Biography

To access the music and lyrics for CD1 Click on the link directly below:

http://www.airplaydirect.com/music/LaurenceBaer-AcrossTime/

Contact: Laurence Baer, Songwriter/Project Producer
LHBaer@comcast.net
(410) 884 9555
http://www.laurencebaer.com

Laurence Baer owns exclusive songwriting and publishing rights to all songs in this project through L. Baer & Associates, LLC.
PRO for all songs in this project: BMI

What do you get when you combine a Grammy-nominated songwriter with the winning instrumentalists of the International Acoustic Music Competition, throw in a fabulous new vocalist, and a Who's Who of the top bluegrass virtuosos?

Across Time – Album of the Years Project

An inspiring collection of beautiful, riveting, and uplifting songs.

Laurence Baer is a songwriter based in Columbia, MD. Baer’s writing is family friendly, intelligent, spiritual, and always uplifting. He weaves great stories into beautiful melodies. His songs touch on themes ranging from astrophysics to Bible-based stories, from tales of the Comanche to coal-mining disasters. Using traditional blue grass instrumentation – Baer’s music reflects influences from jazz, country, blues, folk, and klezmer. The music is virtuoso, and compellingly beautiful – while the lyrics are clear and deeply meaningful. You’ll enjoy listening to these songs again and again.

His song White Pass Railroad was included in the Del McCoury Band’s Grammy-Nominated “Family Circle” CD.

Laurence Baer received widespread acclaim for his first CD, “Across A Bering Strait Bridge”.

"Great uplifting songs in the tradition of John Denver, Jackson Browne, & Dan Fogelberg" - Ted Agres, Washington Times

"I listened to Larry Baer's new CD and immediately tried to find a program it would fit. It was a damned good CD and I enjoyed it." - Oscar Brand, Host, Folksong Festival, WNYC; Curator of the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame

"A new artist with new songs. This is the future of our music. New material that has the feel of today combined with the music and stylings of yesterday. Each song has something to say… It is a tribute to Bluegrass that it has the ability to bring talent like his to the music." - Red Shipley, Host, Stained Glass Blue Grass, WAMU, Washington, DC

"You can listen to Laurence’s ballads on many levels: as a contemporary story, a biblical verse, or as a life lesson. His entertaining foot-stompers are… well… just that. Infectious. Very enjoyable playing by some musical heavyweights." - Barb Heller, host of String Fever, North Country Public Radio/ FolkAlley.com

“Across Time” grew out of the friendship and collaboration between Laurence Baer and the internationally acclaimed guitar duo Loren and Mark. Loren Barrigar was the youngest instrumentalist ever to play on the stages of the Grand Ole Opry (in 1968 when he was 6 years old) and he went on to study with Chet Atkins’ brother, Jimmy Atkins. Mark Mazengarb is an extremely versatile and brilliant guitarist from New Zealand, equally comfortable in classical, jazz, folk, and bluegrass styles. They won the 2013 International Acoustic Music Competition for instrumentalists. They are regular headliners at the Chet Atkins Fest in Nashville. They recently toured with the great Tommy Emmanuel as recorded in the following video.

Loren and Mark’s musicianship bring a beauty and precision to this project that sets it apart. They move seamlessly from bluegrass to folk to jazz to country to blues to rock and back again.

The lyrics for each song are vital and integral. Each song is meaningful in its own right, and taken together the collection is hugely compelling. The lyrics are very easy to hear and masterfully delivered by up-and-coming vocalist Justin Pokrywka. Justin’s voice has been frequently compared to that of the late great Jim Croce. A talented songwriter in his own right, Justin has been lately turning heads in Nashville. For the sake of clarity and ease of listening – all the harmonies are also sung by Justin. The result is a smooth and rich vocal which captures the spirit and heart of each song, making listening a pleasure rather than a task.

The songs are filled out and embellished with a breathtaking Who’s Who of acoustic music.

Rob Ickes is considered by many to be the finest dobro player on the planet. He is a founding member of “Blue Highway”, one of the most successful and respected contemporary blue grass bands. Rob Ickes has been named as the IBMA’s “Dobro Player of the Year” for 15 consecutive years. 'Nuff said.

