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All Music Guide:
Merging a traditional bluegrass sound and first-class picking with pithy songwriting that often confronts personal issues and political matters head on, Chatham County Line are a North Carolina foursome who first came together in 1999. In the mid-'90s, guitarist Dave Wilson was a member of a country-rock band called Stillhouse, whose sound merged Gram Parsons and Neil Young, when he met Greg Readling, a pedal steel player who could also handle upright bass. Both were interested in the possibility of forming an acoustic country band, and fiddle and mandolin master John Teer and banjo player Chandler Holt were Stillhouse fans interested in making music with a purer sound. The four friends began jamming together in 1999, and within a year they were playing out occasionally as Chatham County Line.
By this time, Stillhouse had broken up and Wilson and Readling were doing double duty with Tift Merritt's backing band, the Carbines. Chatham County Line were occasionally opening shows for Merritt, and at one such gig in 2003 they were seen by producer and Southern pop icon Chris Stamey, who liked their sound and offered to produce their first album; he also helped the band score a deal with the influential North Carolina-based indie label Yep Roc Records. Stamey also produced Chatham County Line's second album, 2005's Route 23, while Brian Paulson stepped in behind the board for 2006's Speed of the Whippoorwill. Meanwhile, Chatham County Line began earning accolades for their inventive take on bluegrass music, having been named the Best New Bluegrass Band at the 2004 RockyGrass Competition in Lyons, CO, while receiving similar honors at the 2006 Indie Music Awards. IV appeared from Yep Roc in 2008, with Stamey taking the production reins once again. Their fifth full-length offering, Wildwood, appeared in 2010.
Wikipedia:
Chatham County Line is an American bluegrass musical group. Formed in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1999 from members of the band Stillhouse, the band has released five albums including four on the influential Yep Roc label (who they were linked with by the notable producer Chris Stamey), and have become popular in Europe as well as their native United States. Their most recent tour took in numerous European destinations, including the prestigious Lowlands rock festival in the Netherlands. Chatham County Line made their Canadian debut in July 2009 at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, where they performed beside The Del McCoury Band and The Punch Brothers.
The members met in 1996 when lead singer/songwriter Dave Wilson was playing for "Stillhouse". Wilson was living in the Blue House, an infamous Raleigh crash pad and romper room for the areas hottest young musicians. The other members are banjo picker Chandler Holt, upright bassist Greg Readling, and multi-instrumentalist John Teer. Wilson and Readling were playing in the Blue House as "Stillhouse" when Teer and Holt became intrigued "to hear these guys playing original country music that didn't suck" as Holt recalls. Holt and Teer befriended Wilson at the Blue House and began sitting in with the band. Wilson, over a beer one night, asked the others if they were interested in starting a bluegrass band.
Chatham County Line began as an opening act for The Carbines, Tift Merritt's band. Chris Stamey saw them open a show, offered to record them, and landed them a record deal with Yep Roc Records. The band then went on to create five albums. Chatham County Line in 2003, Route 23 in 2005, Speed of the Whippoorwill in 2006, IV in 2008, and Wildwood in 2010.
The IV album includes a track, Birmingham Jail, that tells the story of Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley, who were killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing. In The Washington Post, Allison Stewart writes:
