Once considered one of America’s great bluegrass bands, Stoney Lonesome push the boundaries of the genre by combining pure tradition with emotional honesty and lyrical innovation. Kate MacKenzie’s vocals soar like a bluegrass Bonnie Raitt, graceful and bluesy. Kevin Barnes lends his uncanny talents on banjo, vocals and dobro. Lead guitarist/mandolinist Chris Kaiser, fiddler Brian Wicklund add solid blending vocals of their own and with bassist Patty Shove, provide unusually creative rhythmic force and a melodic ingenuity creating one of the quintessential bluegrass albums of the ’90s.
Stoney Lonesome achieved great recognition a rabid fanbase over years of touring the United States and Japan as well as through regular performances on A Prairie Home Companion. They released two superb on Red House, Lonesome Tonight (1991) and Blue Heartache (1992). Both albums generated unprecedented excitement and were considered some of the best bluegrass albums in the country.
With a rich career spanning four decades, Virginia-based duo Robin & Linda Williams have made it their mission to perform the music that they love, a robust blend of bluegrass, folk, old-time and acoustic country that combines wryly observant lyrics with a wide-ranging melodicism. Today some might call it “Americana,” but these two revered music masters were living and breathing this elixir 20 years before that term was turned into a radio format. With the release of their new studio album Back 40, the Williams celebrate their musical legacy with a newly recorded album that features fresh treatments of their early classics (many from albums long out of print) and favorites by other writers, as well as a brand new song, “The Old Familiar House on Christmas Day.”
Produced in Nashville by Grammy-winning producer Jim Rooney (Nanci Griffith, Iris DeMent, Bonnie Raitt, John Prine, etc), the Williams are backed by the able trio of Todd Phillips (David Grisman Quintet, Tony Rice Unit) on standup bass, Al Perkins (Flying Burrito Brothers, Emmylou Harris & The Nash Ramblers) on Dobro and pedal steel, and bandmates Chris Brashear on mandolin and fiddle and Jim Watson (former Red Clay Rambler) on vocal harmony.”
Producer Jim Rooney says of the album, “I love listening to them sing this collection of songs. I have several favorites – their takes on ‘Urge For Going’ and ‘Boots Of Spanish Leather’ are as good as any I have heard. ‘The Real Thing’ and ‘Green Summertime’ get me every time. Don’t get me started! Pretty damn good to have this freshness and energy after all the years and miles.”
Their stirring concerts have earned them a huge body of fans over the years. But as gifted songwriters Robin and Linda have earned an even rarer honor — the devotion and deep respect of their musical peers. Their songs have endured and been recorded by the likes of Emmylou Harris, Tom T. Hall, George Hamilton IV, Tim & Mollie O’Brien, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Kathy Mattea, and The Seldom Scene. As live performers they are second to none, keeping a busy tour schedule and also guesting on A Prairie Home Companion, which they’ve appeared on since the public radio show’s early days (they’re also featured in the A Prairie Home Companion film).
Back 40 is a milestone release by this celebrated Southern duo.
Northern Lights began in the ’70s as a bluegrass bar band called How Banks Fail (strangely appropriate today). After a lot of great years of jamming, they earned their first national recognition in 1986 when they were invited to the Best New Bluegrass Band Contest in Louisville, KY. They finished theird in the event, behind blossoming 15-year-old phenomenon Alison Krauss and Union Station. Within a few years they signed with Flying Fish Records. Northern Light’s three albums on the Flying Fish label all landed on the top 10 of Bluegrass Unlimited’s radio chart. The first, Take You to the Sky, recorded in 1990, won a Boston Music Award in 1991 and included Taylor Armerding’s song “Winterhawk,” which was one of the five finalists for the IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) Song of the Year Award. The album boasted a trio of very special fiddling guests: Matt Glaser, Alison Krauss, and Peter Rowan. In 1991, they were also voted “Outstanding Country Act,” at the Boston Music Awards. They were the only bluegrass band nominated.
Can’t Buy Your Way (1992) made it to the number 3 spot on the Bluegrass Unlimited Radio Survey, and also featured a few of the bands’ talented friends (Vassar Clements, Stuart Duncan, and Matt Glaser. As Relix Magazine asserted, Can’t Buy Your Way is “full of vitality and laced with soaring harmonies and precise instrumental work… This is a refreshing album from a band with far-reaching musical vision.” Northern Lights’ 1994 release, Wrong Highway Blues was a critical favorite and spent eight months on Bluegrass Unlimited’s chart, climbing to the number 9 spot.
