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Osadebe started his career when he was 23. He played with the Stephen Amache Band for awhile, then continued his career with the Central Dance Band. In 1964 he started his own band, Soundmakers International. Oasadebe spends most of his time playing highlife music; due to this he is considered to be one of the top highlife musicians. In 1981 he was awarded with a gold disc for the LP Onu Kwulonjo. By the mid-’80s, Osadebe was at the height of his career selling over 700,000 records with his hit album Osondi Owendi.

Mr. Sun brings together four of the most virtuosic musicians in acoustic music. Led by Darol Anger, an iconic fiddler and founding father of new acoustic music, the four musicians in the band span three generations and offer some of the most jaw-dropping instrumental prowess to be found in any genre. Their sophomore release EXTROVERT picks up where their much-lauded debut left off, exploring the grooves and melodies that exist at the intersection of bluegrass, jazz and swing. In spite of their technical chops, Mr. Sun never loses sight of the light-hearted, musical playfulness that has made them a must-see act on the roots music scene.

EXTROVERT opens with the funky, blues-inflected “Tamp ‘Em Up Solid,“ which offers a tongue-in-cheek tip of the hat to the classic “Muleskinner Blues,” and which features mandolinist Joe Walsh on lead vocals. Anger offers a sweet re-imagining of Lennon and McCartney’s “Blackbird,” and guitarist Grant Gordy and newest member, bassist Aidan O’Donnell, get a chance to stretch on the angular “A Real Dragon.” The swinging “Just a Little Loving” gives each soloist a chance to play the perfect instrumental foil to Anger’s fiddlistic flights of fancy and the Anger original “Breaker’s Bakedown” showcases the quartet’s mastery of the fiddle tune tradition. At the end of the day, more than the chops and instrumental prowess on display, it’s the pure joy emanating from Mr. Sun’s music that will keep EXTROVERT on repeat.

ABOUT THE BAND

Druha Trava (which means “Second Grass”) was formed in 1991 by singer-songwriter Robert Krestan, banjo and wind instrumentalist Lubos Malina, dobro player Lubos Novotny and other veterans of the Czech acoustic music scene.

Its distinctive sound is based on exceptional musicianship combined with Krestan’s gritty vocals and original songs.

DT “uses American roots music as a launching pad for its own synthesis of jazz, pop, folk and even classical motifs,” stated an article about the band in The New York Times. “In doing so it transforms a quintessential American idiom into a richly textured, highly personal statement that defies genre classification.”

The winner of multiple Czech music awards, DT has a loyal following at home and in the United States. It first performed in the U.S. in 1993 and since 1994 has toured North America every year except 2008.

The band has recorded more than a dozen albums, including collaborative CDs with American stars Peter Rowan and Charlie McCoy.

The legendary Czech band Druha Trava returns to America in the fall of 2010.

Famed on both sides of the Atlantic for its “Czechgrass” fusion of acoustic, bluegrass, folk and rock, Druha Trava will introduce U.S. fans to a new addition to its line-up — award-winning bass player Tomas Liska, who took over in April from long-time DT bassist Petr Sury.
Liska, 31, is well known in the Czech and European jazz scene and also performs with other top artists such as Lenka Dusilova and David Doruska.

“We are excited to introduce Tomas to our American fans,” said DT banjo player Lubos Malina.  “He is a phenomenal musician and also brings a youthful style to the stage.”

As Amelia Earhart is to aviation, as Julia Child is to the culinary arts, Alison Brown is to the five-string banjo. She created a seismic shift in the instrument’s history when her wholly individual style gained her entry into the elite class of acknowledged banjo innovators—who, at the time, were all men.    

Starting In the mid-20th century, thanks to the stylistic innovations of Earl Scruggs, the banjo largely became identified for its role in bluegrass music. Other men pushed the instrument to new stylistic heights, led by forward-thinkers such as Bill Keith, Tony Trischka and Béla Fleck.   

Alison Brown broadened the instrument’s sound and identity when she rose through the ranks by developing a distinctive voice as a player and composer. Breaking precedent, she gained recognition when she became the first woman to win an International Bluegrass Music Award in an instrumental category. As the IBMA’s 1991 Banjo Player of the Year, she marked a sea change within the organization, which now regularly honors women instrumentalists.   

Like many of her peers, Brown picked up the banjo after hearing Earl Scruggs; at age 10, she heard the Flatt & Scruggs’ album, Foggy Mountain Banjo, and her destiny was sealed. But, while her roots extend deep into bluegrass, her musical vision has always looked beyond the genre. On her 1991 GRAMMY-nominated debut, Simple Pleasures, she explored Latin and jazz alongside bluegrass with producer David Grisman, one of the early acoustic pioneers to blur musical borders. Her latest album, aptly titled On Banjo, continues that thread with Brown offering a musical autobiography of sorts. She explores the breadth of her instrument with original compositions that acknowledge her bluegrass roots yet venture confidently into broader stylistic horizons, putting her mark on Brazilian choro music, chamber music, Latin-fused classical and swing-era jazz.   

While many of Brown’s previous albums have included guest vocalists (check out Keb’ Mo’ on “What’s Going On?” from 2015’s Song of the Banjo), her new collection is a purely instrumental outing. She invited an eclectic cast of collaborators, including fellow female virtuosos Sharon Isbin, Anat Cohen, and Sierra Hull, as well as banjo player/comedian/actor Steve Martin, multi-cultural chamber group Kronos Quartet, childhood pal and fiddle stalwart Stuart Duncan, and the supremely talented members of her touring quintet. In her mind, having guest musicians from across a variety of musical genres helps to shine a light on the disparate musical influences that co-exist within the banjo’s DNA.    

