Sugar Hill Records has announced that international acoustic trio The Greencards have signed with the label to release their fourth CD project. Producer Jay Joyce is in the studio with the band now and the new album is expected in the spring of ‘09.

The band is composed of Australians Kym Warner on mandolin and Carol Young on bass, along with Englishman Eamon McLoughlin on fiddle and viola. All three sing, with Young handling the bulk of the lead vocals.

The band name came to them when the group got its start in Austin, TX, with all three members being non-natives. Their sound has been a hit with audiences at clubs and eclectic music festivals, mixing various elements of acoustic American folk music with their original songs.

Sugar Hill A&R rep Gary Paczosa brought them into the family, and is psyched to have them on the label.

“The Greencards are a natural fit for us. I worked with them on two previous projects and have always been impressed by their musical vision and their focused approach to their career and development.”

Video journals from the studio are promised over the next few weeks, so keep an eye on their web site and MySpace page for updates.

Kym Warner, hot shot mandolinist with The Greencards, was interviewed recently on Saturday Night Country, broadcast from his native Australia. He is interviewed by show host John Nutting, and speaks about the group’s success of late, including finding their newest CD, Viridian, atop the Billboard bluegrass chart.

Kym moved from Australia and studied bluegrass muisc at South Plains College in Texas, and The Greencards were born while he was living in Austin. He lives now in Nashville when he isn’t out on the road with the band.

Kym is also featured in the current Spring ‘07 issue of Mandolin Magazine, which includes a transcription for his song, Mucky The Duck, from Viridian.

You can hear the entire interview from Saturday Night Country on the show’s web site.

The Greencards are a trio of young pickers on the borders of bluegrass music playing what might appropriately be termed Americana music, or as I read on one site “underground folk with a bluegrass influence.” Two of the three, Warner and Young, are Australian while the third member, McLoughlin, is English. The three first met in Austin, TX at a recording session and the music was there from that moment on. They’ve been around for several years now and have released two previous albums. Currently on the verge of releasing their third, they’ve announced a promotional endeavor that includes the gifting of a Collings MT (A style) mandolin and a video iPod.

The new recording is titled Viridian and much of the instrumental magic on the project comes from the able fingers of mandolinist Kim Warner. Kim plays a Collings mandolin much of the time, though he also plays a Gilchrist at times. Based on Kim’s association with Collings this seems like a great way to promote the new recording.

Viridian consists of 12 tracks, many written or co-written by the band members. The disc also features special guests Bryan Sutton, Larry Attamanuik, Jedd Hughes, Andrea Zonn, Viktor Krauss, Doug Lancio, and Chris Carmichael. For the most part this isn’t a bluegrass album, but if you like Americana and bluegrass related acoustic music centered around vocals and mandolin, then this is an album you’ll want to check out. I will point out one particular tune that, even minus the banjo, is a great driving bluegrass tune. Lonesome Side Of Town was written by Kim Warner and Jerry Salley, and could very well be a tune you’ll hear in jam sessions not long after the albums release.

Viridian will be released on Dualtone records with a street date of March 6, 2007. Pre-orders are being accepted at this time from CDBaby.com.

The band is currently running an email promotion through their Myspace page in which the winner will receive a new Collings MT (A style) mandolin, courtesy of Collings. The promotion is a “Tell A Friend” kind of thing where you enter your name and email address, as well as the email addresses of your friends. The promotion entry page states that you are forwarding the page to a friend when you do this.

Those who forward this page to the most people will be eligible to receive prizes.

The wording of the page suggests your friends will receive an email with a link to the page so they can enter themselves, and one would hope that is all the marketing that will be done without their permission.

Prizes in the promotion include the mandolin mentioned above for 1st place. 2nd place is a video ipod, 3rd place is tickets to a show, and five 4th place winners will be given an autographed poster and copy of the new cd. All winners will be selected April 2nd.