New recordings from Rick Faris, Alison Brown (update)

Dark Shadow Recording announces the release of Uncommon skies, the latest album by Rick Faris, who wrote or co-wrote eleven of the twelve songs and contributes lead and harmony vocals and guitar. Other artists on the recording are Laura Orshaw (fiddle), Harry Clark and Ronnie McCoury (mandolin), Zak McLamb (bass), Jerry Douglas (resonator guitar), Russ Carson and Luke Munday (banjo), and vocalists Del McCoury, Ronnie McCoury, Dani Flowers, Stephen Mougin, Eddie Faris, and Ben James. The album was produced, engineered, and mixed by Stephen Mougin. More details are on the Dark Shadow press release.

As well as being an alumnus of Special Consensus and an award-winning musician in his own right, Rick is a highly respected luthier - does anyone in this country own a Faris guitar or have one on order?

*

A week ago the BIB mentioned an interview with Alison Brown by Lee Zimmerman on Bluegrass Today. She has since been interviewed by Lonnie Lee Hood on the Bluegrass Situation (BGS), again with the focus on her new album On banjo, in which one of her aims was to show the instrument's power to tackle a range of music as wide as in the past. Asked 'What did you learn while making On banjo?', she replies:

The deep dive to find new melodies, and that process of discovery of the instrument, is the process of self-discovery. You get to the end and it teaches you something new about yourself.

Update 13/14 June: Alison Brown will be featured on episode 89 of Deering Live tomorrow (Wed. 14 June) at midnight, Irish time, when she will play, talk about the new album, and advise on ways of playing blues tunes. Her 'Sun and water' (a blend of George Harrison's 'Here comes the sun' and Antonio Carlos Jobim's 'Waters of March') can be seen on YouTube.

© Richard Hawkins