See, This Is Why We Need To Pay More Attention to Mo Pitney

Why is Mo Pitney not more of a thing? I mean seriously folks. Now I know that to Mo Pitney fans, he is a huge thing. They don’t need to be sold on the talent and authenticity of this young man. But you don’t always see Mo Pitney listed off with all the other names of newer artists who are shaking things up, and bringing the roots back to country music, even though you should.

Case in point, Mo Pitney recently released a video in tribute to bluegrass great J.D. Crowe, covering the old bluegrass standard “Old Home Place” written by Mitch Jayne and Dean Webb of The Dillards. The song was covered by J.D. Crowe and The New South on their landmark 1975 self-titled album. J.D. Crowe passed away in 2021, and Tony Rice who was part of that legendary New South lineup passed away on Christmas in 2020.

Normally the live video of a cover song of a cover song wouldn’t be some big news. But then again, this is Mo Pitney, and he pulled out all of the stops, including getting two of the surviving members of that legendary New South lineup to guest on the track in the form of Jerry Douglas on dobro and Ricky Skaggs on mandolin.

But who do you get to fill in for J.D. Crowe and Tony Rice? It’s actually J.D. Crow’s banjo on the track. Then you have Marty Stuart playing Clarence White’s legendary B-Bender Telecaster guitar, along with guitarist Guthrie Trapp, Aubrey Haynie on fiddle, Barry Bales and Tommy Harden on bass and drums respectively, and Jon Randall singing harmony vocals. All of a sudden you have something resembling the second coming of the Will The Circle Be Unbroken sessions from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

All of these old dudes respect the hell out of Mo Pitney enough to take of their time and show up to do something cool. Mo Pitney’s version of “Old Home Place” appeared on his 2020 album Ain’t Lookin’ Back, but the video really illustrates the magic of how it all came together.

But why is the video surfacing now 2 1/2 years after the release, and why do we never hear much of anything from Mo Pitney? Why isn’t he on more big festival lineups? Why don’t you see him out there opening for other folks? Why are there only two dates currently on his calendar? Is this all the curse of Curb Records rearing its head once again, or is Pitney simply content to take life slow?

Either way, Mo Pitney is what we need more of, and now with the resurgence of interest in true country music permeating the mainstream, it feels like the perfect time to tap the untapped potential of Mo Pitney, stop messing around trying to put him on country radio, and let Mo loose to do his thing.

This moment in country music was made for Mo Pitney, and he proves it with his version of “Old Home Place.”

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