Mike Munford tours with “Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen” and was named as IBMA’s 2013 “Banjo Player of the Year”. “FS&DK” swept the awards at the Wammies (Washington Area Music Awards) and the band received 4 new IBMA nominations.

Shelby & Isaac Eicher (father and son) play together in a gyspy jazz band, “Mischievous Swing”. Shelby Eicher was Roy Clark’s fiddle player for 15 years, including 10 years on TV’s “Hee Haw”. Shelby is currently the Director of Education at the Fiddler’s Hall of Fame. Isaac Eicher was the Walnut Valley national mandolin champion at the age of 16 (in ’06). He also was also the Rockygrass, Colorado mandolin champion. He is now touring with “Rebecca Frazier and Hit and Run”.

Richard Smith is a virtuoso and former national fingerpicking champion who also has had a long history of collaboration with the late Chet Atkins and Tommy Emmanuel. Richard first performed with Chet Atkins at the age of 11. He is a jaw dropping performer.

Rickie Simpkins is one of the most respected fiddle players in Bluegrass. He performed with Flatt and Scruggs at the age of 9. A member of such great bands as “The Virginia Squires”, “The Tony Rice Unit”, “The Lonesome River Band”, “The Isaacs”, and “Emmylou Harris and Her Red Dirt Boys”. His CD “Dancing on the Fingerboard” was nominated for IBMA’s “Recording of the Year” award.

Contact: Laurence Baer, Songwriter/Project Producer
LHBaer@comcast.net
http://www.laurencebaer.com
Available for telephone Interviews

Song by Song Overview

To access the music and lyrics for CD1 Click on the link directly below:

http://www.airplaydirect.com/music/LaurenceBaer-AcrossTime/

CD1 – All vocals by Justin Pokrywka

1. Seed of a Seed: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars; Loren Barrigar – Bass; Mike Munford – Banjo
Running Time: 4:19
Tempo and Style: Upbeat tempo – open guitar with guitar and banjo fills. Strong instrumental
Premise and Background: “If you listen to your dreams” is the recurring theme. The song talks about internal aspects running through our lives, symbolized as: An Endless River; A Rushing Wind; An Ancient Promise; and A Brilliant Fire.

2. Stardust: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars; Loren Barrigar – Bass; Rob Ickes - Dobro
Running Time: 5:20
Tempo and Style: Slower, minor key with striking & powerful guitar. Features a powerful dobro instrumental.
Premise and Background: Based on National Geographic article by Stan Woosley, describing in great detail the life and death of supernovas. It turns out that across the universe a supernova explodes approximately each second. Interestingly, someone dies about just as often.

3. Honesty: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars; Loren Barrigar – Bass; Shelby Eicher – Violin; Isaac Eicher - Mandolin
Running Time: 4:49
Tempo and Style: Samba Jazz song with fabulous color from guitars, mandolin, fiddle and bass. Very compelling melody.
Premise and Background: Plea for honesty and transparency in a relationship (which involves overcoming fear) as the basis for real love.

4. Here's the Keys: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars; Rickie Simpkins - Viola
Running Time: 4:32
Tempo and Style: Slower, with guitar and rich viola. Beautiful melody.
Premise and Background: Multigenerational story line beginning with a grandfather. Each generation invests in their most treasured thing and then gives it to their child. The final verse refers to God’s heart in giving the creation to His children.

5. Nehemiah: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars; Shelby Eicher – Violin; Isaac Eicher - Mandolin
Running Time: 4:49
Tempo and Style: Upbeat – Klezmer style with fabulous instrumentation from guitar, mandolin and fiddle.
Premise and Background: The story of the brief book of Nehemiah from the Old Testament about a seemingly low level individual, called by God to bring renewal to his people and city.

6. Strike By the Moon: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars; Loren Barrigar – Bass
Running Time: 4:43
Tempo and Style: Medium paced with haunting guitars.
Premise and Background: The story of the Comanche Empire which at one time controlled nearly half of the territory of the US. Inspired by the best selling book by Sam Gwynne “Empire of the Summer Moon”

 
7. White Pass Railroad: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars; Loren Barrigar – Bass; Rob Ickes - Dobro
Running Time: 4:26
Tempo and Style: Medium paced with fabulous guitar and dobro leads. Very upbeat melody and a strong compelling chorus.
Premise and Background: Tells the story of the White Pass Railroad, built during the Alaskan Gold Rush.

8. 80,000 Miles: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars; Mike Munford - Banjo
Running Time: 3:31
Tempo and Style: Upbeat with guitar and driving banjo
Premise and Background: Autobiographical song about playing along the rapids of the Niagara River as a young child.

9. Apple Pie: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars
Running Time: 3:41
Tempo and Style: Medium paced – Acoustic Country genre.
Premise and Background: Story song about a child helping his father plant an apple tree. The son observes his father’s investment over years and learns important life lessons and a deep appreciation of his father.

10. Just to Be With You: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars; Loren Barrigar – Bass
Running Time: 4:00
Tempo and Style: Upbeat – Acoutic Country Boogie Woogie Fabulous guitar and bass work. Compelling melody
Premise and Background: Discounting common focusses (career/ambition; partying/extreme sports; reading books/dreaming) and preferring instead to be with the one he loves.

11. Find Your Way: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars
Running Time: 3:43
Tempo and Style: Medium Slow song with strong chorus. Inspirational.
Premise and Background: Semi-autobiographical song about my own Uncle Howard – who was a highly decorated pilot in WW2. The war hero confides that the real courage in his life was overcoming alcohol, so that he could be a “Real father to my own son”, and he shares some life wisdom with his nephew.

12. Mariachi Waltz: Richard Smith – Guitar; Loren Barrigar Bass; Shelby Eicher – Violin; Isaac Eicher - Mandolin
Running Time: 3:52
Tempo and Style: Accoustic Mariachi instrumental with guitar, fiddle, mandolin, and bass. Upbeat, great instrumentation.
Premise and Background: Only instrumental song on the entire project.

13. I Guess its Love: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars
Running Time: 3:12
Tempo and Style: Upbeat Country with Travis-picking background and great leads. Non-traditional chord structure adds interest
Premise and Background: Understated and happy song about being in love. Very upbeat.

14. It's a Beautiful Thing: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazzengarb – Guitars; {b]Loren Barrigar – Bass
Running Time: 4:20
Tempo and Style: Slow and lush fingerpicking with beautiful fills and lead.
Premise and Background: Perhaps the most beautiful song on the project – using imagery to describe the love relationship between a husband and wife.

15. Life at the End of the Tunnel: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars; Loren Barrigar – Bass; Rob Ickes - Dobro
Running Time: 5:00
Tempo and Style: Hard driving Bluegrass/country – minor key with dobro lead.
Premise and Background: Very personal story about a woman whose husband is trapped in a coal-mining cave-in and is counting the seconds as the rescuers drill to reach those trapped underground. Emotionally very upbeat ending.


CD2 – All vocals by Justin Pokrywka

To access the music and lyrics for CD2 please click on the following link:



1. Blues God Has to Hide: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars; Loren Barrigar – Bass
Running Time: 4:27
Tempo and Style: Upbeat, soft touch, fingerpicking blues with a great melody and fabulous instrumental.
Premise and Background: Comparing our mundane concerns with those that God has to deal with. However, we almost never hear about God’s pain - He never shares his pain with us out of concern for us. In Genesis 6:6 it states that God repented that He had created man and that human wickedness pained Him to His heart. Pope Francis, after meeting with survivors from sexual abuse by Catholic priests declared that “God Weeps”.

2. I'm Chasing After A Dream: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars; Loren Barrigar – Bass; Shelby Eicher – Violin; Isaac Eicher – Mandolin; Mike Munford - Banjo
Running Time: 3:34
Tempo and Style: Straight out hard driving bluegrass with a great melody, chorus, and four world class leads respectively from mandolin, banjo, fiddle, and guitar.
Premise and Background: Song about being absolutely committed to following your dream and feeling called to be the one to fulfill that dream.

3. Lovers Song: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars
Running Time: 4:31
Tempo and Style: Folk style fingerpicking song, with a simple and beautiful melody and classic chorus.
Premise and Background: Story about the meeting of a young man and woman, as strangers, find love, and following them to where they will ache for their own children until they too find love.

4. Rise Again: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars; Loren Barrigar – Bass; Mike Munford - Banjo
Running Time: 3:44
Tempo and Style: Country/Bluegrass with guitar and banjo fills. Strong, resounding melody and chorus.
Premise and Background: Story about a South Dakota family which loses their farm to the dust storms of 1988. The father’s determination that “we will rise again” guide his son in life. Inspirational.

