Wildfire

by Kevin Kerfoot, 06/01/2004

An interview with Wildfire's Curt Chapman

BMP: Introduce me to Wildfire.

CURT: Phil Leadbetter plays Dobro, I play bass, Barry Crabtree plays the banjo, Robert Hale plays guitar, and Darrell Webb plays mandolin. Phil, Robert and Darrell do the singing and I look good!

BMP: How would you define Wildfire’s style of music?

CURT: That’s hard to do because we can go left of center and do some of the more modern bluegrass, but we can turn right around and put Molly and Tenbrooks out there and just go as traditional as you want to go - and we’ll have a ball doing it. We have so much fun doing it and that makes it a lot easier traveling. We can all be dead tired but as soon as we hit the stage it’s fun playing with these guys and they’ll all tell you the same thing.

BMP: Tell me about Wildfire’s first two CDs.

CURT: The last CD, Where Roads Divide, blows me away that it’s doing as well as it is and I also felt that way with the first CD called Uncontained. Everything has gone above my expectations from when we first started this band and that’s a good feeling. The first CD featured three or four original songs. We’re blessed with two very good songwriters, Robert and Darrell, and they’re really phenomenal. We also did some obscure stuff, some Delbert McClinton tunes and a Bill Anderson song or two. The last CD is about the same. We don’t come up with themes for CDs. It’s just whatever we like. If we like a song we’ll record it.

BMP: I know that most of the members of Wildfire used to be in J.D. Crowe’s New South. Why did you leave?

CURT: At the time, the four of us were The New South - me, Phil, Darrell and Robert - and it just seemed like a natural progression. We started playing on the side at Dollywood just to pick up some extra money and decided to record a CD to have something to sell to tourists and it turned out better than any of us expected. Pinecastle Records picked it up and things started snowballing. We wound up the 1999 season with J.D. and decided to go ahead and give this a shot. We gave J.D. a two-month notice and he was great about everything. He gave us his blessing and even prodded us a little bit. Each year keeps getting better, we get busier and busier and I’m just thoroughly tickled. It’s above and beyond any expectations that we had.

BMP: What J.D. Crowe and The New South projects were you on?

CURT: I was on two. The first one was called Flashback and I’m very proud of that one. It got a Grammy nomination and I got to go out to the Grammys. The second one, which was his last one, was called Come On Down To My World and I’m proud of that one.

BMP: What’s your best J.D. Crowe memory?

CURT: Traveling with somebody of that caliber, you can’t help but learn. J.D.’s a great teacher and a great guy to be around. I got to meet heroes and eventually become friends with Tony Rice and Doyle Lawson and all these people that I would have never had a chance to know.

BMP: Where were you born and raised and when did you begin playing music?

CURT: I was born in Lancaster, Ohio, raised in Nashville, Tenn. and moved to Richmond, Ky. in 1973 where I’ve basically been ever since. I started playing bass when I was 12 or 13. I’d played guitar up until then with my brothers and sisters. A fellow by the name of Cousin Wilbur Westbrook, who was an old country comedian that used to be on the Opry years ago, hired us to play with his band on the road at air force bases and NCO clubs up and down the eastern seaboard. He asked me if I knew how to play bass and I told him I never played one. He said it was the last four strings on a guitar and handed me one and said, ‘You work on this tonight and I’ll pick you kids up in the morning. We’re heading to Bangor, Maine.’ So I had one night to figure out the bass and I’ve been doing that ever since. We kept the family thing going until ‘73 and I started playing rock ‘n’ roll with some college buddies in Bigfoot for three years. I teamed up with my brother Craig in The Holt Wilson Band for a year and then I played seven years with Josh Logan. Tony King and I had a country band and I also played with an Elvis Presley impersonator in 1986. Then a group of guys from Richmond, Ky. called Southern Blend wanted me to play bluegrass with them for a year. I got the job with J.D. Crowe and The New South in November of 1987.

BMP: Tell me about your basses.

CURT: I’ve got four basses: an upright, two electric uprights and one Fender Precision bass that I literally love. I play the electric upright live which is a Zeta Educator model. I’ve been an endorser for Zeta since 1994 and they just sent me this new one. It’s killer; it’s a good instrument.

BMP: What is Wildfire’s plans for the future?

CURT: It’s no-holds barred. I think we’re good enough that we can go as far as we want to with it. We want to make a living and we just want to take it as far as we can.

reprinted with permission from
Jan/Feb 04 Bluegrass Music Profiles Magazine

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