Elizabeth Cook

The eclectic cast of pickers on Welder, not only pros, but friends, united to record at last. We all hung out and worked oblivious to the red light pressure. I barely noticed the days of rain while we recorded. Just a week long party with nice carpet and tiny lights, wires knobs and buttons, a stocked fridge, love and luck all around me, plus one really good coffee pot. I drew in, and struck like lightning. 

From a material standpoint, I’ve never had more to write about…didn’t have to dig too deep at all. For instance, I never thought I’d be singing about my Mama’s funeral. Just never thought I’d write, much less sing, about that. But here it is on Welder…alongside other tales of the harshness and delicacies of romantic and familial love (“Not California”, “Heroin Addict Sister”, “Girlfriend Tonight”), occasionally indulging in the rush of being inappropriate (“El Camino”, “Snake In The Bed”, “Yes To Booty”). As wild a ride as it is, this is the hand the last three years since release of the Balls album has dealt me. Welder is my way of bringing it all together. And it’s just the truth.

Though emotional whiplash is a serious condition, as an artist, I’m grateful for experiences that have grown me up a little bit, even if it hurts like hell. And although I didn’t really want to, the fact that I “couldn’t help but look” is what made Welder possible. It’s my damnation and my salvation. And it’s my job. I have to look.

I hope the musical journey on Welder brings the condolences that come with sharing, through commiserating about life, in laughter and in tears, for the old fans, the newly added, and the all around music loving public, to whom I’m so grateful, each and every one. Thanks for looking. ~Elizabeth Cook".

Sam Quinn

Debut album from everybodyfields alum.

In 2009, with the everybodyfields on hiatus, Sam Quinn booked some studio time called up some friends to go swimming and hash out some ideas in an old milking stable in Johnson City, Tennessee. With songs quilted around adulthood, miles of loose strings and letting go of the things that matter the most, these recordings would go to sleep inside a console where the raw, live immediance of the room was held safely in tact..

"I've made sad little recordings before, but with this one I decided to go all out and say a lot of things that I have been afraid to in an effort to be despairingly honest and take me to a place that makes me uncomfortable." Sam Quinn

The fake that sunk a thousand ships plays like a good long cry with its feet on the edge of the bathtub that can't get the dirtiest parts clean. A soundscape of reflection, white knuckles and nights that have no end, or bottom.

Guy Clark

"When Guy Clark discusses the art and craft of songwriting, people listen. He has, after all, been writing songs of uncommon quality for nearly four decades, songs like “L.A. Freeway,” “Desperados Waiting For A Train,” “The Randall Knife,” and “Texas, 1947.” Some of them have been snatched up and recorded by other distinctive artists, many of whom are no slouches in the songwriting department themselves (“She’s Crazy For Leaving” written by Clark and Rodney Crowell, “New Cut Road” by Bobby Bare, “Let Him Roll” by Johnny Cash and “Heartbroke” by Ricky Skaggs, to name just a few), while others have filled out the twelve studio albums bearing Clark’s name, beginning with his 1975 debut, Old No. 1. He’s just added a thirteenth entry to his enduring body of work, Somedays The Song Writes You."

Jesse Winchester

"You could stock a crowd-pleasing jukebox with the songs Jesse Winchester has written and recorded in the last four decades – and with the better-known versions of his songs that have become hits and album staples for artists ranging from Joan Baez to Elvis Costello to Jimmy Buffett. Winchester’s skill in capturing vivid small town vignettes, heartfelt love and love-lost situations, and goodtime celebrations has yielded a litany of I-know-that-songs: “Yankee Lady,” “Biloxi,” “Brand New Tennessee Waltz,” “Talk Memphis,” “Rhumba Girl,” “Payday,” “I’m Gonna Miss You, Girl,” “Let’s Make a Baby King” and many more. His 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Composters, Artists and Publishers (ASCAP) is one gauge of the music world’s esteem.