5. Live in Love: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars
Running Time: 5:49
Tempo and Style: Upbeat open guitar number with beautiful 2-guitar leads
Premise and Background: Wedding song with blessings, inspiration and guidance for a couple as they share their vows. The hook is “Live in Grace, live in awe, live in love”.

 
6. There's No Limit: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars; Loren Barrigar – Bass
Running Time: 3:49
Tempo and Style: Acoustic jazz song – harkening to James Taylor
Premise and Background: Inspirational song describing that there are no limits to how much each individual can: Know; Feel; Achieve; and Love. And concluding that love is the basis for the other three.

7. When the Fiddles Start To Play: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars; Loren Barrigar– Bass; Rickie Simpkins - Violin
Running Time: 3:27
Tempo and Style: Upbeat Acoustic Country – with slight Cajun influence. Amazing and inspiring fiddle work by Rickie Simpkins. Great leads.
Premise and Background: Setting aside the mundane chores and spending a night out with the one you love dancing to great music.

8. No Other Woman: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars; Loren Barrigar – Bass
Running Time: 4:11
Tempo and Style: Slow, melodic, with steel guitar-type fills from the acoustic guitars. Beautiful 3 part harmonies.
Premise and Background: Inspirational song of commitment, dedication and love from a husband to his wife.

9. Flight: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars; Loren Barrigar – Bass; Mike Munford - Banjo
Running Time: 5:30
Tempo and Style: Upbeat, open feel acoustic guitars and banjo – stylistically harkening to John Denver
Premise and Background: Autobiographical story about hiking in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado and stumbling across an eagle’s nest, launching a full grown golden eagle into flight among the peaks. Inspirational and upbeat.

10. Slicing the Crests: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars; Loren Barrigar – Bass
Running Time: 4:42
Tempo and Style: Acoustic jazz – very upbeat
Premise and Background: Escaping from the everyday drudgery to an inspiring Caribbean cruise.

11. Lavender: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars; Loren Barrigar – Bass; Shelby Eicher – Violin; Isaac Eicher - Mandolin
Running Time: 3:40
Tempo and Style: Slow acoustic with major 7th chords. Fills from fiddle and mandolin.
Premise and Background: Semi-autobiographical – about a woman raising a family, but reminiscing about her time as a youth in France. Not realizing she is “more beautiful today than that questioning girl in the photo”. Touching and inspiring.

12. Beyond All Time: Richard Smith - Guitar
Running Time: 3:31
Tempo and Style: Just fingerpicking guitar and vocals. Slower, intimate.
Premise and Background: Heart to heart from an individual to his/her spouse, unable to promise specific outcomes in life, but re-committing the one thing that is under his/her control – unchanging love. Inspiring.

 
13. Lemon and Ginger: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars; Loren Barrigar – Bass
Running Time: 4:04
Tempo and Style: Slow retro jazz with very interesting chord structure and melody
Premise and Background: Song to spouse (could be a duet) remembering “When first we fell in love”. 1930s feel to it. Rich and inspiring.

14. Snow Goose: Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars; Shelby Eicher – Violin; Isaac Eicher - Mandolin
Running Time: 4:51
Tempo and Style: Simple chords, fast strumming and amazing mandolin and fiddle fills with a guitar, mandolin, and fiddle vamp at the end.
Premise and Background: Based on an article about two snow geese that had been tagged on Bylot Isle in Arctic Canada, and were again found together in Delaware, 2500 miles south. Snow geese bond for life.

15. Tecumseh's Poem; Loren Barrigar & Mark Mazengarb – Guitars; Loren Barrigar – Bass; Rob Ickes – Dobro; Mike Munford - Banjo
Running Time: 5:44
Tempo and Style: Slow and driving song building up to a crescendo and victorious ending. Fills from guitar, banjo, and dobro.
Premise and Background: Based on a poem written by Chief Tecumseh of the Shawnee (1768-1813). The poem gives guidance not only on how to live one’s life, but also on how to encounter one’s death “Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home”. This is the final song on the project and provides a powerful and stirring finish to the 2 cd set.