Article Contributed on: 6/1/2009 5:20:18 PM
(Originally published in the June 2009 issue of Pow'r Pickin' magazine, the official publication of the
Colorado Bluegrass Music Society.)
A seven-time IBMA Bass Player of the Year Award winner, Missy Raines is a bass superstar. She launched her career playing with the experimental bluegrass band, Cloud Valley, going on to tour the country with masters such as Eddie and Martha Adcock, Kenny Baker, Josh Graves, and Jesse McReynolds. From there she joined Claire Lynch's popular Front Porch Band, and went on to develop a successful duo with band mate, Jim Hurst.
Now she's taking the helm of own band, The New Hip, a band that fuses bluegrass virtuosity with jazz grooves. They will make their Denver debut at Swallow Hill on Thursday, June 4 at 8 p.m., and the band just released their debut on Compass records,
Inside Out.
"It took time finding the right people," Raines tells me on the phone from her home in Nashville. "I had a lot of ideas in my head and wanted to find a lot of different folks from whom we could have a good song pull," she explains. The project she envisioned was one of pure collaboration: a mixture of hot new talent who could all write new, fresh material.
The time involved has paid off, for she has assembled a unique cast of players. The music is rich and deep, filled with beauty and eloquence, and a stirring expressiveness.
Inside Out was produced by Raines, members of The New Hip and Ben Surratt. It also features special guest appearances by Matt Flinner (mandolin), John R. Burr (piano) and Megan McCormick (guitar, vocals). The New Hip members on the album are Ethan Ballinger (mandolin), Michael Witcher (resonator guitar), Lee Holland (drums) and Dillon Hodges (guitar).
For the performance at Swallow Hill, the lineup is slightly different, as Ballinger has moved from playing mandolin to guitar, replacing Hodges. "He's phenomenal on guitar," Raines notes. Travis Burch takes over on mandolin and Robert Crawford will take the spot on drums. Witcher, whose credits have included playing with everyone from Laurie Lewis to Tyler Hilton and Dolly Parton, is still with the band on resonator guitar.
The New Hip's name is a play on words inspired by real life. "I wanted the name to reflect the music as much as it could-new and fresh, with jazz sensibilities," Raines says. "I thought, 'This band is going to be hip.' And I had a hip replacement surgery to correct a birth defect earlier in my life that was really life-changing. It gave me mobility, a new lease on life, so I thought it would be fun to call it that: the new hip. It works both ways, whether you know the whole story or not."
Bluegrass is all about innovation to Raines. Inspired by past role models like Bill Monroe, Raines is spurred on by what he did: taking elements of what is around him-in Monroe's case, blues and early jazz players-and experimenting with them to create something new. "When I'm playing a jazzier piece, do I lose the essence of bluegrass? No," she says. "It's important to preserve the culture and tradition. It's equally important to interpret sounds in your own, new way, taking the past and the present to make something different."
Her unique trailblazing abilities have earned her many labels as being the best. For Raines, there simply can't be a best. "I can name off 12 bass players I'd consider favorites, and that's just to start. There can't be a 'best.' Music is about affecting people at that moment and I'm gratified that what I have to offer has been recognized."
And Raines never forgets the fans. "We (musicians) have the best job in the world and they're the reason we can do that," she says. Interacting with fans on a personal level is important to her and the band. They put work into personally responding to their own emails and maintaining their own online social networks, from blogging to MySpace and Facebook networking, and tweeting on Twitter. "I love playing to faces I recognize, to see those loyal fans, so personally responding to the fans is extremely important to us," she smiles.
Opening the show for Missy Raines & The New Hip will be the Boston Boys featuring Sam Grisman. Tickets are available online at
http://www.swallowhillmusic.org, or at Swallow Hill's box office at 71 East Yale Avenue, 303-777-1003. CBMS member tickets are for $12 advance, $15 day of show.