Love Filling Station, Winchester’s Appleseed debut and his first studio CD since 1999’s Gentleman of Leisure, offers nine characteristically top-flight originals among its dozen songs. It also highlights Jesse as a graceful, soulful vocalist, as memorable a singer as a songwriter. His light southern tenor drawl, warmly wrapped in country/bluegrass/folk arrangements, can gently ascend to the heavens a la Roy Orbison, as in the lovestruck wonderment of “O What a Thrill” (already covered by The Mavericks), dish some sly, wry dirt (“It’s a Shame About Him”) and even capture the sublime hush of Ben E. King’s classic “Stand By Me,” one of the CD’s three covers. The lightly rocking “Wear Me Out,” another original, mixes a mock-plaintive vocal of sexual exhaustion with a funky, gospel tinged call-and-response as the great bluegrass solo artist and sideman Jerry Douglas threads carnal lap steel guitar licks throughout the song.

Aside from Douglas’s guest shot, some of the core musicians on Love Filling Station are the equally estimable Russ Barenberg (guitar, mandolin); Mark Fain (bass) and Andy Leftwich (fiddle) from Ricky Skaggs’ band; Jesse himself (guitar, keyboards, lead and backing vocals); and solo artist Claire Lynch, who summons her inner Dolly Parton on one of the album’s other cover songs, “Loose Talk,” an up-tempo country lament about wagging tongues and provincial minds."

John Cowan

His new album, 8,745 ft., clearly illustrates why Cowan is a perennial Telluride favorite. Recorded live, featuring Cowan and an assortment of the great players who have appeared with him there over the years, 8,745 ft. showcases Cowan’s amazing command of a range of styles and his effortless blending of rock and bluegrass, jazz and folk, blues and reggae. 

From the opening notes of the album, Cowan’s soaring vocals take the lead through such high octane outings as “Mississippi Delta Time,” “High Above The Powerlines,” “Gotta Get Go” and “Ain’t Necessarily Love.” In between, he infuses classics like Merle Travis’s “Dark As A Dungeon,” Jesse Winchester’s funky “Let’s Make A Baby King,” and Dennis Linde’s “Singing To The Scarecrow” with extraordinary heart, soul and emotion.

 Joining Cowan are some of the finest musicians on the planet, including Larry Atamanuik (drums), Jeff Coffin (saxophone), Fleck (banjo), Kenny Greenberg (electric guitar), Darrell Scott (mandolin and guitar), Scott Vestal (banjo), Wendy Waldman (percussion and vocals) and Reese Wynans (keyboards), among others."

Rob Ickes

"Road Song, Rob Ickes’ fifth solo album, is a boundarybreaking album with wondrous romps and intimate dobro-piano dialogues that reach into the emotional core of 10 great jazz standards. Jazz pianist Michael Alvey's intricate bass lines and percussive right-hand chordal punctuations have the energy of a full ensemble, while Ickes lays down melodies with precision before the duo launches into breathtaking improvisational rides. Robinella, a perfectly empathetic singer, contributes a playful give-and-take with dobro and piano, partly inspired by the great Ella Fitzgerald-Louis Armstrong collaborations.

The 10-time winner of the Dobro Player of the Year award from the International Bluegrass Music Association, Ickes isn't content with assumed boundaries of genre. Throughout his career, as a solo artist, a sought-after sideman or a founding member of the acclaimed ensembles Blue Highway and Three Ring Circle, Ickes' intuitive ability to tap into a song's emotional essence and offer something fresh has earned him accolades and respect well beyond the Dobro's domain in country and bluegrass music."

Shannon Whitworth

"Over the past several years, Shannon Whitworth's impact in the world of Americana music has created lofty expectations by fans nationwide. As a founding member of the acclaimed acoustic quartet The Biscuit Burners, Shannon received national praise for her definitive songwriting and captivating voice.

