Sneak Peak at FolksTogether CD

Jeff Olson, a member of FolksTogether, stopped by your humble blogger's trailer last night to play early mixes of the group's soon-to-be-released CD.

The Narrows will host the group's CD release party in September. You're invited! Be sure to visit the www.ncfta.org
"live music" area soon for the information. It should be posted shortly.

The recording's title is still an official secret so I'm sworn to silence. All I can report is that it has a "p" in it. Okay, that's enough. Oh, alright, there's also a "g" in it. That's it. I really mean it this time.

Anyway, that's Jeff up there in the picture. He's a damn fine musician, producer, songwriter and friend. I've had the distinct honor and pleasure of working on several musical projects with him, and have shared the stage with Jeff and the other members of the group, Donna Olson (Jeff's bride), Rick Bellaire, Vincent Pasternak and John Dunn.

I can tell you that the CD has original tunes and some rather unusual cover tunes. Rick Bellaire--and, to an extent, nearly all the members--is a musicologist and an archivist who can tell you the flip side of a Byrds single from 1965. So Rick and the gang know about songs that we've never heard of or have, sadly, forgotten.

"Rick Bellaire came up with the concept for the album and produced it. His idea was to stretch the limits of what we had previously done, and still retain the FolksTogether feel," said Jeff, who plays guitar and six-string banjo and contributes back-up and lead vocals. "We wanted to step out of the 'we're not quite bluegrass sound.'"

One of my favorite tracks is a tune passionately sung by bassist John Dunn. John really went "over the top" on this one, and I hope after the final mix and mastering the piece will still have the edge that I heard. There's a track sung by Donna Olson that has a nice Western Swing feel that will likely make it a crowd favorite.

Violinist and guitarist Vincent Pasternak is all over this recording, adding a fiddle line here, a classical guitar strum there, and some lead and harmony vocals as only Vinnie can.

The CD was digitally recorded "Chez Bellaire" in the beautiful Mount Pleasant neighborhood in Providence. Those familiar will FolksTogether's previous albums will notice that this one has some new instruments on it, and might be described as "lush" in places, which is unusual for a roots recording.

Good luck to FolksTogether as they wrap up this project. We'll see you in September!