Rounder Records has announced details of the debut release by Danny Paisley and the Southern Grass. The CD entitled The Room Over Mine (#0589) is scheduled for release on June 24. It is the band’s first release since signing with Rounder Records in August 2005.

Recorded during three separate sessions at Bias Studios, Springfield, Virginia, the material featured on the album comes from the classic country music period, a more recent country song, old band favourites, two instrumentals and a couple of newly written songs.

Of the newer songs, there is one penned by Chris Stuart and Ivan Rosenberg, Don’t Throw Mamma’s Flowers Away, and a Stan Keach song that is tailor-made for the Southern Grass treatment, The Drowning Sailor.

Other tracks include Raising Cain In Texas, a song that singer Gene Watson recorded and was a Top Twenty hit on the Billboard country chart for him in 1980, which Danny arranged Jimmy Martin-style and a few older country songs: The Convict And The Rose, written by Betty Chapin and Robert A. King and recorded by Marty Robbins and Charlie Moore among others; At the End of a Long Lonely Day, a song that Danny’s father recorded, but now done in a different way and with different lyrics; I Thought I Heard You Calling My Name, done in a honky-tonk style with walking bass; A Memory of You, another song that Bob Paisley sang and that was previously recorded by Jim and Jesse; I’m Coming Back But I Don’t Know When, a song Danny first heard done by Charlie Monroe and Another Bridge to Burn, a song that A&R man Ken Irwin sent Danny’s way. Donnie Eldreth Jr. does a great job singing this song from the repertoires of Little Jimmy Dickens and Ray Price.

The band do a reprise of the popular The Room Over Mine, recorded a few years ago for one of Bob Paisley’s Brandywine CDs, and Leaving Detroit, a Charlie Moore song that Danny did for Rounder [Rounder 0142, 1981], along with a couple of old instrumentals, Sweet Potato Rag and Mountain Sally Ann, the latter of which finds Bobby Lundy using a special banjo tuning to get an old-time sound.

Paisley is understandably delighted ……….

“I am very pleased with the new album. I feel the recording caught the sound and feel of the band perfectly. With producer Ken Irwin’s help, we were able to record some old songs that I’ve wanted to do for some time. Some are straight out hard-driving bluegrass, while others are old country tunes which we have reworked and made fresh again.”

The Southern Grass comprises Danny Paisley (guitar, lead and tenor vocals), Michael Paisley (upright bass), TJ Lundy (fiddle), Bobby Lundy (banjo and baritone vocals) and Donnie Eldreth Jr. (mandolin, lead and tenor vocals). Also included on the sessions was-former-band-member Josh Daniels (guitar), who toured with The Southern Grass for a little over a year.

The band has been very busy on the road, with club dates a new feature of their schedule. On a grander scale the band has visited Europe and played as the headline act at 10th European World of Bluegrass Festival, Voorthuizen, The Netherlands, in May, and played several dates in Australia, most notably the Harrietville Bluegrass Convention, last November. Arrangements are already in place for a busy summer, including an appearance at an Irish music festival in early September.

You can find their full schedule on the band’s web site.