2007 has been a very good year for Jason Davis. This 18 year old banjo player was chosen to pick with the newly-formed Grasstowne as 2006 was drawing to a close, and has gotten rave reviews for his playing on their debut CD, The Road Headin’ Home.

He has almost completed his debut solo project, Stepping Out, expected on Pinecastle in the fall of this year. Just a bit of final mixing is left before the master is turned over to the label.

Jason tells us that the new CD will be roughly half vocal and half instrumental, and he has assembled quite a cast of supporting artists to help him on this project. Bandmates Alan Bibey (mandolin) and Phil Leadbetter (dobro) are featured, along with Tim Stafford on guitar, Zak McLamb on bass, Alan Perdue on mandolin, and Ron Stewart, Justen Haynes and Greg Luck on fiddle.

Handling the vocal chores is a stout chorus as well: Russell Moore, Steve Gulley, Junior Sisk and Jeff Parker.

The material is a mix of old and new, and Jason is very pleased with the songs he recorded.

“I wrote a couple of instrumentals, and we cut one really cool tune that Alan Bibey wrote. The vocals are all older songs that haven’t been cut in forever.

I’m really excited about this CD, and thank the folks at Pinecastle for giving me the chance to do it.”

We’ll be sure to post back with more definite news about a release date once it is announced.