It’s not likely that anyone would challenge the talent of Keith Sewell. As a picker and singer, he’s worked with Ricky Skaggs, James Taylor, Sam Bush, Marty Stuart, Jerry Douglas and The Dixie Chicks.

His songs have been cut by Skaggs, Montgomery Gentry and Sonya Isaacs, and Love Is A Journey, his debut solo project, was released on Skaggs Family Records in 2005.

He is also a gifted songwriter, an impressive multi-instrumentalist and a persuasive vocalist, yet large-scale success in the business has so far eluded his grasp.

Keith’s latest CD, The Way Of A Wanderer, is just out and if there is any justice in the music world (I know…), 2010 should be a breakout year for Sewell. It’s a fabulous project that showcases his varied abilities, tied together thematically, and recorded/mixed to take full advantage of the blended bluegrass and progressive country genres where he has plied his trade.

The new album includes 11 new songs, all written by Sewell, 4 as co-writes with Niall Toner. Keith produced, provided the vocals and played the bulk of the instruments (guitar, mandolin, banjo, fiddle, bass and minimalist keyboards). Rob Ickes guests on resonator guitar and Luke Bulla provides fiddle on 2 tracks.

Sewell grew up in a Texas bluegrass family, and learned to play as a boy, trailing his grandfather Kenny Sewell to festivals all over the US where he performed with The Shady Grove Ramblers. Young Keith showed an interest in all of the bluegrass instruments, becoming proficient on banjo, madnolin, fiddle and guitar while still in school. At age 19, he went to work for Ricky Skaggs in his country band, which brought him to the attention of the Nashville acoustic scene as well.

The Way Of A Wanderer struck me as being more relaxed and coherent than his first CD, an observation that caught Keith off guard.

“I haven’t really thought about this record as having a bit more relaxed feel but that’s an interesting observation. I do think the songs are more personal and retrospective this time. I will say that I rarely set out to write a song with a title or a ‘hook’ in mind. For me, It’s always a riff or a melody that sets the mood for what I wanna say. ( Then I have to figure out what I wanna say- a chore sometimes).

I also didn’t intend to play most of the instruments starting out. I was really laying things down in a ‘pre-production’ mindset, but the further I got into the project, I couldn’t hear the parts being replaced. I think I understood the songs and where they where going, so the parts I played really became signatures to the outcome.  My wife was encouraging me also. She was like, ‘why wouldn’t you just play the instruments that you can play?

I feel like my Grandfather would have wanted me to play fiddle on a few tunes anyway.” (more…)

Hadley Music Group, who recently released Walk This Mountain Down, their second CD from Donna Ulisse, has also created a web video to showcase Donna and the new album.

It was produced by String Theory Media in Nashville, and includes interviews with Donna, CD producer Keith Sewell and Ed Morris of CMT. Ulisse talks about how she fell in love with bluegrass and mountain music as a child, and how she rediscovered it again years later.

The video runs six and a half minutes and includes several pieces of music from the new CD.

The mailing to journalists of the Donna Ulisse CD Walk This Mountain Down (Hadley Music Group) is imminent. Promo mailings for this album “should be in another week or so,” according to Kathy Anderson of the Hadley Music Group.

Donna has been working on Walk This Mountain Down for the past year, writing and recording the album with her producer Keith Sewell. She collaborated with fellow writers Rick Stanley, her husband, regular co-writer and cousin to Ralph, along with Marc Rossi, Dennis K. Duff and Richard Leigh, as well as writing two on her own. Once again there are many stories around the songs and, as always, there are a couple of gospel songs included.

Helping out in the recording studio were Keith Sewell, on acoustic guitar; Rob Ickes, on resonator guitar; Andy Leftwich, on mandolin and fiddle; Scott Vestal, on banjo; and Byron House, on upright bass, rightly described as the cream of the crop.

Several of Ulisse’s friends – Claire Lynch, Jerry Salley, Curtis Wright, Keith Sewell, Wendy Buckner Sewell and Rick Stanley – are featured singing harmony.

One of the tracks, the song Poor Mountain Boy, a Ulisse-Stanley composition, is included on the latest Prime Cuts of Bluegrass compilation CD, just released to bluegrass radio.

Walk This Mountain Down will be sent to radio stations in January of 2009 just prior to general release on February 10.

Donna and her band, lovingly dubbed The Poor Mountain Boys after the afore-mentioned song, but known individually as Robin Roller (banjo), Scott Neubert (resonator guitar, guitar and harmony vocals), Rick Stanley (guitar and vocal harmony), Bobby King (upright bass) and Matt Raum (mandolin), played an official showcase set at the recent IBMA WoB Convention.

For additional information about Donna Ulisse visit www.DonnaUlisse.com.

We hear from Hadley Music Group that Donna Ulisse was recently back in the studio with producer/guitarist Keith Sewell and Andy Leftwich on fiddle and mandolin laying down some basic tracks on new songs she had written.

Ulisse discussed this in a recent interview…

“I like to do pre-production work on everything I write that I am considering for a future project – just to get a feel for all of the possibilities of the song with more instrumentation. Sometimes a song will take a whole new direction with the creative energy of the musicians involved. Plus, it gives my publisher a good demo for our song plugger Matt Lindsey to pitch to other artists because as a songwriter, it is a thrill for me to have other artists record my songs.”

Donna is currently promoting her first release, When I Look Back, to bluegrass radio, and has been writing for her second bluegrass project, which will get underway early next year. Hadley Music Group says that a summer ‘08 release is expected.