November 15, 2024 — When disaster strikes, people respond as best they can to provide material support for its victims. Yet beyond the daily needs of food, clothing and shelter, times of trial create spiritual challenges that artists can have a special calling to meet. For Mountain Home Music’s Andy Leftwich, the ravages of Hurricane Helene — which struck both the eastern part of his home state of Tennessee and the label’s home ground in western North Carolina, causing floods, landslides and massive damage — demanded just such a response. Putting aside their next planned release in his series of acclaimed bluegrass, newgrass and swing tunes, Leftwich and the Mountain Home team rushed to replace it with a deeply felt, profoundly reverential instrumental reading of a beloved traditional American song, “Talk About Suffering.”

First recorded 60 years ago by the region’s legendary Doc Watson and given not one, but two memorable readings by bluegrass Hall of Famer and Leftwich’sformer employer, Ricky Skaggs — once with fellow Hall of Famer Tony Rice on their self-titled album, and again with Sharon White and her sister (and Leftwich’smother-in-law) Cheryl White — “Talk About Suffering” is deeply rooted in the folk tradition, built around lyric fragments that likely emerged from the Black church in the Civil War era and subsequently wed to a melody redolent of the British Isles:

Talk about suffering here below
And let’s keep following Jesus
…
The gospel train is coming
Now don’t you want to go
And leave this world of sorrow
And trouble here below

Here, in the hands of master fiddler Leftwich, IBMA Guitar Player of the Year Cody Kilby (Travelin’ McCourys) and veteran bassist Byron House (Sandra McCracken, Robert Plant’s Band of Joy), it becomes both a powerful lament and an anthem of hope, as the trio navigates its alternation of minor and major moods with a sensitivity that is as soulful as it is musical.

“Life can deliver some hard blows and no one is exempt from troubles and trials,” acknowledges Leftwich, who has made a musical ministry an integral part of his career. “We read in Matthew 11:28 where Jesus said, ‘Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ He offers us peace in the middle of our storm and a confidence knowing we don’t have to walk through it alone. As bad as it can seem sometimes, there is always something to hold onto. We talk about suffering here below, but let’s keep following Jesus.”

With its wordless yet palpable invocation of bedrock beliefs and a characteristic blend of quiet virtuosity and meditative restraint, Andy Leftwich’s “Talk About Suffering” is a performance suited for a somber moment in time, acknowledging pain even as it offers a path to a brighter future.

“Talk About Suffering” is streaming in Dolby Atmos spatial audio on Apple Music, Amazon Music and TIDAL. Listen to it HERE.

About Andy Leftwich
Four-time GRAMMY®-winning instrumentalist Andy Leftwich began playing the fiddle at the age of six, entering his first contest at seven and winning the National Championship for Beginners at the age of twelve. By the time he was a teenager, he had appeared on the Grand Ole Opry  and “Music City Tonight” with Crook and Chase, and had established a reputation as a winning contest fiddler throughout the Southeast. At 15, he capped off his contest career by winning Winfield, Kansas’s Walnut Valley Old Time Fiddle Championship, one of the most prestigious contests in the country. At the same time, with mandolin and guitar added to his arsenal, Andy began playing professionally, and before he finished his teens, he had joined Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder in 2001. wIn addition to 2005’s solo album, Ride, Andy has recorded two critically acclaimed albums as a member of Three Ring Circle (with dobro player Rob Ickes and bassist Dave Pomeroy), and built an impressive list of studio credits as one of Nashville’s top session players.