Pony Bradshaw – Thus Spoke the Fool
It’s perilously easy to stereotype an area if you’ve never been there. I’ve been known to make a cheap joke or two at the expense of Georgia (as a fan of DC sports, I’m actually required to). But the mountains of northern Georgia are a world away from Atlanta (and, for that matter, Nashville). It’s beautiful country filled with folks proud of their home (even if, or maybe because, it can be damn hard to find a drink there). After moving around for the first half of his life, James “Pony” Bradshaw settled in Appalachia nearly 20 years ago, and he’s spent much of that time learning more about the region, and the people, near his Mineral Bluff home. That first-hand education and curiosity led to two albums for Bradshaw, 2021’s Calico Jim and 2023’s North Georgia Rounder. Now, he has a third collection of stories. Thus Spoke the Fool continues Pony Bradshaw’s habit of telling odd stories from different angles, backed by music that seems like it was plucked right out of that Blue Ridge air.
Bradshaw makes the point that his songs aren’t strictly biographical, but rather stories of the small but vibrant world around him. To that end, he tells his tales through a narrator – here, it’s the eponymous fool, Ginseng Daddy, a “singing raconteur” introduced in his namesake first tune on the record. Fiddle and guitar usher in this somewhat “unreliable” narrator, free to spin his tall tales, as he’s “safe in the arms of vernacular.” Stories told with the right verbiage, and in the right accent, gain credibility, much like old-school, herb-based tonics, the efficacy of which was more than a little dubious. Not to be doubted, however, is the decline of small Southern towns when industry (and jobs) dry up – “Hell is a mill town/Where cotton still bleeds.”
The veracity on Thus Spoke the Fool comes from the vivid characters of Bradshaw’s home. “¡Viva Appalachia!” has that narrator riding high on his story supply – “Yonder stands the pride of the gulch” – and ready to see if all he’s got will translate beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains – “Cabbagetown drew us holler folk in/And I’m hell broke loose like a cat with six toes” (if he brings Rachel Baiman’s fiddle and Philippe Bronchtein’s pedal steel solo with him, I like his chances). “Young Eudora,” evoking a VERY famous Southern name, is a more intimate portrait of a local love. Spiced with mandolin and Dobro from Bronchtein, Bradshaw sings of getting lost in young lust – “I can’t wait to lose myself/In your ever-loving holler.”
While North Georgia Rounder bordered on Southern jammy-ness at points, the music on Thus Spoke the Fool is overall tighter, with its brief solos and excellent musicianship fitting into the concise construct of Bradshaw’s songs. “In the Cinnamon Glow” rides on Baiman’s fiddle and excellent background vocals, and “Housebroke” feels like an old-time string band tune, with Mark Howard’s banjo and mandolin shining through our narrator’s homesick blues – “Eating cold boudin/In my hotel room/Staring at the holes in my socks.” “Rebel,” though, best captures what Patterson Hood calls the “duality of the Southern thing” in its eerie mood and conflicting first lines – “Daddy, when I grow up/I want to paint my portrait true/Daddy, when I grow up/I want to be a rebel like you.” It’s that push-pull of genuine Southern pride vs. wanting to put the past in, well, the past that epitomizes the best of Southern art. In his own three-album landscape of Appalachia, Bradshaw has given us characters and images that go well beyond easy stereotypes, showing us the true nature of folks with indelible ties to their home.
Song I Can’t Wait to Hear Live: “Hiwassee Lament” – the most straightforward rocker on the record features a man clinging to faithfulness, in the most Southern of ways – “I ain’t runnin’ off from here/I’ve got gravy on my mind/And Sunday naps with my ever-constant wife” – and excellent electric guitar work from Matthew Pendrick.
Thus Spoke the Fool was produced by Pony Bradshaw, recorded and mixed by Sean Sullivan and mastered by Alex McCollough. All songs written by James Bradshaw. Musicians on the album include James Bradshaw (lead vocals, acoustic and electric guitar), Rachel Baiman (fiddle, banjo, background vocals), Mark Howard (banjo, mandolin, resonator guitar), Philippe Bronchtein (pedal steel, Dobro, piano, organ), Robert Green (bass, harmonium), Ryan Moore (drums, background vocals), Matthew Pendrick (electric guitar, background vocals) and Joseph Evans (acoustic guitar),
Go here to order Thus Spoke the Fool (out August 16): https://www.ponybradshaw.net/merch
Check out tour dates here: https://www.ponybradshaw.net/
Enjoy our previous coverage here: REVIEW: Pony Bradshaw picks up where he left off with North Georgia Rounder
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