In the beginning were the sixties and the seventies and the common passion for the Beatles, the Byrds, Bob Dylan, CSN&Y and the Backersfield Californian country sound, from Buck Owens to Herb Pedersen and Chris Hillman, even if Ron Martin comes from Eden , North Carolina, and Marco Zanzi from Varese. Born and grown up in North Carolina, since schooldays Ron plays in different bands: “Kaleidoscope”, “Wampus Cats” and “Shiloh” are the ones thanks to which he reaches a fair popularity. Marco Zanzi follows a similar path, in the beginning he plays and sings in minor local bands, but later he has more significant experiences in “La Signora Stracciona” and “The Steamboat Willie” and with them he plays throughout Italy. In this period he is also conquered forever by the country rock and by groups like Poco, Burrito Brothers, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Eagles: through them (and especially through the project ‘Will The Circle Be Unbroken’) he discovers the Bluegrass and soon falls in love with the 5-string banjo (in that period an almost unknown instrument and difficult to find).
But the real meeting place of Ron and Marco has been the Web. The diffusion of the Internet has allowed them to know each other thanks to a Website dedicated to the Byrds (‘My Songbook’, realized in 2000 by Zanzi with the English friend David Reynolds), but above all thanks to the common and active participation at various newsgroups: “Gene Clark List” and “Byrdmaniax”, but mainly “Acousticharmonies”, which is an incredible resource both musical and human. Here Ron and Marco collaborate for the first time on a musical project and they are involved in the making of a CD, which involves musicians from different countries (USA, Canada, Japan, Ireland, Holland…).
Piedmont stands for the Italian pedemontana, because Ron lives at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in the Appalachians chain and Marco lives on the offshoots of the Prealps. Therefore, here is the “Piedmont Project” that combines both common musical interests and environmental similarities. In Spring 2007 Marco Zanzi goes to Ron in the USA, he knows his companion Suzon, his family, his friends and he finds a landscape that recalls Varese. With his American friend he goes to the “Merlefest”, probably the most important Music festival dedicated to the ‘American’ genre (acoustic, country, bluegrass, folk, blues, Celtic…), and he records three pieces at the Flyin’ Cloud Studio of Doug Rorrer, in Eden, NC. Here arises the idea to create the “Piedmont Brothers Band”, where the two brothers are Marco and Ron and the band is composed of old and new musician friends having in common the same passion. Thanks to the Internet again, the music knocks down the barriers and flies over the Ocean. Ron sends his original pieces (Martin is a composer, too), Marco arranges and reworks them thanks to his competence. He involves his friends, records and sends his pieces to Eden where Ron listens to them, comments on them, goes to the Studio and records his voices with the precious help of the Chief engineer Doug Rorrer. And then he sends them back to Italy for the final mixing.
From February 2003 Ron Martin fights against a lyposarcoma that obliges him to constant inspections and treatments, although it is positively treated. But Ron is a fighter: he fights with the medicines, he fights with the Faith, but also with the music, that is his inseparable fellow. In June 2003 he makes with the help of his friends a CD called “The Circle” (Flyin’ Cloud Records FC 046 – www.flyincloudrecords.com), in which he reveals his gift as interpreter and whose income goes to the research by the ‘Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative’.
And finally the ‘Piedmont Brothers Band’ meets: Ron crosses the Ocean in July 2008 to arrive in Italy with the aim to play in a few concerts, but above all to finish the first CD of the band ‘Bordertown’, which is a particularly significant title as both Eden and Varese are really border towns (Virginia and Swiss).
The CD, officially presented on 31st October 2008, mainly contains Ron’s own compositions, arranged and produced by Marco Zanzi. The CD has received significant approvals by the critics, both in the United States and in Italy, which have particularly underlined its uniqueness and originality. Encouraging critical receptions of the CD appeared in the specialized magazine ‘Buscadero’ (n° 308 - January 2009) and JAM (n° 156 - February 2009) and in the English monthly magazine “Maverick – the voice of country, folk, bluegrass and roots music” (n° 85 - August 2009), among the most appreciated in the field. Among the radio stations that broadcast and have broadcast pieces by The Piedmont Brothers Band are Radio Popolare Network (Milan), Radio Missione Francescana (Varese), Radio Lupo Solitario (Samarate), Radio Voce Spazio (Alessandria), WUMB Folk Radio (Boston, MA), UIC (Chicago, IL), WPKN-FM (Connecticut), CKUT (Montreal, Canada), Radio Port Phillip (Melbourne, Australia). The writer and journalist John Einarson (respectable Canadian historian of rock music and author of 12 books) has described ‘Bordertown’ as “My new favourite Country Rock album” and Paolo Vites (writer and editor of the musical magazine ‘JAM – Viaggio nella musica’) “...it seems to come back to legendary albums as Pickin’ up the Pieces by POCO or the first by The Flying Burrito Brothers”.
The Piedmont Brothers Band, or better, the Piedmont Project (to better underline its being an unconventional Open Source Band), is now a reality and around the starting group composed by Ron and Marco a more stable group of musicians and friends has developed. It is made up in part of members who had been involved in the Bordertown recordings and in part by new musicians. What is more, Marco has been constant part of the “Out Of Size” band from Milan since 2010 after participating as guest in the making of their new second CD “Tap Your Feet” - ©2010 TEMPI: with them he performed during the closing event of the 2010 edition of the “Meeting for Friendship among Peoples” in Rimini. This new collaboration together with new contributors from the United States (the violinist Courtney-Lynn Burroughs and the guitarist Taylor Rorrer and a higher participation of Doug Rorrer concerning both music and production) have led to the making of the second album titled ‘Lights Of Your Party’ coming out in the United States by the Flyin’ Cloud Records (www.flyincloudrecords.com) and in Italy by the publisher TEMPI (www.tempi.it) in Spring 2011. This new CD sees the presence of guests of the “Out Of Size”, of Carlo Pastori, Marcello Colò and Walter Muto of the “Signora Stracciona”, of Stefano Dall’Ora (among the best European double-bass players), of the German guitarist Horst-Peter Schmidt, of the bass player from Colorado Mike Gallivan and of the bass player from North Carolina Mike Gallimore: beyond being great musicians, they are also great friends and mates along the wonderful life path.
Even if unfortunately Ron lives and works in the United States, thus not being able to be always here in the live shows, his presence can be experienced through his songs that are the heart of the Piedmont Brothers Band’s repertoire, which is also enriched with original pieces by Marco Zanzi, Francesco de Chiara and Francesco Frugiuele and with pieces taken both from the American popular tradition and composed by famous musicians like Nanci Griffith, Bob Dylan, Gram Parsons, Chris Hillman and Roger McGuinn. The Piedmont Brothers Band’s musical genre is quite various, but for sure it can be considered part of the ‘American’ genre, a term created recently and that includes Country, Bluegrass, Folk, Gospel, Blues and Celtic influences.
The dream and the meeting between two men of different age, culture, job and countries but united by the common love for music, by the same desire to play and communicate and also by deep spiritual and human values have performed this ‘miracle’. Thus showing that universality, love and peace are not only abstract and ideal words, but they can also become real and make our world better.
©2011 Marco Zanzi
Traduzione Marta Zanzi
