BLUEGRASS JOHN STARLING STARTS OVER Life begins at 65 for retired doctor

By MICHAEL ZITZ

John Starling's excellent adventure, at 65, brings to mind the Dennis Hopper Ameriprise commercials that have aired over the past year, rallying baby boomers:

"'To withdraw, to go away, to disappear'--that's how the dictionary defines 'retirement,'" Hopper says in one spot.

"Dreams are powerful," he says in a second ad. "Dreams are what make you say 'When I'm 64, I want to start a new business. I want to make my own movie.'"

Dreams are also what made Starling come out of retirement and return to the music business with a vengeance at an age when past generations rocked on porches, not on stages.

Thirty years ago, the Seldom Scene bluegrass band founding member quit the cult-favorite-group-to-be to focus on ears, noses and throats in a Fredericksburg medical practice.

Now he's retired from medicine--concentrating exclusively on ears.

Truth is, he never really could give up music, winning a Grammy in 1988 for "The Trio," an album he recorded with Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt.

Now he's started up a new bluegrass band, John Starling and Carolina Star, which releases an album, "Slidin' Home," on the Rebel Records label tomorrow and plays the Birchmere on Friday night.

Larry Southworth, a Fredericksburg radiologist, did the album-cover art of a baseball diamond in Salem.

"I don't think you ever retire from music," Starling said recently.

Now, though, with his son Jay grown up and his medical career behind him, he can concentrate on his first love.

The new album was created in collaboration with producer and engineer George Massenberg, who has worked with Frank Sinatra, Linda Ronstadt, Lyle Lovett, James Taylor and Ricky Skaggs.

Massenberg worked on the Seldom Scene's early recordings.

He employs a new approach on this project centered on a "live, head-on" studio recording option, that keeps overdubs to a minimum. It makes the "live" approach so important to bluegrass fans sound slick and layered, using multitrack recording.

"Slidin' Home" was recorded in Franklin, Tenn., where Starling, Mike Auldridge and Tom Gray were joined by some of the top studio musicians from Nashville and Washington.

DigiDesign's Pro Tools HD were used to perform audio "surgery" to be executed on live recordings.

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John Starling & Carolina Star's album 'Slidin' Home' will be released tomorrow, and the band plays at the Birchmere in Alexandria Friday night.

WHAT: John Starling & Carolina Star with King Wilkie WHEN: Friday night at 7:30 BUY: Tickets: $27.50 birchmere.com or Ticketmaster.com or 703/ 573-7328

EMMYLOU, TOO Emmylou Harris performs a duet with Fredericksburg's John Starling on "In My Hour of Darkness," his first album with his new band, Carolina Star, which features his former Seldom Scene bandmates Mike Auldridge and Tom Gray.

Starling and Carolina Star's new album, "Sliding Home," will be released tomorrow on the Rebel Records label.

Harris co-wrote the song with Gram Parsons. Starling says the song takes listeners back to an era when he and his former band, The Seldom Scene, helped familiarize Harris with bluegrass.

As she became a star, she maintained a symbiotic relationship through the years, with Starling and Mike Auldridge. They worked with her on the song "Satan's Jewel Crown" on her 1975 classic "Elite Hotel."

And Harris, in turn, appeared on Starling's 1977 solo album, "Long Time Gone."

She met Ricky Skaggs, who later joined her Hot Band, in Starling's living room.

Starling says Carolina Star is sort of a part-time backup band for Harris. The group played the Grand Ol' Opry with her in January.

--Michael Zitz

Date published: 2/19/2007

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