Uncle Earl is a woman. Several women, actually. No, Uncle Earl isn't undergoing gender reassignment, or wrestling with a multiple personality disorder. Uncle Earl is the name of the all-female ensemble responsible for one of the liveliest bluegrass albums of 2005, She Waits for Night.
The group started in 1999, when founding member KC Groves hooked up with Jo Serrapere to record a self-released CD of primarily traditional songs, and play some shows. The duo borrowed their moniker from a deceased relation of Groves. But what began as a lighthearted jest has stuck with the group through several lineups—and, occasionally, created hilarious confusion.
"One time, we had someone at a festival come up and ask, 'Who should I pay?'" the Colorado-based Groves recalls. "And I said, me." The promoter seemed skeptical. "'You're sure to give him the money?' Him? Him who? And then it dawned on me—she hadn't seen our set."
The current incarnation of Uncle Earl is a quintet of Groves, Abigail Washburn, Rayna Gellert, Kristin Andreassen, and Sharon Gilchrist. All five members, who swap instruments and lead-vocal duties, live in different states, and have outside careers, so tours and live appearances—such as their slots at Wintergrass 2006, in Tacoma next February—involve some intricate scheduling.
Among the highlights of She Waits for Night are the jaunty "How Long," and "Warfare," a mournful midtempo number, with plaintive vocals and ever-so-slightly dissonant fiddle. Despite its topical subject matter, the latter has actually been in the group's repertoire for several years; it was the first tune Washburn (who, in turn, learned it from bluegrass pioneer E. C. Ball) ever sang for Groves, when the two met at a conference in Nashville.
Although her real uncle Earl didn't instill her love of music, Groves did inherit it from her family. Dad was a singer and yodeler; mom played piano. And her grandmother often took young KC to the Church of Christ, "where instruments were forbidden, because they were sinful," which exposed her at an early age to traditional sacred singing.
Additionally, Groves was required to study piano and flute. But it wasn't until she was in college, and her mother purchased her an acoustic guitar, that everything clicked. "I became obsessed immediately," she admits. "My grades went down overnight. That afternoon determined my future. My poor mother. She really wanted me to be a dentist."
Not that her mother should be disappointed, since Uncle Earl are recording their next album with—are you sitting down?—John Paul Jones as producer. "We met him a couple years ago, when he was hanging out with Nickel Creek at a festival," explains Groves of their connection. "He came to our show, and we asked him to sit in, and he played mandolin with us for an hour and a half." Wow. If you're looking for something to brag about, isn't having a daughter who collaborates with a member of Led Zeppelin a little cooler than one who scrapes tartar off of kids teeth?