“When I think about where the banjo can go I can’t help but think about where it has been,” says Brown. “Most people know the banjo from bluegrass music and have heard the enormous influence Earl Scruggs had on the instrument. But many aren’t as aware of the banjo in early jazz or of its immense popularity in late 19th century America. In a twist I find fascinating, during that period the banjo was the parlor instrument of choice for demure young white women to play with their legs crossed, ‘just so.’ All that history before Earl Scruggs ever played a lick!” 

The GRAMMY Award winner, and co-founder of the nearly 30-year-old Compass Records Group with producer/bassist/husband Garry West, Brown is considered among the world’s foremost banjoists and composers. In her hands, the banjo is equally at home on the front porch or the symphony hall. Throughout her career, she has taken the banjo beyond its Appalachian roots, blending bluegrass and jazz influences into a unique sonic tapestry that has earned praise from national tastemakers, including The Wall Street Journal, CBS Sunday Morning, National Public Radio and USA Today. Among many firsts, she is the only female five-string banjoist inducted into the American Banjo Hall of Fame. Leader of the renowned Alison Brown Quintet, she also is a frequent collaborator with other artists, including Indigo Girls and Steve Martin. Brown also co-chairs the annual Steve Martin Banjo Prize with its namesake, which speaks to their mutual respect.  

Garry West, her longtime co-producer, cites Brown’s compositional talents as her secret weapon. “Alison is widely acknowledged as one of the world’s best banjo players,” West says. “But her original tunes are every bit as notable as her instrumental ability. Her compositions are so diverse and distinctive, which is key when you look at the scope of her work and how she’s maintained such a unique voice and a consistently high quality over the years.”   

For On Banjo, Brown wrote a Brazilian choro to play with Israeli jazz clarinetist Anat Cohen; classical-influenced pieces to play with guitarist Sharon Isbin and with the Kronos Quartet; a blistering duet with Sierra Hull on “Sweet Sixteenths;” and a banjo/fiddle tune to play with longtime collaborator Stuart Duncan that tributes their shared California bluegrass mentors Byron Berline and John Hickman.  

Isbin notes that she collaborated with Brown onstage at the 2010 GRAMMY Awards, and she has admired her ever since. “I was honored when she wrote her joyous, Latin-flavored ‘Regalito’ for me, with its virtuosic finger-busting guitar part,” Isbin said. “Hearing for the first time the two sound worlds of nylon string guitar with banjo was a revelation, and the hot tune’s irresistible rhythms and colorful sounds with her band make it a winner.”   

Similarly, Cohen expressed delight about the chance to collaborate with Brown on “Choro ‘Nuff,” which included the Brazilian musicians Alexandre Lora on pandeiro and Douglas Lora on seven-string guitar. “I cannot think of a better way to get to know a person than through their music,” Cohen said. “I discovered a sensitive, swinging, virtuosic, collaborative, and kind musician. I felt immediately at home sharing the melodies with her, intertwining my clarinet lines with Alison’s flowing banjo playing. This song makes me smile every time I hear it.”    

Steve Martin described Brown as “the great lyrical genius of modern banjo.” The two co-wrote “Foggy Morning Breaking,” pairing Martin’s clawhammer playing with Brown’s Scruggs-style banjo. Brown’s inspiration for the tune grew out of various backstage jams with Martin in double C tuning, a particular favorite of his, and borrowed the title from a lyric by John Hartford, an early influence on and collaborator with Martin and later musical influence for Brown.   

Hartford’s influence comes up again on “Sun and Water,” showcasing Brown’s arrangement sensibilities on a clever mash-up of the George Harrison composition “Here Comes the Sun” and Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Aguas de Marco” (“Waters of March”). Brown plays a low banjo on the track, an instrument John Hartford used frequently to accompany his baritone voice and which she and many others consider to be his sonic signature. She played her Julia Belle low banjo on the track, an instrument she created in collaboration with Deering Banjos and which includes inlays of Hartford’s artwork on the fingerboard. “I think of John every time I pick up a low banjo,” Brown says. “That particular sound was so much a part of his music and it’s a special legacy he left for us banjo players.”  

The Alison Brown Quintet—with John Ragusa on flute, Chris Walters on piano, Garry West on bass, and Jordan Perlson on drums—shines throughout On Banjo, from the engaging opener, “Wind the Clock,” through the aptly titled barnburner, “Old Shatterhand,” to “BanJobim,” which features Brown on a custom banjola and on nylon string guitar and offers another nod to Brazilian music and master guitarist-composer Antonio Carlos Jobim.     

Taken together, Brown, her studio cohort West, her guests, and the rest of her band have fashioned yet another distinctive collection that defies expectations, crosses musical divides, and brings new sounds and ideas to a band led by a banjoist. Brown comments: “The moment I discovered Earl Scruggs, I unwittingly set off on a journey with an instrument that, at every personal crossroad, has shaped the direction of my life. Although bluegrass music was my first love, I’m still endlessly fascinated by reaching outside the box and exploring other musical possibilities through writing my own tunes for the banjo. To me that seems fitting for an instrument whose legacy extends beyond our shores and whose history is older than our nation itself. I believe the banjo has a lot to tell us about ourselves if we know how to listen.” 

