Sometimes a song can take 150 years to write.
During the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, bluegrass artist Claire Lynch got a call from fellow songwriter Louisa Branscomb pitching a “cool story” from her family history.
Claire Lynch
(Photo provided)
Branscomb’s great-great-great aunt had four brothers who fought in the war. The boys wrote heart-wrenching letters home to their sister, Lucinda Caroline, and she kept them all. Centuries later when the family was clearing out the old home place, the trove of letters was discovered.
Frank Chappell, great-great-grandson of Lucinda Caroline, compiled the collection of letters into a book called “Dear Sister, Civil War Letters to a Sister in Alabama.”
Inspired by the stories in the book, Lynch said she and Branscomb researched battles and local history to co-write the song that draws on universal themes of separation and loss amid the horrors of war. Even for a seasoned performer like Lynch, the song’s impact was surprising.
“Immediately, you see people reach up and wipe tears from their eyes,” Lynch said of the first times she performed the song live. “We have hit a home run here. If it touches people that deeply, you know you have something special.”
“Dear Sister,” the title track of her Compass Records project, was named 2014 Song of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association.
“It’s probably my most coveted award,” said Lynch, who is also a three-time IBMA female vocalist of the year, most recently in 2013.
“I’m hoping that the song has another life, maybe in film,” she said in a telephone interview from her Nashville home.
‘My Florida Sunshine’
Claire Lynch Band, features Florida native Jarrod Walker, left, Mark Schatz and Bryan McDowell. (Photo provided)
Lynch leans toward a contemporary, folksier blend of bluegrass. Jarrod Walker, a young mandolin and guitar player from the Brandon area, recently joined the band, which also includes bass player Mark Schatz and multi-instrumentalist Bryan McDowell.
Although she has promised fans a swing album, Lynch said she may change course and do a straight-ahead bluegrass project first.
“Jarrod, he’s just so good at the ‘grass. I think I’ll take advantage of having Jarrod in the band,” she said of her next project.
While Lynch respects the traditions of bluegrass, she always puts her own spin on classics like her jazzy take on “Wabash Cannonball.” She reached back to the catalog of Bill Monroe, the Father of Bluegrass, to record “My Florida Sunshine” on the “Watcha Gonna Do” CD.
“I found that song on an eight-track tape,” she said. “That is one of the coolest songs I’ve ever heard.”
Twin fiddles soar on Lynch’s version, which as always is delivered in her unmistakable vocal style. Originality is important to Lynch, even when covering bluegrass classics.
“I feel more like an artist than a copy cat,” she said.
Her voice is tender yet tough, described in a 2009 Bluegrass Unlimited article as “pure yet powerful, crystalline yet gutsy.”
While she loves traditional bluegrass, she said she realizes that for mainstream audiences it can be “an acquired taste.”
“I grew up in bluegrass in the 1970s when the second generation was just beginning,” Lynch said. “I love the old stuff -- I am a fan.”
Now she describes her sound as “Claire Lynch, singer-songwriter with bluegrass roots” and hopes that bands like hers and The Boxcars can help bridge the gap between mountain music and modern bluegrass.
“I’m just a chick from New York who moved to Alabama when she was 12,” Lynch said.
Doin’ Time
Even with her recent successes, Lynch said she longs to do more writing and hints that she may be pulling off the road for a spell after 2016.
She started writing when she was 19, and cites Rodney Crowell, Nanci Griffith, John Hiatt and Leonard Cohen as songwriters she admires and has worked with during her long career.
“I was a lot more prolific back then. That’s one of the reasons I want to pull back from touring. We are out there a lot and it’s rigorous,” she said of life on the road. “The physicality is difficult. There’s little time in between -- I want to cut back and do something different.”
Vicki Dean is the Herald-Tribune’s digital editor. She writes about bluegrass music every chance she gets.
