'Beyond the Tagus River' (II)

Following on from the BIB post of 31 Mar., thanks to André Dal in Portugal for this video, which he published on YouTube on 1 Apr. It is the title track of his debut album project, Beyond the Tagus River; a highly accomplished original composition, delivered with precision and passion by Meade Richter (USA), fiddle; Olivier Uldry (CH), dobro; Reuben Agnew (NI), guitar; Jean-Michel Pache (CH), mandolin; Gil Pereira (PT), upright bass; and André himself on banjo. Mixing and mastering is by Jason Borisoff and graphics by Hildebrando Soares. The press release explains that this single is

[...] a tune in which André crosses his rural south Portugal origins, a region called Alentejo (which literally means 'Beyond Tagus'), and the traditional background of bluegrass music. 'Beyond the Tagus River' is, therefore, a bluegrass medium tempo with a very strong Alentejo feeling.

and, on the whole album project,

With the participation of 16 musicians from 10 different countries, Beyond the Tagus River is, in fact, a bridge between continents, between the past and the future, which unites the friendship of all who love this style of music.

The great US banjoist Tony Trischka comments:

All in all, this is a fantastic project, worthy of many repeated listenings…. Beyond the Tagus River is a global potpourri of acoustic excellence. Thank you André for this gift.

André (who is also on Instagram) will run a crowdfunding campaign between this coming Friday, 9 April, and 17 May. The album is scheduled for release on 17 June. The single can be pre-saved on Spotify.

© Richard Hawkins