Claire Lynch will be featured in an interview Friday morning (10/16) with Carol Beaugard on her Lonesome Pine RFD program on WFDU, broadcasting in the New York City metro market.

Carol spoke with Claire about her latest Rounder CD, Whatcha Gonna Do, which was released on September 15. They will also play some tracks from the new album during the show.

Here is a brief sample of Claire’s remarks from the interview…

“This truly is a quantum leap for the band. We wanted the album to reflect a very pared down, ‘band’ sound and it gives each of the members a chance to really shine. Our sound is broader. The Americana market is really established now and the album fits a wide range of tastes and we’ve been so delighted with the response we’re getting. The album appeals to so many different audiences – people that love bluegrass, country and folk music and that’s so gratifying. As artists we want to play to as many people as possible and offer them music that sings to their hearts.

We were especially pleased with the wonderful feedback we got from all the bluegrass DJs we met recently at the IBMA WOB conference just held in Nashville. So many of the DJs made a point to let us know how much they loved the album and they really welcomed the material and our sound as ‘refreshing’. It was great to see how much the bluegrass audience loves the album.”

Lonesome Pine RFD runs from 9:00 a.m. to noon, with Claire’s interview set to run at 11:00. You can listen over the air at 89.1 FM in NYC, or online via live streaming at www.wfdu.fm. The show is archived for two weeks on the WFDU site should you miss it in real time.

The new CD from Claire Lynch hit today (9/15) from Rounder Records.

Never one to shy away from her southern roots, the album is titled Whatcha Gonna Do, taken from the name of one of the tracks. Her voice, both speaking and singing, reveals itself as belonging to a Gentle Southern Lady, which, of course, she is. Living now near Nashville, she was born and raised in northern Alabama where her musical skills were honed.

I first ran into Claire in the late 1970s when she was fronting the modern bluegrass group Front Porch String Band. Both her band and one I was in at the time competed at the first Kentucky Fried Chicken bluegrass band competition in Louisville, KY. She struck me then as a sincerely gracious as well as a talented person, and nothing in the intervening years has challenged that first impression.

This new CD shows what happens when you combine wonderful songs with a gifted and expressive vocalist. As has been her wont, Lynch puts little in the way of these two crucial elements. The arrangements are understated, the performances restrained, with the end result being that the listener is left appreciating what’s important – the singing and the songs.Her band is composed of such virtuoso musicians as Jim Hurst, Marck Schatz and Jason Thomas in her band, and their contributions are always supportive rather than swaggering or showboating.

Claire produced this CD, as she has her previous few recordings, and wrote or co-wrote four of the twelve songs on Whatcha Gonna Do. One is a duet with pop singer/songwriter Jesse Winchester on his song, That’s What Makes You Strong, a collaboration she has returned in kind.

“We met Jesse around a year before the recording at a festival where we were both playing in Florida, although I had known of his career and was acquainted with some of his songwriting for a long time. We were stricken with his poignant, powerfully gentle performance and blown away by his songs. In greeting him backstage, we were delighted to find out he was equally impressed with what we had done during our show. Thus began our mutual admiration.

Not only did Jesse sing on my new record, but I had an opportunity to sing on his most recent release, Love’s Filling Station, too.”

To give a taste of the breadth of material covered on this CD, here are three audio samples along with Lynch’s reflections on the songs.

My Florida Sunshine – Listen Now    

“My Florida Sunshine is the grassiest cut on the album and really stands by itself without any other songs on the project that feel akin to it. So some may think we put it on there to defend ‘the bluegrass turf.’  Not so, really. I just have always loved the song and thought it was cool. (more…)

There is an embarrassment of riches this Friday (5/15) for folks who can tune in to online radio and TV during business hours. We’ll highlight each of several special programs featuring bluegrass artists in the next few postings.

First up is Carol Beaugard’s Lonesome Pine RFD which airs on WFDU in the New York City metro market. The show airs from 9:00 a.m until noon (EDT) and Carol will speak with both Tony Trischka and Claire Lynch about their plans for the rest of ‘09.

Tony will be on the line at 9:15 to talk about the Tony Trischka School of Banjo, a new online instructional site which will launch this summer. Carol also plans to ask him about his work on Steve Martin’s recent banjo CD, The Crow.

Then at 11:00, Claire Lynch will join Carol to break the news about a new Rounder project she expects to have this fall.

Catch Carol et al. on Lonesome Pine RFD at 89.1 FM in the NYC area, and streamed live online at WFDU.fm.

Claire Lynch will join host Darwin Davidson on tonight’s (3/26) edition of Bronzewound, broadcast each Thursday evening on WERU FM, community radio for coastal Maine.

The show airs at 8:00 p.m. (EDT) on 89.9 and 109.9 FM, and via live online streaming at WERU.org.

Expect Darwin to spin tracks from Claire’s most recent CD release, Crowd Favorites, and talk about her plans for 2009 and beyond.