Bluegrass typically evokes visions of Southern farmland and Appalachian hollows, yet vibrant centers for the music exist across the United States, extending well north of the Mason-Dixon line. Emerging in the late 1970s, Southern Rail became a fixture in the Boston bluegrass community and earned national regard as one of its most reliable, tradition-rooted acts, the regional name notwithstanding.
The band took shape in 1979 around the enduring artistic and managerial partnership of singer-guitarist Jim Muller and bassist Sharon Horovitch. Both musicians came from immigrant backgrounds: Horovitch’s grandparents had arrived from Eastern Europe in Canada near the start of the twentieth century, and she herself was born and raised in Montreal; Muller, a Richmond, Virginia native, traced Italian ancestry through his mother and German roots through his father. Music ran in Muller’s family, and his introduction to bluegrass arrived via the Old Dominion Barndance broadcasts on Richmond’s WRVA. He took up guitar at fifteen and deepened his commitment around 1974 upon purchasing his first banjo.
While studying at McGill University, Horovitch immersed herself in folk traditions, particularly the French fiddle repertoire of Quebec. The pair met in 1975 as graduate students at MIT in Boston—Muller ultimately completed a doctorate in geophysics, Horovitch one in molecular biology. Early in their relationship, Muller escorted her to a performance by Joe Val & the New England Bluegrass Boys and to her initial bluegrass festival; the experience proved decisive, especially the stage presence of Val and his group.
Horovitch and Muller wed in 1977. The following year Muller acquired a standup bass for her and began composing original material; Southern Rail then launched in 1979. Although lineups shifted repeatedly, the husband-and-wife core sustained the group, balancing thousands of miles of performances on a semifull-time schedule with their scientific careers. Across every configuration, Southern Rail distinguished itself by securing first-rate supporting players for Muller’s vocals and songwriting while also building a reputation for authoritative renderings of traditional numbers, above all gospel pieces. Equally central was the duo’s focus on the entertainment value of live performance—an element many ensembles in any genre tend to neglect. A Southern Rail concert reliably delivered enjoyment.
In 1994 the band joined Pinecastle Records, the Florida-based bluegrass specialist, and its debut for the label, Glory Train, received an International Bluegrass Music Association nomination for Gospel Album of the Year. When two members departed in 1996, Horovitch and Muller weighed disbanding but instead recruited Muller’s brother Paul on banjo and South Carolinian Bob Sachs on mandolin, electing to continue because the pleasure and remaining repertoire remained too great to abandon. The refreshed ensemble preserved its instrumental strength while attaining, through the combined vocals of the Muller brothers, perhaps its most compelling vocal identity to date. A second Pinecastle album, Wasting My Time, appeared in 1998. Approaching their twentieth anniversary with six recordings completed, Southern Rail had clearly put their time to productive use.