At a time when musical hybrids seem to be all the rage, it’s important to acknowledge that Brown has been blurring musical boundaries since the beginning of her career. As a banjoist, she is often and easily labeled a bluegrass musician, but the reality is that none of her solo records have been traditional bluegrass. From her GRAMMY-nominated debut forward, her music has boldly included elements of jazz, Latin and Celtic music in addition to bluegrass. On Banjo is a continuation of Brown’s innovative, technical, and compositional artistry. What genre is it? Who cares? It’s Alison Brown music. 

Most every songwriter tries new work out for friends and colleagues. When Andrea Zonn does so, it must be especially nerve jangling, because her friends includes some of the finer songwriters of all time. Her years on the road as a fiddler and harmony singer for James Taylor, Vince Gill, Trace Adkins and others have drawn her close to some important artists. And she’s the first to tell you how much she values working for them. But on “Rise,” Zonn’s second album as an artist, they’re supporting her.

“I kept wanting to call this The Love Record because I have so much reverence for the people who are on this project and who I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with over the years,” Andrea says. “I have learned so much from them. And I’m their fan. There are no casual calls here.”

Nor is she merely dropping names. These are the kind of high-level recording sessions any producer would put together if they had these contacts. Besides Taylor on harmony vocals, plus country legend Gill and modern day blues master Keb’ Mo’ singing and playing guitar, her dream team includes great session and road musicians she’s worked with over her career: dobro star Jerry Douglas, Newgrass-founding mandolinist Sam Bush, former Newgrass vocalist and current Doobie Brother John Cowan, and multi-award winning musician Mac McAnally.

Central to the project’s conception and guiding her songwriting was the core rhythm section of bassist Willie Weeks and drummer Steve Gadd. Weeks (Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Rolling Stones, Doobie Brothers) and Gadd (Paul Simon, Steely Dan, Simon & Garfunkel, Paul McCartney) are certified legends, yet only rarely had they recorded together before these sessions. Zonn, who’s known both of them for years, conceived the project around their studio collaboration. “I knew that the chemistry between them would be fantastic,” she says, “and so the album was written with the two of them in mind.”

To some, this might seem like insider talk, but it’s actually central to the creative process and to the exceptional results. Zonn knows as well as anyone that the right players and the right chemistry are what elevates an album and serves the songs. The ten tracks that emerged in this case elude any neat genre descriptions—folk-rock suits as well as anything – but they’re heavy on groove, natural tones and spontaneous, transparent beauty.

As for those songs, they represent a new chapter in Andrea’s story. Whereas her debut record featured her interpreting works by her favorite writers, many of them her friends, the new project shows off Andrea digging into songcraft with focus and newfound confidence. “I had always been a bit timid about writing, because I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some of the greatest writers ever, anywhere,” she says. “I wasn’t writing up to my own standards. Or I didn’t feel like I could.”

Then came a life and family crisis. Andrea’s young son needed a series of dangerous brain operations. More than anything she’d encountered, she says, the surgeries and their related complications became a “catalyst for me learning to speak.” In a hospital setting, with so much on the line, she explains, “you can’t afford to pussyfoot around.” Suddenly she had plenty to say and the will to say it, so in the company of some extraordinary co-writers, new material came flowing out.

Andrea Zonn is rare in modern music in her twin training in classical and traditional music. In her teens, she became a national fiddle champion the same year she won a prestigious violin fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival. She played in bluegrass bands around the same time she was performing avant-garde classical music at Lincoln Center and the Library of Congress. Hoping to bridge the gap between folk and art music, she came to Nashville, ultimately landing a scholarship to Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music.

Zonn’s wide-ranging tastes and training helped her find extensive studio work, including recordings with Linda Ronstadt, George Jones, Amy Grant and countless others. Besides Vince Gill and James Taylor, her touring has included stints with Lyle Lovett, Trisha Yearwood and Jerry Douglas. In 2005, she ventured into production, initiating the Hands Across The Water album that raised money for victims of the Indian Ocean Tsunami. So she’s seen music making in all its possible outlets and venues.

Somehow, Zonn found the time to pursue her desire to make a fresh album of original material. The first song that emerged and the one that became an emotional beacon for the project is the roiling gospel/New Orleans funeral number and title track, “Rise.” She’d just learned the extent of her son’s health crisis and as they came home to process what lay ahead, clouds began gathering for what would become the historic Nashville flood of 2010. The beginning of the song she felt that day was completed with phenomenal young musician Luke Bulla, himself a member of Lyle Lovett’s band.

After that, songs continued to flow. Opener “Another Side of Home,” a study in how age changes our perceptions of the simple things, was written with Nashville power pop favorite Bill Lloyd and Thomm Jutz, a hidden treasure Nashville guitarist and record producer who is deeply wound into the way this album feels and sounds. Jutz was also part of the writing session, along with recording artist, journalist and baseball fan Peter Cooper, that produced “Another Swing And A Miss,” the album’s melancholy swing jazz tune. “You Make Me Whole” has a mid-tempo Motown feel and is a lovely tribute to a friend or lover who went the extra mile. Here, James Taylor’s kindly background vocals evoke the similar message and magic of his touchstone song “You’ve Got A Friend.” The power of his belonging on this shimmering track is testimony that Zonn belongs in rarified company when it comes to songwriting and record making.

