Sam Bush
Circles Around Me
Release date: 10/20/09
Circles Around Me, Bush’s eighth solo album and sixth with Sugar Hill, was released Oct. 20. The album is an aurally inspiring mix of bluegrass favorites and complementary new songs. “I don’t know why, but it felt right at this moment in my life to go back and revisit some things that I’ve loved all my life, which are bluegrass and, unapologetically, newgrass,” says Bush. “After all these years of experimenting —and there’s experimentation on this record too —I’ve come full circle.”
Produced by three-time Grammy winner Bush, the 14-song set includes appearances by Del McCoury, Edgar Meyer, Jerry Douglas and, thanks to the discovery of an old demo, New Grass Revival co-founder Courtney Johnson (posthumously). The album also employs the phenomenal talent of Bush’s band: Scott Vestal, Stephen Mougin, Byron House and Chris Brown.
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Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Speed Of Life
Release date: 9/22/09
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band — the iconic and profoundly influential group often cited as the catalysts for an entire movement in country and roots music — released their first studio album in five years, Speed of Life, on September 22. The new record presents the band in their signature laid back style, anchored by the deft musicianship, diverse songwriting, and genuine vocal styles of the core band of Jeff Hanna, Jimmie Fadden, Bob Carpenter, and John McEuen.
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Adam Steffey
One More For The Road
Release date: 9/22/09
One of the most widely admired and undoubtedly influential mandolin players of his generation, Adam Steffey released his Sugar Hill Records debut on September 22nd with One More For The Road. His first solo album in eight years, the project balances instrumentals with vocal numbers and carefully chosen classics with strong originals, all given compelling readings by Steffey and a brilliantly chosen supporting cast, including former bandmates from Alison Krauss & Union Station and Mountain Heart alongside current colleagues in the Dan Tyminski Band.
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Bryan Sutton
“Bryan Sutton and Friends … Almost Live”
Release date: 7/14/09
Hailed as one of the finest guitarists of his generation, GRAMMY® award winner Bryan Sutton brings together esteemed players and artists including Béla Fleck, Chris Thile, Tim O’Brien, Hot Rize, and Russ Barenberg on his new album Almost Live. The musicians in these sessions reflect just how central Bryan Sutton has become to acoustic music, not so many years after arriving as the fireballing flatpicker in the influential bluegrass revival band, Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder.
“The aim was to keep these meet-ups simple and spontaneous—to channel the synergy they’d built on stage in the reassuring comfort of the studio. The results have a sizzle and depth that’s hard to
capture or define.” –taken from the liner notes by Craig Havighurst
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Sarah Jarosz
“Song Up In Her Head”
Release date: 6/16/09
Nashville, TN (March 4th, 2009) – Eighteen-year-old Texas native Sarah Jarosz emerged on the scene about five years ago as someone to watch. Jamming onstage with bluegrass icons David Grisman and Ricky Skaggs, she played her mandolin with a sure touch and real joy. It looked and sounded comfortable in her then twelve-year-old hands. She started writing songs on the guitar and took up the banjo. While her instrumental talents are formidable, let’s make one thing clear: Sarah is a singer. Her voice is velvety smooth, agile, and powerful occasionally reminiscent of such disparate artists as Natalie Maines and Patty Griffin. With subtle use of colors and effects, she inhabits her songs the way a fine actress does her role. Overall, her music feels good, avoids overreaching. Nothing’s contrived.
Having just graduated from high school, Sarah is that rare self-possessed teenager. Her schoolteacher parents have raised her well, providing the skills, support, and freedom to become the confident artist that she is. Beautiful, talented, and just a little mysterious in a wholesome, Texas hill country kinda way, Sarah is at home in this world. She knows what she’s about and is ready to get out there and make her mark.
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Maura O’Connell
Naked With Friends
Release Date: June 16, 2009
Grammy-nominated O’Connell worked with co-producer Gary Paczosa on a concept she’s carried in her heart for quite some time: an a cappella album. “I’ve gathered the consciousness that singing should be just fine, that it is a viable talent on its own,” the singer says of the 13-song collection.
Though unaccompanied by musicians, O’Connell is keeping company with guest vocalists including Alison Krauss, Dolly Parton, Paul Brady, Mary Black, Tim O’Brien and Darrell Scott. And not only is ace dobro man and longtime collaborator Jerry Douglas singing on this disc, he is singing in the Irish language.
