotiating the tune’s contrasting sections before Roberts returns to bring the group home in a bold crescendo. And though it’s not hard to hear echoes of Grisman’s “Dawg music” in “The Drifter”’s sinuous melody, jazz inflected rhythms and shifting moods, the track testifies to Roberts’ originality and inspired selection of accompanists.
“‘The Drifter’ was so much fun to record,” he says. “It’s always great to have my wife Andrea playing bass with, me and the solos that Tony Wray (banjo and guitar) and Jimmy Mattingly (fiddle) played on it are magical. I’m blessed to have such great musicians helping me bring my music to life!”
Listen to “The Drifter” HERE.
About Danny Roberts
For over 30 years, mandolinist Danny Roberts has been a steady presence in the heart of the bluegrass mainstream. Born and raised in Leitchfield, Kentucky, he was a founding member of New Tradition, a prominent bluegrass gospel group that toured widely throughout the 1990s, released eight well-received albums (including two for Mountain Home Music Company) and served as a “school of bluegrass” for musicians who went on to work with artists such as the Lonesome River Band, Rhonda Vincent & The Rage and the Special Consensus. At the beginning of the century, Danny began working for Gibson Musical Instruments, eventually becoming head of its Mandolin Division and Nashville Plant and Repair Supervisor before starting his own repair service, Just Off The Bench. While still at Gibson, he helped to found The Grascals, the award-winning bluegrass sextet that quickly rose to the music’s top ranks when they earned the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Song and Emerging Artist of the Year awards in 2005 and its top Entertainer of the Year honors in 2006 and 2007; he continues to serve as the group’s mandolin player and senior member. Danny released his first solo album in 2004, and made his Mountain Home Music Company debut as a solo artist with 2014’s Nighthawk.