He did release a solo CD, Rivers, in 2001 but his new project has him more excited than any musical project he has produced to date.

Another Day is a duo album with his teenaged daughter, Amanda. She is featured as the primary lead vocalist and fiddler, with Scott on banjo, guitar and vocals. Amanda, now 16, was 15 when this album was recorded, and had only been playing fiddle for two years at the time. The CD has already gotten some rave reviews, and folks in the bluegrass biz are paying attention to this talented young lady.

“Amanda played fiddle and did most of the lead singing, as well as singing one or two harmony parts at times. Amanda’s fiddle teacher and our friend Tommy Slaughter played of some of the tunes with us. The two of them also played fiddle together on Eileen’s Waltz which was written by my friend Mark Schatz, who also played bass on that cut.

Georgia On My Mind was played masterfully on guitar by another teenager, Austin Wilder. Jarrod Walker (yes, another teenager) played rhythm guitar on Looking In the Eyes of Love, and played some fantastic mandolin on several other tracks. Jarrod’s brother Cory Walker played upright bass on one cut and played some really slick resonator guitar on a few tracks. Most people know Cory as a banjo player (he’s now with Sierra Hull), but he is great on several instruments.

My old bandmate David McMillan (with whom I played in The Bluegrass Parlor Band years ago) played some bass and even drum parts on a few tunes and sang some harmony. He also did a great job of engineering and mastering the CD. My buddy Michael Godwin played upright bass on several tracks, including some really cool stuff on Georgia On My Mind.”

Georgia On My Mind – Listen Now

Scott and Amanda also laid down a version of the jam standard, Red Haired Boy, with something of a Celtic flair.

Amanda offers her version of Out Of The Rain, written by Jesee Havey, formerly of The Duhks.

“Most of these songs are covers – just some of our favorites that we had been doing live. The only exception is Tengo Tres Gatos, which came about in sort of a funny way in the studio. We had some headphone interference from a Spanish language station and some of the music got stuck in our heads. After that lick kept coming back to us every time the mics went off, I decided we’d do something with it.

We combined some inspiration from a few years of Spanish classes, Steve Martin, some canned seafood items from Bodega Latina in Tampa, SNL skits, and our friend Christian Smith to come up with the lyrics.  It’s all very poetic.  ”

You can visitAmanda & Scott Anderson online, or sample and download the music from Another Day at DigiStation.

She has just completed the first leg, performing with a group of young bluegrass all-starts, and is now touring with her band, Highway 111, in support of her debut release, Secrets.

Sierra sent along a few photos from the trip so far…

Last year, the members of Donald Grass – a Kawaguchi-based bluegrass band who performs regularly in area schools – asked prominent Japanese bluegrass promoter Saburo “Sab Watanabe” Inoue to become involved in petitioning the Exchange Program to bring young US bluegrass players to Japan for the festival, July 27-28.

The members of Donald Grass came to IBMA’s World Of Bluegrass several times and saw a lot of young pickers enjoying bluegrass there. They thought it’s cool to have those kids for International Exchange program of Kawaguchi. Since Donald Grass is known through their volunteer activity by mayor and city hall officers, they recommended bluegrass kids to the city. Finally for this year, Lilia choose to invite young artists from U.S.A.

Donald Grass asked me to make it happen. So I contacted to Dan and Nancy at IBMA. They were both excited about the plan and introduced me to Bluegrass in the Schools program’s Tom Kopp, and things started last WOB.

We’d like to thank Bridgestone Americas Holdings, Inc and the town of Kawaguchi for the funding.

Nancy Cardwell at IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) tells us that Lilia has invited two young amateur bluegrass groups for 2008, and a band made up from of several exceptional teen professionals.

“IBMA provided a list of high school and college-age based bands we knew of to Sab and the officials in Japan, we helped make the initial contacts to see if they had the dates clear, and then Sab and the gentlemen in Japan selected the groups. During World of Bluegrass last fall, several reps from the city of Kawaguchi and Sab met with Bluegrass in the Schools chair Tom Kopp, Dan Hays and the folks at the Nashville Bridgestone office.”

The amateur bands chosen to participate are the Gallatin County Youth Bluegrass Band of Warsaw, KY (faculty sponsor Kim Samuel) and the Wheeling Park High School Bluegrass Band of Wheeling, WV (faculty sponsor Bob Turbanic).

Also making the trip is a teen supergroup composed of Sierra Hull on mandolin, her brother Cody Hull on guitar, Cory Walker on banjo, his brother Jarrod Walker on lead guitar, Christian Ward on fiddle and his brother Austin Ward on bass. Each has established themself as a true prodigy while still in school, and come from nearly every corner of the US.

Christian shared a few thoughts about the trip…

“Austin and I are really excited to be going to Japan especially with Sierra and the other players who are involved. We met Sierra several years ago at IBMA when were involved with a teen all star band. We’ve stayed in touch each year since. She also spent a week at our house mixing and mastering her CD Secrets at my dad’s recording studio here in Southern CA. We really admire her as a person, player and singer. She is awesome! So, when she asked us to be part of the tour we didn’t spend anytime thinking about it, we answered ‘yes’ immediately.

We really don’t know what to expect which makes it even more exciting! We know the trip will be a interesting cultural experience. Austin and I have toured Europe and the Middle East but this will be our first trip to the far East.”

After the Lilia festival, Sierra will remain in Japan to tour in support of her new CD, Secrets. Cory and Christian will stay on for her touring band, which will also include Shane Blackwell on guitar and Jacob Eller on bass. A list of her tour dates in Japan can be found on Sierra’s web site.

Cory and Sierra have promised to send us photos and some video of the trip, which we will share with everyone on The Bluegrass Blog when we get them.

Hats off to Donald Grass, Sab, IBMA and Bridgestone for pulling this together. It will surely be a memorable experience for the young American pickers, and an inspiration for bluegrass fans and players in Japan.