“There’s a peacefulness and a surrender” behind “Rise,” says Zonn. “I don’t have a need to show anything off. I don’t have anything to prove. I’m just there to serve the song and serve the moment and to listen to my bandmates and let this dialogue occur.”

One could say Zonn is worthy of close attention based on the company she keeps. But it’s even more telling that they seem just as honored to have her around.

Alone or with fellow musicians; guitar, fiddle, or banjo in hand, Bruce Molsky has been exploring traditional musics from an astonishingly broad range of cultures over the past two decades — synthesizing them and refracting them through his own evolving sensibilities to the point where the sources of his inspiration transform themselves into a sound that is uniquely his. While most identified with traditional American old-time music, Molsky’s influences range from the Appalachian soul of Tommy Jarrell to Delta blues; from the haunting modal strains of Irish music to the rhythmically nimble music of Eastern Europe. His many recordings are more like snapshots — postcards home, mementos of stops along the way. Yet they say as much about where he is heading next as they do about where he’s been.

Soon Be Time is his sixth solo album, and is his most demanding, personal statement to date. The unifying element of Soon Be Time sounds simple, yet it required an immense amount of consideration and concentration. “It doesn’t make sense to consider a new project unless there’s a concept or a motivation to support it,” Molsky explains. “It’s not just about presenting a new set of tunes; there has to be something more than that. Soon Be Time is about revisiting my own musical self and wanting to make the more intimate statement.” While his past albums have featured collaborations and contributions with an array of fine musicians, this is his first truly solo venture — recorded with only his own banjo, guitar, fiddle, and soulful, inviting voice. “After some wonderful and intense style-crossing collaborations over the last few years,” he continues, “I just felt the need to revisit where I was before all that happened. I started into all of this as a solo player, and it’s still a very strong calling for me. Playing solo also allows introspection to a depth you can’t get any other way. It’s like falling deep into your own internal and very private space, and then coming out the other side with something to share.”

The constraints imposed by Soon Be Time’s mission have resulted in a set of performances which, in their spartan dignity, are among the most pure and affecting in Molsky’s remarkable career. Hailing from New York City, he followed a circuitous musical path that began with Motown and “60s pop music, through Jimi Hendrix and into the blues. Through his fascination with acoustic blues guitar, he was introduced to Doc Watson and more rural American music. “It’s easy to see blues and old-time music as separate cultural expressions,” he says, “but as soon as you scratch the surface, most of the barriers go away. There is so much blues in old-time music that it’s inescapable.” True to his word, Molsky’s own music is marked by a subtle bluesy undercurrent. Branching out from guitar to fiddle and banjo, he studied with master old-time musicians and became a familiar participant in (and frequent winner of) fiddle conventions and contests. In the process, he developed a performing style which fused the rhythmic propulsion of stringband music, the soul of the blues, a jazz-inflected harmonic sophistication, and an engagingly conversational eloquence born of many evenings in jam sessions and song swaps.

Molsky’s recordings have had a wide-ranging impact on today’s old-time scene, bringing little-heard songs to light and introducing intriguing new variations on traditional themes. As a solo artist, his 2001 release Poor Man’s Trouble received AFIM’s “Indie” award for Best Traditional Folk Recording, while his 2004 release Contented Must Be was well-received by audiences and international media alike. His collaboration with Darol Anger, Michael Doucet, and Rushad Eggleston, Fiddlers 4, was nominated for a 2002 Grammy Award. The unique pan-global group Mozaik, featuring Bruce, Andy Irvine, Donal Lunny, Nikola Parov, and Rens Van Der Zalm, released their debut album Live at the Powerhouse in 2004.

When not recording or touring with various aggregations, Molsky teaches at a number of well-known music workshops and camps, and tours regularly as a solo performer. Much of the material on Soon Be Time was first honed at his live solo performances, lending the album a distinct blend of assuredness and spontaneity. “There’s no one else to hide behind or rely on for musical support,” Bruce explains. “Every moment of making this recording was like being on the very edge of something; really liberating and kind of scary at the same time. I love that feeling, just pushing myself to that edge and losing myself in the music.”

It is music that lends itself to getting lost, to voyages. “Every piece brings me back to some place or event,” Molsky continues. He first heard the haunting “The Golden Willow Tree,” while in college in Ithaca. “I was washing dishes in the kitchen at Johnny”s Big Red Grill,” he recalls, “and listening to the folk music sessions in the bar.” The guitar-driven “Fair Thee Well Blues” entered Molsky’s repertoire when he was a teenager, via a battered Mississippi delta blues LP discovered in the back room of a record store in the Bronx. “I played that LP to death,” he reflects with a smile. Bruce’s refreshing version of the stringband warhorse “Cotton Eyed Joe” has been in his shows as an encore for years, yet he has never recorded it. “I’ve tried several times,” he explains, “but never quite nailed it. It’s a first-take tune, and I finally got a first-take that captures it.”

