Kentucky Bluegrassers NewTown bring hard-traveled backroad tales to life on their new CD, HARLAN ROAD (Mountain Home Music Company). Produced by multi-Grammy Award winner Barry Bales, the 11-track outing, due in stores on July 8, combines fresh, down-to-earth songs, complex instrumentation and mesmerizing vocals that offer listeners a feast for the senses.
Fans can pre-order the CD now on iTunes.
The Lexington-based band is fronted by award-winning fiddler Kati Penn and her husband, Jr. Williams, a respected banjo player. The two split lead vocal duties and present powerful performances on this moving musical journey. Highlights abound and include Hayes Griffin's trailblazing instrumental "Feast Of The Gryphon" - an explosion of exquisite pickin' that jumps the groove in its intensity. Kati slides to the sultry with her "old school" Rock-inflected take of Lucinda Williams' hit, "Can't Let Go" (written by Randy Weeks), brims with confidence on the Americana vibe of Sarah Siskind's "Wildfire," and haunts the hills and valleys with a stunning performance of Tyler Childers' magnificent, "The Crows And The Jakes." The disc's title track, a minor-key miracle of loneliness and longing written again by Childers, is brought to life by Jr.'s gritty desperation, while the Bluegrass/Funk of his transcendent take on C.J. Cain's "Drifter Blues" proves his versatility. On another Childers' composition, the banjo-laden "Hard Times," Williams brings the heartache of coal country to stark reality.
TRACK LISTING:
1. All That I Can Take
2. Can't Let Go
3. Harlan Road
4. The Heart You've Been Tending
5. Hard Times
6. The Feast Of The Gryphon
7. The Crows And The Jakes
8. Drifter Blues
9. Wildfire
10. Castaway
11. Come Back To Me
Rounding out the band are Travis Anderson (bass), Mitchell Cannon (mandolin) and Hayes Griffin (guitar). Between them, they bring Jazz, Bluegrass and Contemporary disciplines to the music, completing the diverse and textured sound that is NewTown. This highly-anticipated album will not disappoint.