For O’Connell, making records has always been about the songs. Naked With Friends again represents her keen song selection aptitude and features five traditional songs in both English and Irish as well as tracks by songwriters Elvis Costello, Janis Ian, Darrell Scott, Joan Armatrading and Cheryl Wheeler. It took nearly three years — and many trips to Ireland — to record several of the album’s tracks.
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Red Stick Ramblers - My Suitcase Is Always Packed
Release Date: May 19, 2009
Nashville, TN (March 12th, 2009) - The Red Stick Ramblers return on May 19th with My Suitcase Is Always Packed, their fifth album and second for Sugar Hill Records. That rare young roots band that both embodies and transcends their influences, The Red Stick Ramblers continue to hone their unique hybrid of Cajun, honky-tonk, and swing (Western and otherwise) on their most visceral, personal album yet. The eleven new originals (in both English and Cajun French) are structurally daring and lyrically evocative, while still resounding proudly with the echoes of the traditions that inspired them. A pair of vintage Cajun numbers cement the band’s undeniable affection for and mastery of classic Louisiana music.
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Chris Pandolfi - Looking Glass
Release Date: May 19, 2009
Nashville, TN (May 14th, 2009) - Chris Pandolfi can recall with precision the moment when what would become his career began. “I went to see Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, and I was blown away by this unbelievable creativity. It was inspiring to see these guys have these musical conversations on stage, and that was all it really took,” he says with a smile. “I bought this banjo from a guy, brought it home and opened the case—and just looked at it for half an hour, because I had no idea of what it was meant to do.”
Today, it’s a different story. Barely a decade since he first wondered what to do with a banjo, Chris Pandolfi has become one of its modern masters, touring the world with the award-winning Infamous Stringdusters—and now releasing Looking Glass, a tightly knit collection of tunes that’s sure to cement that reputation. Featuring his Stringdusters compadres and a small set of musical friends and heroes that includes fiddle genius Stuart Duncan, Punch Brothers guitarist (and former roommate) Chris “Critter” Eldridge, bassist Byron House (Sam Bush Band) and mandolin maestro Matt Flinner, the project presents eleven new tunes that mark Pandolfi as a player and composer to watch.
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The Greencards - Fascination
Release Date: April 21, 2009
With two Australians and an Englishman, THE GREENCARDS are probably the least likely Austin-formed/Nashville-based band you’ve ever heard. Their love and respect for country, Americana, blues and bluegrass brought them together in 2003 and–now signed to Sugar Hill Records–the trio will release their fourth album FASCINATION April 21 and tour extensively throughout 2009.
THE GREENCARDS have already toured with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson, earned the Americana Music Award in 2006 for “Emerging Artist of the Year and in 2008 landed a Grammy nomination (“Best Country Instrumental Performance” for Viridian). Their urge to challenge themselves, to test the limits of any established genre, guided THE GREENCARDS–singer/bassist Carol Young and multiple stringed-instrument master Kym Warner from Australia, and violinist/violist Eamon McLoughlin from the U.K–on their first three albums. FASCINATION—marking their first album to be produced by Jay Joyce–is the band’s most daring accomplishment to date.
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Jeremy Garrett - I Am A Stranger
Release Date: March 31, 2009
“As far back as I can remember, music has been a huge part of my life and I always try to make a mental note when I hear a song that I really like. Some of these songs are from what I have collected through the years, some are my own thoughts, and some are written by personal friends who I respect, admire, and learn from. It really all starts with a song…” - Jeremy Garrett
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Sarah Borges - The Stars Are Out
Release Date: March 24, 2009
On March 24, 2009 Sugar Hill Records will release Sarah Borges & the Broken Singles’ second album for the label, ‘The Stars Are Out.’ The Paul Q. Kolderie (Radiohead, Lemonheads, Juliana Hatfield) produced album is a “fiery” (NY Times) ten song collection of five originals and five choice re-imaginations of Borges’ and Kolderie’s favorites including “Ride With Me” written by fellow Boston native Evan Dando.
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JOEY+RORY
The Life of a Song
Released October 28, 2008
Joey+Rory, along with Grammy-award winning producer Carl Jackson, released their debut album, The Life Of A Song, on October 28th, 2008. Having produced such greats as Alison Krauss and Merle Haggard, Jackson proved the perfect choice to help husband and wife team Rory Feek and Joey Martin create a traditional country album, seasoned with acoustic elements and equal doses of humor and sincerity.