Molsky’s peers in the traditional music community were the source of several of Soon Be Time’s songs. “My version of “Forked Deer” is loosely based around the Kentucky fiddler Ed Haley’s ” I spent hours on the phone with John Hartford discussing and trying to figure out how Haley played, how he drew his bow and held the fiddle,” Bruce says. “I can’t play that tune without thinking of John and feeling lucky for having known him. The curiously Eastern European-tinged “Brass Band Tune” came from Andy Irvine, who explained that it was played by a state brass band in Bulgaria. “It’s never been played on the guitar to my knowledge,” Molsky explains. “I was so set on arranging the tune for guitar that I had to invent a tuning for it. 7/16 time doesn’t lend itself too well to Travis-style guitar either!”

Tucked in among the array of songs on Soon Be Time is “My Street,” a humble and immediately likeable Molsky original, finger-picked on acoustic guitar. “It takes me a very long time for my own compositions to feel complete,” he says. “I’ve just been kind of saving this one up, for the right time, right situation. It’s a pretty personal statement, and the unaccompanied format here suits it best.” The song’s loping rhythm and simple, uncluttered melody speaks of home, bringing to mind a muffled clamor of early morning humanity just as the sun rises and the neighborhood awakes for the day.

Of course, as one of the foremost old-time musicians of his generation, Molsky isn’t home very often. But as Soon Be Time so tellingly demonstrates, music can evoke a sense of place with just a few notes. “Music is empty without its foot in something and somewhere to transport the player and the listener,” Bruce reflects. “I’ve spent 50 years trying to get to that place and feel blessed just to see a glimpse of it from time to time.”

The Boston-area folk music scene is a vibrant one, boasting a variety of diverse artists. But if pressed to name the region’s defining musician, it would have to be singer-songwriter Catie Curtis, who has called it home for nearly all of her twenty-year music career. Since the release of her last album in 2009, Curtis has toured extensively, playing a number of diverse venues ranging from Chicago’s legendary Old Town School of Folk Music to the White House. She’s also spent that time writing and testing out new material, developing a collection of masterfully written lyrics that serve as the heart of her newest record, Stretch Limousine on Fire (out August 30).

On the new album, Curtis, a Lilith Fair alum who’s been dubbed a “folk-rock goddess” by The New Yorker, delivers some of the finest material of her career: ten original songs that push at her own musical boundaries and explore “the difficult edges of passing events” in life, harsh realities that are tempered with moments of fleeting beauty. This temporary nature of life is a theme that pervades the album from the first notes. Opening song “Let It Last, which features folk powerhouse and former tour mate Mary Chapin Carpenter singing harmony, finds Curtis pleading, “I know it can’t last/And all I ask is let it last a little longer.”

The sound, like the subject matter, is more raw than Curtis’ previous work, which has been featured on episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, Dawson’s Creek and several other hit shows. “There’s a lot of texture that makes you feel like you’re really close to it,” she explains. Recorded live in Los Angeles’ Stampede Origin Studio, Stretch Limousine on Fire harnesses the energy of her concerts, thanks in part to a fiercely talented band featuring drummer Jay Bellerose and bassist Jennifer Condos, both of whom are currently touring as part of Ray LaMontagne’s Pariah Dogs. “When Jay Bellerose plays the drums, he’s so tuned in that he’s basically an extension of the guitar; sometimes you’ll hear a wood knocking sound [on the record] and you don’t know if it’s me knocking on the guitar or Jay playing something on the drums that’s very sympathetic with what I’m playing.”

“My singing was inspired by their playing,” says Curtis of her backing band. “It felt like a live performance, and engineer Ryan Freeland kept it sounding very present. [Producer] Lorne Entress and I put a lot of faith in the idea that if we brought together the right people…we would have the vibe that we wanted.”

That vibe is spirited, unique, and best embodied by the album’s title track. “Stretch Limousine on Fire” is an infectious song whose central image takes on the idea that “when bad things happen, you sometimes take comfort in realizing they happen to everybody.” It’s this portrayal of universal life experiences, wrapped in Curtis’ brand of evocative songwriting that won her the 2006 International Songwriting Competition that appeals to her legions of dedicated fans.

With her Aspire to Inspire Endowment providing musical instruments to seven youth-oriented music organizations, a busy schedule officiating nontraditional weddings, and the fulltime job of raising two daughters with her partner, Catie Curtis is stretching her own boundaries to ensure that, despite the rough edges in life, there will always be those moments of beauty.

“I’m deeply grateful for the life I have,” says Colin Hay, “and I think my natural tendency has always been towards optimism and humor. Lately, though, I’ve had to be more intentional about it. I’ve had to actively seek out the positive, to let new rays of hope shine on some seemingly dark situations.”

That’s precisely what Hay does with his extraordinary new solo album, Now And The Evermore, facing down struggle, loss, and even his own mortality with grit and wit at every turn. Written and recorded in Hay’s adopted hometown of Los Angeles, the collection is a defiantly joyful celebration of life and love, one that insists on finding silver linings and reasons to smile. That’s not to say the record deludes itself about the realities of our modern world, but rather that it consistently chooses to respond to pain with beauty and doubt with wonder.

The music on Now And The Evermore (Lazy Eye/Compass Records) is vibrant and animated, brimming with fanciful melodies, lush orchestration, and even a guest appearance from Ringo Starr, who kicks the whole thing off with a signature drum fill. Hay’s performances are likewise buoyant and full of life, drawing on vintage pop charm, pub rock muscle, and folk sincerity to forge a sound that’s at once playful and profound, clever and compassionate, whimsical and earnest. At its most basic level, Now And The Evermore offers a deeply personal acknowledgement of the relentless march of time, but zoom out and you’ll see that Hay’s contemplations of identity and eternity are in fact broader reflections on our shared humanity, on letting go of dead weight and reaching for the light no matter how dark things may get.

