Biography

Radio Promotion By Art Menius
art@artmenius.com https://artmeniusradio.com

Bluegrass superstars celebrate the music of folk legend Tom Paxton on Bluegrass Sings Paxton

Contributors include Alice Gerrard, Della Mae, Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer, Tim O'Brien, Claire Lynch, and several more notables

Mountain Home Music MH23662


Bluegrass Sings Paxton brings together a broad array of bluegrass artists to tackle an equally broad range of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement award winner’s songs. Bookending the set’s dozen entries are the most prominent Paxton touchstones, given freshly compelling treatments by two of the bluegrass community’s most treasured female-forward ensembles, Della Mae—joined here by Paxton himself—and Sister Sadie. Current IBMA Male Vocalist of the Year Greg Blake offers a similarly updated take on “Leaving London,” a song that has appeared on the set lists of both the iconic Hall of Famer Doc Watson and current stadium bluegrass phenom Billy Strings, while another Hall of Fame member, Alice Gerrard, turns in a gently swinging version of the minor-key “The Things I Notice Now.” Three-time IBMA Male Vocalist award recipient Danny Paisley eagerly took on “Ramblin’ Boy,” brought into bluegrass more than 50 years ago by the Kentucky Mountain Boys, and still another IBMA Male Vocalist—and GRAMMY—award winner Tim O’Brien and his band contributed the project’s second single, a brand new, gospel-tinged song written by Paxton, O’Brien, and bandmate Jan Fabricius, “You Took Me In.”

Female Vocalists of the Year turn up on Bluegrass Sings Paxton, too; West Coast legend Laurie Lewis gives a pensive reading of “Central Square,” while Claire Lynch offers up the album’s tender first single, “I Give You The Morning.” Rounding out the list of featured performers are the GRAMMY-winning partnership of Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, backed by members of Della Mae; Mountain Home’s frequent chart-topper and IBMA award winner Chris Jones (“The Last Hobo,” the project’s third single); singer/songwriter Aaron Burdett, currently in his second year as singer and guitarist with the Steep Canyon Rangers; and distinctive vocalist Sav Sankaran, who holds down the bass slot with bluegrass quintet Unspoken Tradition and has sung lead on several of the group’s #1 hits.

Backing on most of these selections comes from an equally all-star group: Jones on guitar, Steve Martin Prize and frequent IBMA Banjo Player of the Year Kristin Scott Benson; Mountain Home’s Darren Nicholson (mandolin); Sister Sadie founder and 2020 IBMA Fiddle Player of the Year Deanie Richardson, and bassist Nelson Williams (Chris Jones & the Night Drivers, Jake Blount, New Dangerfield). Like harmony singers Travis Book (the Infamous Stringdusters) and Wendy Hickman, they’re always supportive, yet ready to take the spotlight with inspired solos that yield wordless, yet unmistakable interpretations of each song.