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…)

Niall Toner has sent along a copy of his latest CD with his band, NTB3, their 3rd CD of Toner’s original music.

Whereas prior releases have featured the Irish singer/songwriter in a bluegrass band setting, this new project is closer to an old time or traditional country sound. Toner is on guitar more than his customary mandolin, with band mates Clem O’Brien on guitar and Dick Gladney on bass. You’ll hear Niall on banjo on one track, Sleeping Beauty, played in his own hybrid pre-bluegrass picking style.

NTB3 will have tremendous appeal to fans of Hank Williams and Jimmie Rodgers. There is even a track, Jimmy Rodger’s Dream [sic], co-written with Peter Rowan, that was explicitly intended as an “in-the-style-of” tribute to The Singing Brakeman.

All the songs are presented in a stark, unpretentious style, again in a nod to the earlier sounds that formed the basis of what we now know as country music.

You can hear audio samples in iTunes, or at Amazon.com.

Niall tells us that he is headed to the US next week for the Americana Music Festival and Conference, where he will be conducting interviews for his radio show, Roots Freeway, aired on RTE Radio in Ireland. He also shared that he has four co-writes on Keith Sewell’s new CD, The Way Of A Wanderer, due for a September 15 release on Rubber Dog Records.

There are several prominent CD releases scheduled for the end of March, and we will have profiles on 3 of them over the next few days. But first, we want to highlight an album that hit late last year.

Long Story Short is the seventh record from Barry & Holly Tashian, singers, songwriters and husband-and-wife. They have written and performed together since 1972, working the folk scene and penning songs for artists as varied as Kenny Rogers, Nashville Bluegrass Band, Jody Stecher and Roland White.

Barry even had a brush with fame during the days of Beatlemania as a member of The Remains, a pop/rock group that was hot in New England in the mid 1960s. They appeared several times on US television and even opened once for the Fab Four.

But that was long ago, and now Barry’s music is far more sedate. The new CD retains the duo’s simple acoustic sound, with a bluegrass edge provided by Mike Compton on mandolin, Matt Combs on fiddle, Mike Henderson on resonator guitar, Ross Sermons on bass and Kenny Malone on percussion.

Holly shared a few words about the songs they chose for this CD, and agreed to allow us to present a few audio samples for readers of The Bluegrass Blog.

“Long Story Short was written with Niall Toner, an Irish bluegrasser who often comes to the US to write with others. He’s is so funny that we spend most of our ‘writing’ time laughing and telling stories. On one occasion he told us that a friend of his recently said to him, referring to his wife: ‘I won’t bore you with all the details, but to make a long story short, she’s gone.’

We thought, now there’s a good idea for a song and started to write it, but with all the joke telling, we didn’t get very far. So Barry and I worked on the song for a few months and sent various versions of it to Niall back in Ireland. We finally finished it and his band recorded it on their new album. It wasn’t until we recorded it that we realized that the tag line should be ‘to make a short story long, she’s gone,’ so our version of the song is a little different.

Long Story Short – Listen now:

We also wrote The Promise with Niall. He gave us the melody and asked if we could write the lyrics and make it sound like an old Carter Family song, since he wanted to enter it in a song contest for Carter Family sounding songs.

So we wrote the lyrics, he entered it in the contest, and it didn’t win…but again he recorded it with his Irish bluegrass band first, then we put it on this album. (more…)

In today’s changing music market, artists, songwriters and producers are all looking for new revenue streams as established ones diminish or dry up. One venue that may not pop up for most bluegrass musicians is the thriving video game market, but that is just where popular Irish grasser Niall Toner finds one of his tunes featured.

His tune, Nuns Island Reel, is included in the audio track for the new edition of the Grand Theft Auto franchise (Grand Theft Auto IV), which has been setting sales records since its release in April.

Niall gives us the run down on how this came to be…

“I composed the tune in the normal course of my song-writing and tune-composing, and it was recorded in a demo session at Paul Ashe-Browne’s studio in Dublin’s Canal Street in the mid 90s. On that day we recorded four tunes, The Belles Of Aer Rianta, Dodder Valley Waltz, Elancyl’s Hornpipe and Nuns Island Reel. [So-called because my Dad was born and raised on Nuns Island in Galway City]

These tunes are all part of my Publishing deal with Bardis Music in Dublin, and my Publisher, Peter Bardon, would have been ‘pitching’ this material, and my other country and bluegrass songs, to producers, artists and other publishing houses around the world. Several of my songs have been recorded in the past 15 years or so, most notably, from a bluegrass perspective, There’s A Better Way by the Nashville Bluegrass Band, and Josie’s Reel by Special Consensus – plus Mood Swing by Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones, and Working On Love by Albert Lee.

In early 2000, Peter did a sub-publishing deal for about 40 of my compositions with Crucial Music in Los Angeles, a Company run by Tanvi Patel. Tanvi works with Movie makers and a whole variety of music-using Industries in Silicon Valley. In 2005, Tanvi made a pitch to Rockstar, who were beginning to work on GTA4, and they choose Nuns Island Reel for a scene in an Irish Pub in the game. My piece was re-named A Real Real, and the rest, as they say, is history.”

Niall tells us that he has not yet played the game, though he has seen a brief extract of the scene that features his tune.

A Real Real will be included as a bonus track on NTB3, the third all-original CD release from The Niall Toner Band. It is a live version recorded on Niall’s My Roots Freeway Radio show.

The new CD is due for a May 25 release, and will be available on that date in iTunes.