Bluegrass guitar flatpicker and singer/songwriter Rebecca Frazier spent a lot of time navigating through the Rocky Mountains during her decade as a Colorado resident. On her new single, “High Country Road Trip,” releasing today on Compass Records, she evokes the feeling of freedom and sense of possibility a winding stretch of highway so often provides — not to mention the amazing scenery at an elevation “way up in the clouds.”
“High Country Road Trip” is the third single from Frazier’s upcoming album, Boarding Windows in Paradise, releasing Sept. 13; it’s her first collection of new material since 2013’s When We Fall.
Frazier’s actual high country road trip — a tour through Colorado, plus Tennessee, West Virginia, her native Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, Alabama and Georgia — begins on June 12 with a performance at Lakewood, Colo.’s Bonfils Amphitheater. (See tour dates below.)
According to Frazier, the song also reflects on the idea of living in the moment as one ponders life-changing decisions.
“My whole life has been a counterpoint of going with my gut and enjoying the moment while also considering intention and the bigger picture,” she says. “I grew up on the water in Virginia, so I love going with the flow. But I’ve got a philosophical side that also makes me ask, ‘Where is this leading?’
“This song is meant to capture that moment of joy somewhere in the middle: that elevated feeling of loving the lightness of not knowing what’s around the bend, and not necessarily trying to create a specific outcome.”
Frazier began structuring the song years ago, then asked another former Colorado resident, Rorey Carroll, to help her finish it. “I love how we decided to make the geography very specific — we could both picture that elevated drop on Highway 285, when you’re headed south toward Buena Vista,” Frazier says. “It’s a magical change of perspective.”
Producer Bill Wolf and the high-flying talents of some of bluegrass’s best players helped her capture the excitement of cruising through those mountain passes, anticipating what lies ahead. The track — and most of the album — features Béla Fleck on banjo, Sam Bush on mandolin, Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Barry Bales on bass, Josh Swift on dobro, and Shelby Means and Adam Chaffins on harmony vocals.
In addition to the new single and already released “Make Hay While the Moon Shines” and “Available,” Boarding Windows in Paradise features four more tracks written or co-written by Frazier, along with her version of the traditional, “Saro Jane,” and her transformation of the Roy Orbison hit, “It’s Over.”
A bluegrass luminary herself, Frazier gained notoriety as the first woman to grace the cover of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine. In 2018, she also became the first woman to earn a Guitar Performer of the Year nomination from the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America, an honor she received again in 2019. Frazier is widely known for her work with Colorado-based outfit Hit & Run, the only band to score the bluegrass-world trifecta of winning Rockygrass, Telluride and SPBGMA festival band competitions.
Tour dates
June 12 – Bonfils Amphitheater, Lakewood, Colo.
June 14 – Palisade Bluegrass & Roots Festival, Riverbend Park, Palisade, Colo.
June 15 – Gold Hill Inn, Boulder, Colo.
June 16-21 – Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Kamp, Maryville College, Maryville, Tenn.
July 14-18 – Bluegrass Week, Augusta Heritage Center, Elkins, W.Va.
July 19 – Bone Fire Smokehouse & Musictorium, Abingdon, Va.
July 20 – Doc & Rosa Lee Watson Music Fest, Cove Creek School, Sugar Grove, N.C.
Aug. 30-31 – Four Corners Folk Festival, Pagosa Springs, Colo.
Sept. 10 – Station Inn, Nashville, Tenn.
Sept. 20 – Deer Creek Coffeehouse, Darlington, Md.
Sept. 21 – Berlin Fiddlers Convention, Berlin, Md.
Sept. 21-22 – Maryland Folk Festival, Salisbury, Md.
Oct. 9 – The Spot on Kirk, Roanoke, Va.
Oct. 10 – The Tin Pan, Richmond, Va.
Oct. 11 – Easy Wind Farm, Burgess, Va.
Oct. 20 – Clubhouse on Highland, Birmingham, Ala.
Oct. 24 – White Horse Black Mountain, Black Mountain, N.C.
Oct. 25 – Muddy Creek Café & Listening Room, Winston-Salem, N.C.
Oct. 26 – The Down Home, Johnson City, Tenn.
Nov. 8 – Eddie Owen Presents: Red Clay Music Foundry, Duluth, Ga.
Pre-Order: store.compassrecords.com/products/boarding-windows-in-paradise
