By the river's edge from East of Monroe

Thanks to Roger Ryan for forwarding a copy of By the river's edge, the latest CD from East of Monroe (USA), whose first tour of Ireland begins tomorrow (6 Apr.) with a private engagement. It's an impressive piece of work both in content and in presentation, and much credit for this must go to Gary Alan Ferguson, who not only contributed his vocals and lyrical guitar work but produced, recorded, and mixed the album, wrote six of the twelve numbers, and took the cover photo (above).

Personnel on the album is almost exactly the same as on the tour, though Wally Hughes stays on fiddle throughout (dobro being played by the late Dave Giegerich), Richard Ward is on banjo, and Emily Timberlake sings lead and harmony on six songs, and wrote/ co-wrote five of the numbers. On this evidence, we can look forward to hearing some fine contemporary bluegrass from East of Monroe. The album will no doubt be on sale at their shows, as well as online.