Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Banjos















Not too long ago we got Paul Brown (whom many of you have heard reading the news on NPR) to come out and put some clawhammer banjo on the recording project. He did a great job and said that learning and playing on the Nepali song was surprisingly like Appalachian Old-Time. He said the music on the project was not only fascinating, but sounded really great too.















Then just this last week while Danny and I were teaching bluegrass music at McDaniel College’s “Common Ground” program, we had a chance to work and perform with Tony Trischka. In case there is anyone out there who might not know, he is a phenomenal player as well as a really nice guy. We told him about Gandharbas and the Mountain Music Project, and he was really interested in the music. We played him some of the project so far and he volunteered to put a finger-style banjo track on the project. He is such a master of his instrument and such a respected musician, we are really happy to have him on board. This CD is going to be a landmark album introducing the music of the Gandharbas to the world of traditional style music in the United States.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Abigail Washburn! Aaron & Matthew Olwell!















Well, here is yet another exciting post from Tara and Danny on the CD recording project. We have recorded Aaron Olwell on the wooden flute and his brother Matthew Olwell on Appalachian style foot percussion in Charlottesville, VA.
























From there we recorded Abigail Washburn’s vocals in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. She did an amazing job of lead and harmony singing in that cutting-edge old-time style of hers. This is going to be one hot CD when it comes out. A must-have for every household!


Sunday, March 04, 2007

Curtis Burch and Tim O'Brien!

This is an update from Tara and Danny. We just got back to Virginia from a fun-filled week of recording bluegrass musicians for the MMP’s CD project. (Since we are multi-tracking the recording, we are able to add people here for the US side of the fusion project.)



First we went to Bowling Green, Kentucky, to the home of Curtis Burch. For those of you who may not know the world of bluegrass music, Curtis is a Grammy award winning musician and a really fun guy. He used to be in The New Grass Revival and is known far and wide as Dr. Dobro. He recorded some great dobro tracks and did a great job of blending with the Nepali musicians recorded back in Kathmandu.



Then we headed down to “Music City USA” (Nashville, Tennessee), where we went to Tim O’Brien’s house. Tim is another Grammy award winning musician and a great bluegrass and old-time picker and singer. He added a lead vocal on one song, harmony vocal on another, a mandola part, and a great fiddle and vocal combination to parallel the sarangi and vocal number that Buddhiman recorded in Nepal. He was a delight to work with and has a real gift at finding just the right thing to add to bring out the best in the music.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Danny's CD Release Party and MMP Fundraiser


Hey folks, Danny's celebrating the release of his new CD, "Roots and Branches" with a concert at The Old Stone School in Hillsboro, VA on February 10th.

If you're in the area, come on down and check out the rockin' lineup of phenomenal musicians. Zan McLeod (guitar and bouzouki), Ralph Gordon (bass), Nate Leath and Dave VanDeventer (fiddle), Rex McGee (banjo), and Matthew Olwell (percussion and percussive dance) will be joining Danny for some bluegrass, Irish, jazz and old-time.


There will be artwork on display by Melissa Foster who did the cover art for Roots and Branches. And of course we'll also have some Mountain Music Project t-shirts and an information booth with some photos and video from our expedition.

The Old Stone School is located at 37098 Charlestown Pike in Hillsboro, VA. Doors open at 7 PM. Showtime at 8 PM.

In other Mountain Music Project news, bassist Mark Schatz added some tracks to the fusion CD we started in Nepal. If you haven't heard of Mark, he's twice been named the International Bluegrass Music Association's bass player of the year. We'll keep you posted as more musicians join in the fun.