Mountain Fever Records is proud to announce they will release the self-titled CD from The Expedition Show today! The first single, "Backroads And Little Towns" has already been receiving strong airplay on bluegrass radio since its debut earlier this month.
Consisting of Blake Williams on banjo and vocals; Wayne Southards on guitar and vocals; Kimberly Williams on bass and vocals; and Alex Hibbitts on mandolin and vocals, The Expedition Show signed with Mountain Fever Records in late 2010.
The new project contains 12 tracks of some of the best in traditional, contemporary, original, and gospel music and also includes a bonus comedy track featuring the country wit and humor of Blake Williams. As with their previous recordings, The Expedition Show invited their dear friend and “honorary fifth member” Tim Crouch to play fiddle on the project. Although The Expedition Show is best known for their three-part harmony, the diversity of material this project offers allowed the band to try new vocal arrangements and includes two duets; a grassy version of a Louvin Brothers song, "I Can't Keep You In Love With Me" sung by Kimberly Williams and Wayne Southards and a Southards-penned original duet sung by Southards and Alex Hibbitts titled "My Love For You Is True". In addition, the band revived a familiar church hymn, "When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder", featuring Hibbitts on bass vocals and allowing Blake Williams to reprise his role as baritone singer, something he has not done since the 1980’s.
All in all, Southards and Kimberly Williams evenly split the lead vocal duties, offering five songs each including Southards on an old Stephen Foster tune, “When The Springtime Comes Again (Little Annie)” and another original written by Blake Williams, “True Blue Never Ending Heartache”. Kimberly Williams reached back to 1977 for a beautiful country ballad titled “It Started All Over Again”, originally recorded by Vern Gosdin and Janie Fricke, and she also sings two more originals penned by her husband; “Storms of Life” and “Smoke And Mirrors”. Also included are two newly-composed instrumentals, "Showdown" and "Sparta Flash", the latter inspired by WSM DJ and Grand Ole Opry announcer Eddie Stubbs who encouraged Blake Williams to write the tune and title it for the name given to Williams by Bill Monroe years ago. The first single from the project, "Backroads And Little Towns", penned by Wayne Southards and Blake Williams has already been receiving strong airplay since its release earlier this month.
"Blake and Kimberly Williams and Wayne Southards are genuine and sincere people. I have known Blake for over 30 years and I look forward to this professional relationship with them. With Alex Hibbitts rounding out the band line-up, you couldn't ask for a better group of folks with which to affiliate yourself" said Steve Johnson, President and CEO of Mountain Music Entertainment. "I hope everyone will take the opportunity to get to know their music and stage shows. They offer a musical journey during every performance."
