New Album to be Released July 24, 2012 on Superfan Records;
Features Stellar Lineup
Superfan Records today announced the release of the Kickin Grass Band’s newest album, Walk With Me. This is the band’s first full-length album since 2008 and the first to feature the current lineup. The album tells a nuanced musical story of grief, exploration, hard-won acceptance and understanding as only a close-knit veteran ensemble can. Walk With Me is scheduled for release on July 24, 2012.
The Raleigh-based Kickin Grass Band is known for their unique bluegrass style—equal parts vintage and nouveau. On Walk With Me, the group delightfully stretches and builds each song beyond the edges of their firm footing in bluegrass. By following their muse down complementary paths of Old-time, Americana and folk, the Kickin Grass Band has created an album that will appeal to a broad roots music audience.
Preview two tracks from the new album here:
Half of the songs were penned by signature vocalist and main songwriter Lynda Dawson, with assists from newest members fiddle player Pattie Hopkins and banjo player Hank Smith. The remaining cover songs were chosen to spotlight the personalities of the individual band members, but also to play on their strength as a cohesive unit. Vocals are passed back and forth between Dawson’s soaring lead on five of the tracks, Hopkins’s bluesy sound on two, bass player Patrick Walsh’s ethereal tenor on two, and mandolin player Jamie Dawson’s retro-tinted lead on one, with tasteful harmonic seasoning throughout. Even with shifts in instrumentation, arrangement, narration and guest players, there remains a distinctive Kickin Grass Band sound that threads the tunes together, creating a colorful, mosaic tapestry of an album, and an expertly-crafted package of rootsy Americana-style bluegrass.
The band deliberately approached this project as a full-length record. Walk With Me presents an exploration of life’s passages, a close-to-home chronicle of heartbreaking loss and hopeful beginnings. Band members endured 3 years of ups and downs that started with the loss of Walsh’s wife to an excruciating battle with ovarian cancer, crested with the birth of beautiful daughter to the Dawsons, and then took another plummet with the sudden and unexpected death of Jamie Dawson’s brother.
“These were life-altering events for all of us, both individually and as bandmates and close friends,” explains Lynda Dawson. “We felt strongly that we needed to capture and express the emotional journey we had endured through our music, especially now that we’re on the other side looking back.”
To take in the album as a singular experience is to travel with the group from a questioning uncertainty to an understanding acceptance. The message: the big answers may be beyond our grasp, but our communal search for them binds us together. If you look hard enough you may just find an answer—and a comfort—in the people who walk with you.
Walk With Me was recorded and co-produced by Jerry Brown at the Rubber Room, with artwork and design by Gamil. The album will be released by Superfan Records on July 24, 2012, at iTunes, Amazon MP3, Amazon Marketplace, CD Baby, and brick and mortar stores serviced through the Super D Distribution network.
Hi-res press photos, album art and additional information at www.superfanrecords.com/kickingrass
For full review copies, more information and interviews contact:
Katrina Lamberto
Superfan Records
(919) 272-8309
###
Upcoming Kickin Grass Band shows:
06/29/2012 | Cary, NC | Page-Walker Arts & History Center Garden Featuring PineCone Bluegrass Music Camp Students
07/01/2012 | Wilmington, NC | Poplar Grove Plantation Festival
07/08/2012 | Durham, NC | Festival for the Eno
07/22/2012 | Williamston, NC | Martin County Auditorium
07/26/2012 | Raleigh, NC | Quail Ridge Books & Music *CD Release In-Store Performance & Signing*
07/27/2012 | New Bern, NC | Bear Town Market & Beer Garden *Eastern NC CD Release Show
07/28/2012 | Raleigh, NC | Pour House Music Hall *CD Release Party*
07/29/2012 | Saxapahaw, NC | Haw River Ballroom *CD Release Show*
08/03/2012 | Wind Gap, PA | Appalachian Fiddle & Bluegrass Festival w/special guest Becky Buller
08/04/2012 | Wind Gap, PA | Appalachian Fiddle & Bluegrass Festival w/special guest Becky Buller
08/06/2012 | Thomas, WV | The Purple Fiddle w/special guest Becky Buller
08/07/2012 | Broadway, VA | Plan B w/special guest Becky Buller
08/08/2012 | Asheville, NC | The Grey Eagle w/special guest Becky Buller
08/11/2012 | Robbinsville, NC | Stecoah Valley Performing Arts Center w/special guest Becky Buller
Additional tour details at www.kickingrass.com/tour
No comments:
Post a Comment