“It’s a troubling and confounding and ever-inspiring world that we live in,” he muses. “I’m lucky to be able to wander downstairs and try to make some sense of it, at least to myself.”

Born in Scotland, Hay moved with his family as a teenager to Australia, where he first came to international fame with seminal ’80s hitmakers Men At Work. While the band would reach the heights of stardom—they took home a GRAMMY Award for Best New Artist and sold more than 30 million records worldwide on the strength of #1 singles like “Who Can It Be Now?” and “Down Under”—by 1985, they’d called it quits and gone their separate ways. Hay released his solo debut the following year and, over the course of the next three-and-a-half decades, went on to record twelve more critically acclaimed studio albums that would help establish him as one of his generation’s most hardworking and reliable craftsmen. Rolling Stone praised his “witty, hooky pop” tunes, while NPR’s World Café lauded his “distinctive voice,” and late night hosts from David Letterman and Craig Ferguson to Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel have all welcomed him for performances.

Over the course of his remarkable solo career, Hay developed a reputation as a gifted raconteur with serious comedy chops, and his frequent appearances at LA’s Largo club helped garner him a legion of fans in the entertainment world. Among them was actor/director Zach Braff, who called Hay’s mix of heartfelt songwriting and hilarious storytelling “one of the most amazing things I had ever seen.” Braff would go on to feature Hay’s music prominently in the GRAMMY-winning soundtrack for Garden State and invite him to appear as himself on the hit series Scrubs, which helped introduce his music to a whole new generation of listeners.

On top of his rigorous schedule as a solo artist, Hay has also managed to tour the world several times over with Ringo Starr & His All–Star Band, release an audiobook of Aesop’s Fables, star in the award-winning documentary Waiting For My Real Life, and even provide the voice for Fergus Flamingo in Disney’s The Wild.

“When the pandemic hit, I was forced to stay put for the first time in years,” Hay recalls. “It was horrendous every day to watch the news and see so many people struggling, but even so, musical ideas were creeping into my head, so I followed where they led and embraced the freedom that came with sitting still for a change.”

With no tour dates on the horizon, Hay allowed himself to slow things down and work at a different pace than he was used to. For the first time in his career, he had several uninterrupted months to work continuously with his longtime friend and collaborator Michael Georgiades, and the two began penning a series of gorgeous, thoughtful tracks that would eventually form the framework of Now And The Evermore.

“It seemed like we tapped into some kind of creative vein that just felt good,” Hay explains. “Even when I thought we had enough material for a record, I just kept writing on my own because the songs kept presenting themselves to me.”

Hay took his time in the studio, too, going in alone at first to record basic tracks and then building up the tunes up around his core vocal and guitar performances. While he enlisted a handful of collaborators—including Georgiades, Compass Records co–founder/bassist Garry West, Cuban guitarist/tres master San Miguel Perez, wife and singer/songwriter Cecilia Noël, and drummer Greg Bissonette (Ringo Starr, David Lee Roth)—Hay tackled the majority of the work on his own until it was time to bring in keyboardist and string arranger Fred Kron, who helped flesh out the music with sweeping orchestration, which was recorded and produced by West at the Compass studio in Nashville.

“Once we started to put the strings on it, that’s when it felt like everything really came together,” says Hay. “There started to be this sense of beauty and grandeur to the music, this sense of romance and possibility.”

That romance and possibility lays at the heart of Now And The Evermore, which opens with the bittersweet title track. Lilting and jaunty, the song (which features Starr on drums) makes peace with life’s transience, accepting the fate that ultimately awaits us all and committing to make the most of what little time we’ve got. “Goodbye to the life we knew / Don’t save it till the end,” Hay sings, balancing faith and fatalism in equal measure. “It could be me, it could be you / Or some old long lost friend.”

“I think this pandemic made people recognize that we won’t be around forever,” he explains. “If there’s something you want to say to someone, some love you want to express, then you should do it now because you never know when your number’s up.”

Learning to live in the present is a recurring theme on the album. The sunny “Love Is Everywhere” mixes rootsy guitars and gospel harmonies as it reminds us that there’s always joy and gratitude to be found if we’re willing to seek it out, while the soaring “Into The Bright Lights” (written by Chris Trapper) waltzes its way to cinematic heights as it refuses to surrender to darkness and despair, and the playful “Sea Of Always” tips its cap to Roy Orbison and The Beatles as it casts away the trappings and distractions that all too often drag us down. “Sold my rings / Cut the strings / And said goodbye to sorrow,” Hay sings. “Close my eyes as I fly / A different sky to follow.”

“A lot of these songs involve different ways of thinking about the unknowable,” he reflects. “I find solace in nature and I often reach for those sorts of metaphors—the sea, the sky, mountains, rivers—when I’m trying to wrap my head around it all.”

Indeed, the unknowable looms large on the record. The loss of Hay’s parents informs the mesmerizing “Starfish and Unicorns,” which wrestles with the lingering pain and loneliness that comes with the end of a complicated relationship, as well as the Celtic-tinged “All I See Is You,” which chases after a past it can never get back. The deceptively breezy melody of “Agatha Bell,” meanwhile, disguises an eerie murder ballad that raises more questions than it answers, and the bright, punchy horns of “A Man Without A Name” wraps the never-ending search for self in an air of celebration. But it’s perhaps the album closer “When Does The End Begin?” that confronts the unknowable most directly, with Hay singing, “We’re following the rising moon / When darkness falls it will be none too soon / We’re passing all the loved and lost / Don’t want to look back and count the cost.”

