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Mother/Daughter Duo Nancy Cardwell and Erin Faith Release Album of Christmas Music as “Dulcimer Dance”
For immediate release: December 19, 2017
Contact: Nancy Cardwell (615-260-4807, nancyk.cardwell@gmail.com)

Mother/Daughter Duo Nancy Cardwell and Erin Faith Release Album of Christmas Music as “Dulcimer Dance”

Nashville, TN – At Christmas Time is the debut album on KayFaith Records from mother/daughter duo “Dulcimer Dance,” based in Nashville, TN. Recorded last month at Hilltop Studio in Madison, TN with Steve Chandler engineering, the holiday collection includes 13 songs featuring Nancy Cardwell Erdos on hammered dulcimer and Erin Faith Erdos Humann on flute. Released in mid-December, the digital album is available in iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and Spotify. Radio broadcasters may download the songs at AirPlay Direct.

Ethereal and elegant one moment and galloping off to a Celtic step dance rhythm in the next, Nancy and Erin Faith’s instrumental connection is intuitive and natural because they've been playing music and singing together literally all their lives---well, all of Erin's life, anyway. At their live performances you will hear Christmas music along with gospel, fiddle tunes, Swedish waltzes and Irish jigs.

Christmas is their favorite time of the year and also a big part of their repertoire, so it made sense to release At Christmas Time as their debut album together.
“Separately we play all sorts of music, from bluegrass to classical,” Cardwell says. But the music we make together on hammered dulcimer and flute has always come so easily---just pure fun and giggles for the past 20 years. We anticipate and read each other’s minds musically, and the combination of these two instruments is so striking. Erin is one of the finest musicians I’ve ever had the privilege to work with, and it’s a joy to play with her. She improvises as well as she reads—which I take credit for, of course, bringing her up around bluegrass musicians. We hope these songs take you back to your favorite Christmas memories, and that listening makes you smile half as much as we did while recording them for you.”

Cardwell has worked with sound engineer Steve Chandler since the early days of IBMA World of Bluegrass events in Owensboro, Kentucky—Chandler’s home town, as well as the original home of the International Bluegrass Music Association, where Nancy served on staff from 1994-2014. “Steve is the rare engineer who is brilliant at both live concert sound and in the studio,” Cardwell says. “He does a lot of work out of Hilltop Studio in Madison, TN, just down the street from my house. I couldn’t think of a better engineer or place to create this recording. Steve has recorded some legendary bluegrass and country albums there.”

In addition to playing together, Nancy and Erin Faith also sing in an a cappella Christmas caroling quartet in Victorian costume called “The Coventry Carolers” this time of year. The group originated in Branson, MO in 1990, featuring Cardwell with Patty VanWeelden, Kenny Key and Tim DeClue. As Cardwell moved from Missouri to Kentucky and Tennessee, she kept the music notebooks and continued to sew costumes and collect hoop skirts and top hats, recruiting new singers in each town she moved to. The Nashville quartet also often includes Marilyn and Billy Smith, Craig and Peggy Duncan, and Nancy’s brother, Ray Cardwell.

Erin Faith holds a master’s degree in music performance from Lee University in Cleveland, TN, and a four-year degree in music business. She plays piccolo on two of the 13 cuts, in addition to the flute. She is the owner and proprietor of Erin Faith Media Services and works as the Director of Operations for Al McCree Entertainment in Nashville, representing the comedian Jeanne Robertson, among other clients. Erin is also a gourmet cake pop caterer in her spare time, as well as a graphic designer.

In addition to her 20 years at IBMA, Nancy Cardwell has most recently worked as a Spanish translator for the Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee, and she is currently the administrator of the IBMA Foundation, formerly The Foundation for Bluegrass Music. During the past year she has also worked as the bass player for Jesse McReynolds and his Virginia Boys, performing regularly at the Grand Ole Opry. She is a freelance journalist on the writing staff of Bluegrass Unlimited magazine, and her book The Words and Music of Dolly Parton: Country Music’s Iron Butterfly was published by ABC-Clio/Praeger in 2009.

Song list:

1. Silent Night (Joseph Mohr & Franz Gruber)
2. Ding Dong Merrily on High (George Ratcliffe Woodward & Jehan Tabourot)
3. Coventry Carol (Robert Croo/ traditional English melody)
4. Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee (Ludwig Van Beethoven)
5. Jingle Bells (J. Pierpont)
6. Be Thou My Vision (Ancient Irish Traditional Melody)
7. Silver Bells (Jay Livingston & Ray Evans)
8. The Holly & the Ivy (French Folk Melody)
9. Ten Penny Bit (Traditional Irish Melody)
10. Joy to the World (George F. Handel/ Isaac Watts—from Psalms 98)
11. Away in a Manger (James R Murray)
12. Angels We Have Heard on High (Old French Carol)
13. Still, Still, Still (George Gotsch, German Folk Tune)
More info: www.dulcimerdance.com, https://www.facebook.com/dulcimerflute/, http://airplaydirect.com/music/dulcimerdance/

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