At this point in Louisa Branscomb’s full career as a songwriter and performer, it should come as no surprise that the theme of resilience runs through her twelfth album Gonna Love Anyway, released in July 2019 on Compass Records and co-produced by Branscomb and Missy Raines.
Louisa Branscomb has been making a difference in bluegrass since the early seventies as one of the first women to lead a bluegrass band. She began writing songs at six and has been writing professionally for the last four decades, earning awards and accolades for songs recorded by a host of performers, including “Steel Rails,” Alison Krauss’s first single tracked by Billboard.
In addition to a number of new songs by Branscomb, the new CD includes a recording of “Steel Rails” by a collection of award-winning bluegrass musicians with Dale Ann Bradley, Becky Buller, Sierra Hull, Molly Tuttle, Jeanette Williams, and Celia Woodsmith on lead vocals, and a host of the best in bluegrass backing them.
Branscomb’s fascination with trains, apparent on a number of songs on the CD, can be traced in part to her regular trips aboard the L&N from Birmingham to Union Station in Nashville, where her grandfather served for many years as chancellor of Vanderbilt University. Branscomb’s introduction to country music came during this period of her childhood when her grandmother took her to the Ryman Auditorium, where they enjoyed front row seats for the Grand Ole Opry.
On Gonna Love Anyway, Claire Lynch sings lead vocals on “Freight Train for a Song.” Several other songs have listeners on the move, including the lively “Gone” and “Ain’t No Good Goodbye,” sung by Dale Ann Bradley and “End of the Line” with Becky Buller on the lead.
Josh Williams sings lead on “Riding Double on My Old John Deere,” inspired by Branscomb’s life on a North Georgia farm, where she says riding her tractor serves as therapy. She sings the lead on the playful “Blackbird in the Rain.” One of the more haunting numbers of the album, “There’s No Marker on Our Grave,” is delivered by Johnny Williams with his pure sound reminiscent of Ralph Stanley.
Branscomb and Raines pulled off nothing short of a musical event when bringing together the talent not just for “Steel Rails” but for this entire album. On banjo, Alison Brown joins Tuttle, Hull, Buller, and Raines on “Steel Rails” to round out the “First Ladies of Bluegrass.” The CD also features a host of talented instrumentalist, including Charlie Cushman on banjo, Casey Campbell on mandolin, Stuart Duncan on fiddle, and Rob Ickes on the resophonic guitar, as well as the “First Ladies” on their particular instruments.
Already hitting the top of the Bluegrass and Folk charts, Gonna Love Anywayhas seen a number of singles also topping the charts, as the CD can be expected to show the same resilience that runs through all of Branscomb’s songs on the recording.