In 1996, Northern Lights signed with Red House Records and released Living in the City. The album is an eclectic collection that includes gospel tunes, stark relationship songs, shimmering instrumentals, and even a rockin’ John Hiatt cover. With passionate vocals and creative harmonies, brilliant banjo breakdowns, fiddling that is simultaniously sweet and lonesome, the Northern Lights take bluegrass to a whole new level.
Kate MacKenzie is a Grammy-nominated vocalist with an expressive, honeyed voice and eloquent phrasing that has influenced vocalist for years. It’s a voice that’s as much at home in an amphitheater as it is in an intimate club. Her Grammy-nominated album Age of Innocence is a quintessential album for the folk connoisseur with its fresh original songs, creative covers, and skin-tingling takes on traditional tunes. The songs have a depth and a richness that shows her strength as a songwriter, as well as a vocalist. The playing on the record is crisp, clear, hot and sweet. Exactly the kind of instrumental prowess you’d expect from such an accomplished group of musicians.
Kate emerged as a solo performer, but her roots in bluegrass go back more than twenty years. For fifteen years Kate sang lead vocals with the upper Midwest’s premier bluegrass band Stoney Lonesome, with whom she recorded six albums. She has also been a favorite guest on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion since the program’s early days. She started on the show with Stoney Lonesome and eventually became one-fourth of the Hopeful Gospel Quartet with Keillor and Robin and Linda Williams. Kate has appeared on the show as a solo artist and on a couple occasions has served as co-host. Kate’s work with Keillor not only brought her before a radio audience of several million, it has also taken her to the stages of Austin City Limits, Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, the Universal Amphitheater, and the Hollywood Bowl.
Kate’s performances bring an uncommon bluesy edge to bluegrass. She describes it best: “I feel like I’m staking out my own territory, my own version of bluegrass, mixed with country blues and honky-tonk, and filtered through a kind of rootsy swampy beat. I call it ‘swamp grass.'”
The Bills are an extraordinary quintet from the west coast of Canada, renowned for their instrumental virtuosity, lush vocal arrangements, exuberant live performances, evocative songwriting and refreshingly innovative interpretations of traditional tunes from around the globe. Hailed by The Glasgow Herald as “the biggest blast of fresh air to come out of Canada since The Band,” they have racked up a string of Canadian music awards and a devoted fan following that extends across North America and Europe.
The band features an all-star line-up of talent that includes Chris Frye (guitar, lead vocals), Marc Atkinson (mandolin, guitar, vocals), Adrian Dolan (fiddle, accordion, piano, vocals), Richard Moody (violin, viola, vocals) and Scott White (upright bass). All busy musicians, The Bills had been working on other musical projects until they recently reunited to record Yes Please, the follow-up to their Juno Award nominated album Let Em Run (released on Red House in April, 2005).
The Bills began as The Bill Hilly Band in 1996, when Canadian jazz and rock musicians Marc Atkinson (guitar) and Scott White (upright and electric bass) took up new acoustic instruments (mandolin and fiddle, respectively) and began exploring folk tunes from around the world. The two had already toured extensively throughout North America and Australia in various groups, playing such prestigious events as the Montreal Jazz Fest. A vocalist and guitarist raised on fiddle music, Chris Frye was a jazz guitar student of Marc’s. Chris and Marc quickly formed musical bonds, sharing a taste for a broad variety of musical styles. Chris’ powerful singing and deep knowledge of North American traditional tunes lent themselves to the music that Marc and Scott were creating, and they quickly welcomed him into their new band and released their first self-titled album. Featured prominently on CBC Radio, the band quickly gained momentum adding 17-year old prodigy Adrian Dolan (fiddle, accordion, piano) to their line-up. They went on to release their second album All Day Every Day, which earned them a Juno Award nomination and won them a Western Canada Music Award for “Outstanding Roots Release.” They were also honored as BC Touring Artists of the Year.
Shortening their name to The Bills, the band released their album Let Em Run in 2005, which was picked up by Grammy-winning US label Red House Records. The album earned them their second Juno Award nomination, and the video for “Let Em Run” was aired across Canada on CMT. Seasoned Winnipeg jazz and world music talent Richard Moody (violin, viola) joined the band not long after. Touring the US, the band became a favorite at bluegrass, folk and Americana festivals and quickly won over legions
Responding to fan demand, The Bills released Yes Pleasein 2013 on Red House Records. Featuring almost all originals, the album is a vibrant collection of instrumentals and songs that perfectly showcase why The Bills are known the world over as one of the most boldly innovative roots bands, always remaining true to the global acoustic traditions they revere.
