The Major
Sevens release “Goodbye Baby” Former WHS band spent summer recording
original tunes
By Jeff Eason
It’s hard to keep high school bands together. Band
members graduate and head off for different futures in different
towns. It’s just the way it goes. Fortunately for the former
Watauga High School band The Major Sevens, the guys laid down
some excellent studio tracks before various members of the band
relocated to Greenville, Chapel Hill and other college towns.
Local musicians Brooks Forsyth,
Robert Hunt and Drayton Aldridge perform under the name
The Major Sevens. The band recently released a fantastic
album of original songs titled Goodbye Baby.
Those tracks are the foundation of The Major Sevens’ new
album Goodbye Baby, a rollicking affair that owes as much to psychedelic
Beach Boys as it does to traditional mountain music as played
by popular acts such as Old Crow Medicine Show.
The album features music recorded by the three members of The
Major Sevens: Brooks Forsyth on lead vocals, guitar, piano and
bass, Robert Hunt on mandolin, banjo and vocals, and Drayton Aldridge
on violin and vocals. It also features instrumental contributions
from a number of musical friends including Graham Nimens, Mike
Decamara, Tommy Voisey and Vincent Walker.
“We spent all summer recording the album at Graham’s
studio, Greenville Art Recording in Boone,” explained Forsyth.
“It’s a mixture of digital and analog recordings. All
of them are original that we wrote while we were playing together
in high school.”
Forsyth stated that The Major Sevens formed three years ago named
itself after “the mellow yet mysterious musical chord and
the reflective metaphor to the music and the lives of the members.”
Over the past two years, the band has performed regular live shows
at Woodlands Barbecue and at the Old Hampton Store. “This
summer we worked up to the night band scene, playing late shows
at Black Cat Burrito and at Flipside,” said Forsyth.
The band also gained new fans this summer playing at the Music
on the Mountain Festival in Boone, alongside national acts such
as Acoustic Syndicate, Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas.
Goodbye Baby’s emphasis is on quirky yet catchy original
compositions, compelling vocal harmony, and excellent picking.
“Dreamin’ of Appalachia” owes a bit to Old Crow’s
version of Dylan’s “Wagon Wheel,” but the rest
of the album is entirely original, existing in a realm that is
totally The Major Sevens’.
The album opens with the trippy “Farewell,” a wonderful
journey of a song that veers, suite-like, from a low-fidelity
campfire song to a full-blown Grateful Dead-meets-Van Dyke Parks
ballad, complete with wonderful harmony vocals on the chorus.
The fact that the band can effortlessly swing from the traditional
sounding “The Lonesome Cry of Loretta Ward” to the electronic
ambient daydream of “Endless Sunbeam/Dawn’s Answer”
says not only something about their musicianship but also a lot
about the musical environment in which they were raised.
“I grew up in Boone and I think the album really represents
the area,” said Forsyth. “It’s not just bluegrass
here but also a lot of classic rock, psychedelic folk and, of
course, some kicking bluegrass.”
Goodbye Baby is available at through The Major Sevens’ MySpace
page and at Fat Cats Music and Video and Green Eggs and Jam in
downtown Boone. It is also available online through iTunes and
CD Baby websites.
These days Forsyth is playing a regular live gig at Woodlands
in Blowing Rock with Steve Bush and other area musicians. Performing
mostly cover materials like the Dead’s “I Know You Rider”
and Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl,” the gigs
give Forsyth a chance to show off another side of his musical
talents.
“Now is a great opportunity to play live music in this area,”
said Forsyth. “There is a lot of potential in the Boone music
scene right now.”
The Major Sevens are currently planning a CD release party in
Boone for Goodbye Baby to be held in the near future.
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