With her debut solo release, Shannon reminds us that innocence has No Expectations. Pure, strong, and heartfelt, she catches the ears and touches the hearts of even the most unsuspecting bystander.

" Her vocals are some of the most expressive, and sultry, that I've ever heard" - David Royko, Chicago Tribune

"An interesting and sporadically brilliant musician, with a smoky singing voice that reminds me of a grittier Neko Case or a harder Patsy Cline." - Seth Wilson - The Pulse, Chattanooga.

"Shannon Whitworth's fluid voice rolls lazily over her lyrics; contemporary, bluesy, rooted in traditional but bearing a feel of Billie Holiday" - Carol Mallett Rifkin - Asheville Citizen Times"

Steep Canyon Rangers

Following up the success of their 2007 CD Lovin’ Pretty Women (a nominee for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Album of the Year), the Rangers went back into the studio with star bluegrass singer and songwriter Ronnie Bowman as producer. He ensured that the band continued to take steps forward with the signature elements of their sound – original songwriting, relaxed grooves and expert singing and instrumental work. It’s a project as rangy as the band’s name, a grand tour through a variety of styles and moods that, even so, couldn’t be mistaken for anything besides traditional bluegrass.

They are a product of their times, and what times they’ve been for bluegrass. The four founding Rangers—lead singer/guitarist Woody Platt, mandolinist Mike Guggino, bassist Charles R. Humphrey III and banjo player Graham Sharp—were among the college students of the late 1990s who came to bluegrass not by birthright but through discovery. They became exemplars of a movement inspired by the likes of Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Douglas and Del McCoury. But not all the bands that formed out of that burst of enthusiasm have worked as hard or stayed together as long. The addition five years ago of fiddler Nicky Sanders (also an adult bluegrass convert) was the band’s only personnel change. It’s been said that what looks like genius is really just a cocktail of basic aptitude, focused determination and 10,000 hours of practice. The Steep Canyon Rangers spun that odometer over long ago."

The Abrams Brothers

Fourth-generation musicians with musical roots reaching back to their great-grandparents, The Abrams Brothers grew up playing music in an atmosphere where generation spanning family musical collaborations are practically tradition. Comprised of John (vocals, guitar), 18, James (vocals, fiddle), 15, and cousin Elijah (bass), 18, this young, Ontario-based Americana/bluegrass band pairs a rich musical background with a youthful exuberance. Live performance veterans dating back to the ages of 11 and 9, The Abrams Brothers show is augmented by banjo, drums and keyboards.

Though young, the band has already racked up some impressive credits, including being the youngest Canadians to appear on Nashville's iconic Grand Ole Opry in 2005. The Abrams Brothers has performed overseas, touring Europe in 2006 and playing the European World of Bluegrass Festival, as well as performing at the 2007 and 2008 Jacob's Ladder Folk Festival in Israel.

In 2005, the group was named Emerging Artist of the Year at the Canadian Bluegrass Music Awards, and in 2006, it received the Daniel Pearl Memorial violin, given to especially gifted young musicians. The band has been featured in publications like Bluegrass Unlimited, Bluegrass Now and Maverick Magazine and has appeared on CBC Radio, PBS Virginia and CKWS Television.

In 2008 The Abrams Brothers recorded, Blue on Brown, a tribute to folk legends Bob Dylan and Arlo Guthrie. The album of bluegrass and gospel covers features an all-star cast of Canadian artists such as Bruce Cockburn and Amy Milan of Broken Social Scene and demonstrates the groups’ deft musicianship as they keep up with Dylan and Guthrie’s fast rhythms and intricate guitar finger-work. They even got the nod of approval from Arlo Guthrie himself when the man heard them playing his songs said “these guys are way too young to be that good.”

At present The Abrams Brothers are writing/recording a new album of original material to be released in the 2nd half of 2009. Also look for their CMT debut this Spring with a new video for their rendition of the Coldplay song “Viva La Vida.”