Keith Garrett and Chris West of Blue Moon Rising will be the guests on this week’s Track-By-Track program on Bluegrass Junction.

Their latest CD, One Lonely Shadow, was released almost exactly one year ago on Lonesome Day Records, but did not receive a lot of publicity when it first came out. The music, much of it written by Garrett and West, is soulfully played and beautifully recorded – surely one of my very favorite records of ‘08.

If you haven’t heard it, be sure to catch them on Track-By-Track this morning (8/19) at 11:00 a.m., or toorrow (8/20) at 9:00 p.m. It will air one last time on Sunday (8/23) at 11:00 a.m. All times EDT.

Bluegrass Junction can be heard on Sirius Channel 65 or XM track 14.

You can find audio samples from One Lonely Shadow in iTunes.

Cadillac Sky will be the featured guests on a special Saturday edition of Blue Plate Special on WDVX tomorrow (1/24).

The show will also include a performance from Chris West and Keith Garrett, the creative locus – and singing/songwriting power team – of Blue Moon Rising.

WDVX broadcasts from Knoxville, TN on 102.9 FM and can also be heard live online via audio streaming.

Blue Plate Special typically airs at noon during the week, but this Saturday edition is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. (EST).

Blue Moon Rising is celebrating last month’s release of their 4th recording, One Lonely Shadow, with a CD release party tonight (8/22) at The Shed in Maryville, TN.

The new album has been getting strong airplay from bluegrass radio, and the band is hoping to meet a lot of fans and friends at this evening’s show.

There are no audio samples up on the band or the label (Lonesome Day) web sites, but they have created a video to introduce the guys and the music from the new CD.

iTunes users can hear audio clips from One Lonely Shadow in the iTunes Music Store.

Blue Moon Rising will be releasing their latest album, One Lonely Shadow (Lonesome Day Records), on July 29.

The East Tennessee based band, whose name is derived from the title of a newspaper article commemorating the life of the Father of Bluegrass Music, Bill Monroe, has three previous albums and One Lonely Shadow is the second for the Lonesome Day Records label.

The CD consists of 13 songs and was engineered by Mike Latterell and jointly produced by Latterell, Cody Kilby, Randall Deaton, and Blue Moon Rising. Guitarist Chris West contributed five songs; the evil murder song, The Hanging Tree; I Grew Up Today; Five More Days of Rain; the Gospel song, Revival [co-written with Steve Gulley] and Good Time for Going Home. Mandolin player Keith Garrett wrote the love song, Angeline.

The remaining songs are from a diverse group of writers; the eloquent Bruce Springsteen (contributing Youngstown), the late Townes Van Zandt (Marie), Canadian Fred Eaglesmith (Freight Train), Bill Castle (Stone Cold Loneliness), Ronnie Bowman (Blue Moon Rising), Verlin Thompson (I Will Come Back Again) and Robbie Fulks (Where There’s a Road).

A couple of the songs have already enjoyed some radio play around the nation from a special pre-release sampler sent out by Lonesome Day Records and Where There’s a Road has reached No. 4 on the Sirius Bluegrass countdown.

West can’t wait for the release date ‚Ķ‚Ķ.

“In my humble opinion, this is the best recording by Blue Moon Rising to date. There’s a lot of songs on there that fans of ours would immediately recognize as our style of song, but there’s also several songs that were outside our normal realm of music that will hopefully endear some new fans and help to build a much broader fan base. The production is high with guest musicianship and vocals provided by Randy Kohrs, Tim Crouch, Mike Bub, Cody Kilby, Steve Gulley, Ron Stewart and Dale Ann Bradley.”

The current members of Blue Moon Rising are Chris West (vocals and guitar), Keith Garrett (vocals and mandolin), Justin Jenkins (vocals and banjo) and recent recruit Harold Nixon, formerly with J.D. Crowe & the New South, (bass).