[ From Butchross ] Writing from the Pacific Northwest, with a new album in tow.

[Butch Ross]

Hey guys:
 
Do you have any idea how much work goes into making a digital recording
sound like it was recorded on an old Victrola? I do.
 
I am in stunning Port Townsend, Washington about 2 hours northwest of
Seattle. Down the street is the Puget Sound, the other side, Canada.
Victorian era gingerbread houses line the postcard perfect streets, and
clouds disintegrate from Ansel Adams' best shot of the Olympia Mountains on
the horizon. Not that I've seen any of this mind you, I've been at Treehouse
studios finally working on my second record.
 
A little background: last summer I was in Ireland for three weeks playing
the dulcimer and generally oscillating between joy and pain. I play about a
week of shows with a guy named Robert Force. Robert is the first guy to play
the dulcimer standing up and with Albert D'Ossche toured the world playing
as a dulcimer duo; they dropped a book in the seventies called "In Search of
the Wild Dulcimer" that sold over 100,000 copies. Plus they were once booked
on Hee-Haw, BEAT THAT!
 
While there, (Ireland not Hee-Haw) he said if I recorded a dulcimer record
he'd produce and release it on Blaine Street records. So this is where I've
been for the last week. Being gently pushed prodded and poked into what seem
to be great performances. We've recorded 16 tracks, and we're gonna whittle
those down to 12. No firm track list or title yet, but the tracks run a wide
swath of folk music, from my own compositions, to trad folk and fiddle tunes
and contemporary singer/songwriters, some more famous than others. ;-)
 
I plan to have the record available by the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival.
 
I am extremely happy about this record (despite having spent the last 20
plus hours straight mixing it), and couldn't wait to get back to town to
tell you all about it. I am working on a new website, that will go live
sometime early in May and it will feature new tracks from the record.
 
Also, I am finally getting back out on the road a bit. Playing in Worcester,
MA on April 29th and back at the Postcrypt in New York, May 1st.: more on
that next week sometime.
 
I know it's taken forever to put out record number two (how many of you even
know that there is a record number one). Thank you guys who have hung in
there. This may seem like a big departure from what you know me for, but it
it's isn't really, not at all.
 
So with any luck I'll see you at some of these shows and y'all can hear the
new (old) tunes.
 
C-ya out there.
 
-Br