Biography

Alan Epstein has been playing music since his college days in the early 1970's when his father bought him his first mandolin. Over the past 50 years, he has studied with some of the top mandolin players in the world, and has played and sung in bluegrass bands in Pennsylvania, Colorado, Michigan and in his current home in Upstate New York.

Alan's Notes on the track:
On February 8, 2024 I played my first ever solo gig, at The Rockhill Bakehouse in Glens Falls, NY. I played two sets featuring mandolin tunes and singing bluegrass songs, it was a blast. One of the songs I sang that night was A Year Ago Today, an obscure Hutchison Brothers song, written by JD Hutchison, that I started singing when it first came out back in the late 1970’s.

My solo show was live streamed and the whole experience got me motivated to work on my solo act and it’s been very exciting.

To get things started I wanted to record A Year Ago Today as I think it’s about as good a lonesome bluegrass song as there is and it should be heard and played by a wider audience. I decided to contact Tim O’Brien (back in 1979, when I lived in Colorado, I took mandolin lessons from Tim and knew that he and JD were friends) to find out who was administering JD’s songs since JD passed away a few years ago. Tim connected me with JD’s nephew Zeke, who is administering his song catalogue, and after talking to Zeke I got the ok to record the song whenever I got the chance.

Fast forward to April, I was in North Carolina to teach at a bluegrass camp and I stopped to see my friend Mike Ramsey on the way. His son Aaron (great picker and engineer) was home so I had an opportunity to record A Year Ago Today at their house. I sang and played my lost and found 1922 Gibson F4 mandolin with Aaron playing guitar and also recording us.

I was pleased with the recording, but I also thought it would be cool and truer to the original lonesomeness if it was a vocal duet, as I really like the duet sound. Anyway, one thing led to another and I asked Tim to sing harmony, and he agreed and recorded his vocal part and sent it to Aaron to mix and it’s now available. I feel really lucky to get to work with Aaron and Tim on this project, it was fun.

Credits:
Alan Epstein - mandolin and vocals
Aaron Ramsey - guitar
Tim O'Brien - harmony vocals

recorded in Morganton, NC by Aaron Ramsey
and in Nashville, TN by Tim O'Brien
Mixed by Aaron Ramsey
Recorded in the Spring of 2024
Released June 30, 2024