“I’m approaching 70 now,” he explains, “and it’s clear to me that I’m in the home stretch. I don’t feel any fear or a resignation about it, though, just an urgency to say the things I need to say and do the things I need to do.”

Who knows what happens when we die? Perhaps our consciousness lingers on long after we leave our bodies. Perhaps the curtains simply close and the show ends for good. Regardless, Now And The Evermore reminds us that we’re all alive right here, right now. For Colin Hay, that’s plenty to smile about.

Best known for the hit singles “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles),” “Sunshine on Leith,” “I’m On My Way,” and “Letter From America,” the identical Scottish twins known as The Proclaimers have announced the release of their 10th studio album, LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE DOGS, out May 5th on Compass Records.

Craig and Charlie Reid have enjoyed huge success across the English speaking world throughout their years as a band. The quirky pair has carved a niche for their brand of sing-along raucousness and witty, vulnerable songwriting at the junction of pop, folk, new wave and punk. With both Gold and Platinum singles and albums in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, The Proclaimers have found their way into the hearts and headphones of fans spanning nearly three generations.

LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE DOGS proves The Proclaimers to be craftsmen of gloriously catchy songs who are simultaneously unabashed romantics. The album was recorded at the legendary Rockfield Studios in Wales and was produced by Dave Eringa, (The Who) and features their live band: Stevie Christie (keyboards), Garry John Kane (bass), Zac Ware (electric guitar) and Clive Jenner (drums) with additional guitars by Sean Genockey and an appearance by the Vulcan String Quartet.

Unlike rock ‘n’ roll, bluegrass music’s boundaries are often defined in very narrow terms and that has caused some bands to carefully consider their place within the genre. But, in order to survive, everything must evolve… even bluegrass. Enter the Infamous Stringdusters, the very model of a major modern bluegrass band.

“At a certain point in our career, there was hesitation in calling us a bluegrass band,” guitarist Andy Falco admits. “These days, we’re much more comfortable with that label.” Banjo man Chris Pandolfi echoes the point: “We love bluegrass, but we have been influenced by other genres as much, if not more. When it comes to making music, we always try to be a blank slate and give new songs whatever they need to come to life. We just try to make something good, something that is true to who we are.”

On The Laws of Gravity, that’s exactly what the Infamous Stringdusters — Andy Hall (dobro), Jeremy Garrett (fiddle), and Travis Book (double bass), in addition to Falco and Pandolfi — have done. Their seventh studio set further proves that the band’s collective whole is far greater than the sum of its individual parts, as the song selection and pitch-perfect performances weighs the Stringdusters’ appeal to traditional fans against their musical quest to attract new listeners. It’s a balance that comes naturally to the band.

Here, trad-leaning tunes like “Freedom,” “A Hard Life Makes a Good Song,” “Maxwell,” and “1901: A Canyon Odyssey” pick hard and soar high, letting trade-off solos and layered vocal harmonies work their magic. As it continues on, Gravity reaches its roots deep and wide, but never sacrifices the wings of the band, as exemplified in tracks like “Back Home” and “This Ol’ Building” which pull from the blues and R&B strands of the Stringdusters’ musical DNA.

“The specific feelings in those songs lend themselves to a soulful sound,” Hall explains. “The longing of ‘Back Home,’ the passion of ‘This Ol’ Building.’ Slowing things down a bit, but still having a real edge and passion is the essence of that. And probably a bit of maturity on our part brings out a more authentic soulful sound.”

Indeed, the Stringdusters have worked hard to become the band they are or, perhaps, the band they wanted and knew themselves to be — a self-discovery process to which The Laws of Gravity bears witness. “Once you start to move out of that, a lot of good things happen,” Pandolfi says. “You know who you are, and how to do your thing with confidence and experience. This colors the songwriting process as much as anything. We work so hard on the music, but it’s not hard work. It’s really the payoff, and it comes more naturally with time.”

Letting the past inform and the present propel, the Stringdusters’ style and substance are uniquely Infamous. Since 2007, the band’s ever-evolving artistry and boldly creative collaborations — including Ryan Adams, Joss Stone, Bruce Hornsby, Joan Osborne, and Lee Ann Womack — have pushed them past the edges of traditional acoustic music and carved out a musical niche all their own in the hearts of fans and critics, alike. Over the past couple of years, they released 2015’s Undercover, a covers EP, followed by 2016’s Ladies & Gentlemen, an album featuring multiple female guest vocalists. Those projects may have seemed like artistic tangents, but they actually proved to be a pretty direct route from there to Gravity.

“Being singers and songwriters, we were really ready to put some of our own songs out with us singing them,” Falco says. “In the same way solo projects can take you away to be able to come back and feel refreshed, the last two records have done that and we were ready to hit the studio with our songs sung by us.”

“We had much more of a vision for how we wanted this album to come together than we did with past projects,” Pandolfi adds. “We got the music, including all our individual parts, to a place where we knew we could go into the studio and just let it happen live. We are a band. We play live together and, more than any one song or achievement, this is what we do. Now we have an album that captures that.”

