By ROBIN CAUDELL
PLATTSBURGH — Honky-tonk and mid-century country tunes are never the same once Big Spike Bluegrass gets a hold of them.
The bluegrass band from New England — Bill Gaston (banjo and lead vocals), Mike Santosusso (upright bass, tenor and lead vocals), Pete Langdell (guitar and lead vocals), Freeman Corey (fiddle) and Neil Rossi (fiddle, lead and baritone vocals) — performs Friday evening at the Palmer Street Coffeehouse in Plattsburgh.
Big Spike has been together close to eight years now, but the group's musicians played together in different musical configurations over the past 20 years.
"In this particular configuration, I play guitar," said Langdell, who is also the designer and manufacturer of Rigel Mandolin, based in Cambridge, Vt.
"With any band, you have an evolutionary process with members. Some leave and some come. What's really nice, we've been together long enough that we're comfortable with where we're going and what we're doing. We all have very similar viewpoints of where the music is and isn't going, which is very key. That's one of the things that can be a demise of a lot of groups. We all have a good track record with each other, and we know what to expect from other people in the group."
A GOOD RAPPORT
Its name derived from the Osborne Brothers' classic bluegrass song "Big Spike Hammer," the band has released two CDs, "A New Day" (2008) and "Cheatin', Lying, Leavin', Crying" (2004).
"Most of the time when we work up new material, we're pretty democratic," Langdell said. "We're happy to do regional jobs within three or four states away. That keeps us a bit anchored around where we live. We have a good rapport with each other, and that really makes it work really well."
The band's core is bluegrass, but they will twist '50s and '60s country, or earlier, to meet their traditional standards.
"We have a great time playing. We're actually pretty happy to play in Plattsburgh," Langdell said. "It's a great venue."
For the players, the band is not a job but something they love to do.
"It's pretty exhilarating. We're presently working on compiling material for a third CD."
Prospective material is put in a pool that is then culled down.
"We all put in good candidates for the upcoming CD. That keeps us kind of sharp."
Langdell and Rossi write the bulk of the band's original material. Rossi doesn't have a process. Sometimes, he starts with a phrase or a hook, something memorable like "Three Chord Jones."
The song laments the demise of classic country.
"Its replacement is what passes for country music in Nashville today."
For Rossi, the songwriting process can be short, a couple of weeks, or not.
"Our first CD has a gospel song called 'Moving On,'" he said. "I wrote the chorus in 1976. I finished the song in 2004. You see the process is not methodical. Sometimes, you reach a dead end, and you have to put it aside and work on something else."
E-mail Robin Caudell at: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com