“Working with Joey+Rory is a total joy for me,” states Jackson. “They are the real deal, not an act simply called ‘country’ whose music contradicts that label. What makes it even more special is that I believe the only thing they love more than a great country song is each other.”
Joey+Rory are nothing if not authentic; The Life Of A Song might be listened to as a soundtrack to their simple country lifestyle. The couple resides in an 1870’s farmhouse in tiny Hardison Mill TN, where Joey helps run a nearby family restaurant called Marcy Jo’s Mealhouse. Perfectly in their element, Joey+Rory sing of scuffed cowboy boots (“Boots”), dusty rodeo arenas (“Rodeo”), and cherished vinyl records (“Sweet Emmylou”). They beg the listener to sing or dance along (the brash and buoyant “Cheater Cheater”) before hushing the room with the lovely austerity of “Heart of the Wood.” Even the Lynyrd Skynyrd classic “Free Bird” is putty reinvented in the hands of this pair, as adventurous as they are respectful of country music’s roots.
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KASEY CHAMBERS & SHANE NICHOLSON
Rattlin’ Bones
Released September 16, 2008
Aussie songwriting forces Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson have teamed together for the first time to write and record the country and bluegrass infused ‘Rattlin’ Bones’ out September 16th on Sugar Hill Records, their first for the label.
While both artists have successful solo careers in their native Australia and stateside, the husband and wife duo decided to join forces and create a sparsely produced record that highlights the intertwining of two distinct, yet perfectly harmonized voices in a style honoring their musical roots. The result is ‘Rattlin’ Bones’ – a fourteen song LP featuring nine tracks written collaboratively and the remaining tracks written by either Chambers or Nicholson. The album was produced by Kasey’s brother Nash alongside Nicholson and recorded in just a week’s time in Australia.
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THE DUHKS
Fast Paced World
Released August 19, 2008
Hailed by The New York Times as one of the artists at the forefront of the neo-folk movement, the Duhks continue the evolution with their fourth album, Fast Paced World, (August 19th / Sugar Hill Records). “We traveled from Winnipeg, locked ourselves in a Nashville basement, pooled our ideas together and invented a new sound,” says new frontwoman and bilingual, budding soul queen, Sarah Dugas (she replaced Jessee Havey in 2007).
Produced by Jay Joyce, who joins an impressive line of producers (Béla Fleck, Tim O’Brien) before him, the Duhks have created their most energetic, fully realized, unearthly album to date. Seriously. “Jay’s basement studio was like something out of the Star Trek Enterprise,” adds founder and clawhammer banjoist, Leonard Podolak, who, in the past, “traditionally stuck close to the acoustic sound of our instruments. This record is a beautiful mosaic of different ideas and soundscapes.”
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Silverlined
Available July 8, 2008
Donna the Buffalo is twenty years young this year and as energized as ever. Their 7th record, Silverlined, which was released on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 on Sugar Hill Records, builds on Donna the Buffalo’s signature sound — a bedrock of traditional mountain music infused with elements of Cajun, rock, folk, reggae and country. Throughout Silverlined, these undulating rhythms carry the original lyrics, and alternating vocals, of founding members Tara Nevins and Jeb Puryear along a powerful, mesmerizing current.
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Sugar Hill Records is proud to announce the upcoming release of Feast of the Hunters’ Moon, the debut album from Portland, Oregon-based Black Prairie. Featuring three-fifths of The Decemberists and two of the city’s finest folk stylists, the heavily acoustic debut was produced by Tucker Martine (The Decemberists, Death Cab for Cutie) and embodies the rich sonic landscape of the Portland music scene while integrating the diverse backgrounds of its members. As described by dobroist Chris Funk, the band’s sound “bridges the music of Clarence White and Ennio Morricone” in a way that defies genre characterization.
About the most important question a young bluegrass band faces right out of the gate is whether they can play. The Infamous Stringdusters wasted no time in providing their answer—an emphatic “yes”—winning IBMA Album, Song and Emerging Artist of the Year the very same year they released their debut, Fork In the Road. On Things That Fly, their third album, due out April 20, 2010 on Sugar Hill, they venture into virtually uncharted territory for an acoustic group: a sonically and thematically expansive album that lends itself to absorbed listening from start to finish, much like the great rock albums do.