Part of Gravity‘s vision involved not road-testing and adapting the songs before taking them into the studio. That’s a new step in the Stringdusters’ process which starts with filtering through and whittling down a wealth of material to the best of the batch. “We take those 20 or so songs and take them to the next level as a band,” Pandolfi explains. “So much gets accomplished in this writing/arranging stage. It’s where songs become Stringduster songs. In the end, we share the songwriting credit because of all the collective work that goes into this (and every other) aspect of being in a band.”

“We may try the song in a number of different feels before landing on something that works for the sound of the band. If a song is good, it usually comes together fairly quickly,” Halls says, adding, “But we’re writing more diverse stuff these days, so some experimentation is always welcome.”

While the new record boasts a single instrumental track, “Sirens,” where the five fellas really cut loose on their respective strings, the vocals across the other dozen tracks tie this music to the bluegrass tradition in an even more profound way. “Singing is a big part of bluegrass music,” Falco says. “It’s an important part of the sound and I think that part of music gets overlooked a lot. The singing should convey the emotion of the song. That’s what we aim to do. One could argue that it’s more important than the playing.”

Out beyond The Laws of Gravity, the Infamous Stringdusters have an even broader vision. “We just want to keep making original music, keep evolving as people and musicians, and continue to help our amazing community of fans grow and enjoy this experience together,” Pandolfi says. “When we hear from people that our music or the community around our music has helped them find joy in life, it makes everything seem very worthwhile.”

Falco adds, “We love playing together and that’s the reason we’ve been doing it for as long as we have. We want to able to do this until we’re old and grey. That’s really it — making music together and continuing to evolve our brand of bluegrass music.”

3x IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year and daughter of bluegrass Dale Ann Bradley celebrates her musical heritage with new original tracks, a classic rock cover and a timeless tribute to Bill Monroe.

“I grew up in a tar and paper covered shack right near Loretta Lynn’s childhood home,” reflects Dale Ann Bradley on her rustic origin in the hills of east Kentucky as a hardscrabble preacher’s daughter. ”It was very different. It was not easy,” she says. And even as a girl, she knew she wanted more. With Somewhere South of Crazy (available August 30th), this three-time IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year shares what has shaped her life and music, by going deeper—deeper into bluegrass, deeper into her own musical passions, deeper into her own history as a veteran entertainer who spent years singing country music alongside her ‘grass at Kentucky’s venerable Renfro Valley.

The result is a set that ranges from first-generation bluegrass classics through long-cherished favorites to brand new songs from Bradley and her friends—but always, always with her incomparably rich voice and east Kentucky sensibilities right at the center.

The title track provided Bradley with some especially enjoyable moments.  “We had the best time writing,” she says of writing—and singing—partner Pam Tillis.  “I just love her.  We sat down, and she had that title line and the idea, and I came up with the melody and some lines—we had worked on a few different things, but this was the one that we finished, and as soon as we did, I knew it was going to be the title track.” Bill Monroe’s “In Despair” may be more unexpected.  “I didn’t plan it as a tribute,” Bradley says with a laugh.  “But I hope people will think of it as one.  I just wanted to showcase a more traditional side of what I do.  But I’m glad it’s coming out on his 100th birthday!” The track “Come Home Good Boy” was more intentional and especially poignant, lending itself to Bradley’s first memory of a funeral, when, at age five, a neighbor boy who served with her uncle in Vietnam returned home in a casket.

A smartly selected crew of singers and players frame Bradley’s tender yet muscular singing to perfection. A couple of her regular bandmembers—harmony singer Kim Fox and banjo man Mike Sumner—make appearances, and so do supple, inventive musicians like the Infamous Stringdusters’ Andy Hall, ace studio fiddler Stuart Duncan, bass stalwart Mike Bub, producer Alison Brown (who doubles on guitar and banjo) and, perhaps most surprisingly yet appropriately, young mandolin phenomena Sierra Hull.  All those elements come together in the partnership here with singer, guitarist, songwriter and friend Steve Gulley.  “We grew up together,” Bradley notes. “Steve and me—we each know what the other one’s going to do.”   Yet as strong as the supporting cast is, the focus is, as always, on Dale Ann and the songs she’s chosen—and as always, they’re a deliciously varied bunch.

To a listener unfamiliar with her unique ability to pull songs from the rock vaults and make them her own, Seals & Crofts’ ‘Summer Breeze,’ will undoubtedly be the biggest surprise, but Bradley sees it as a natural.  “I’ve always wanted to do that song,” she says.  “I don’t pick out a rock tune just for the sake of having one—it has to be one that I always grew up with, or one that I hear that strikes me as fitting into the mix.  Sometimes a melody or lyric will just have that feel, just lend itself to the banjo or something like that—like this one, it almost sounds Celtic to me.”

Some songs, like “I Pressed Through The Crowd” and “Will You Visit Me On Sundays,” have been in Bradley’s repertoire for years, yet were never recorded until now.  “I was so tickled when Alison gave the o.k. to ‘Sundays,’” she notes, “because it brings back the traditional country that Steve and I have been singing together for a long, long time.  And of course, ‘I Pressed Through The Crowd’—I’ve been doing that one for a long time, and it just keeps getting more and more meaningful to me.”  Others are more recent.  ‘Leaving Kentucky’ was, ironically enough, started in Nashville, but finished after Bradley moved back to Kentucky.