New ShoreGrass Recording: Going Home

Subject: New ShoreGrass Recording: Going Home
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 09:21 AM

Our new CD Going Home is here! We're very proud of this recording of 14 originals and 2 classics. Song styles include bluegrass, old-timey, folk, swing, gospel, waltz, blues, foot-tapper, tear-jerker, a cappella, instrumental, etc. No two alike and some unusual ideas presented, all written and performed in a traditional style.

We invite you to check it out at http://www.cdbaby.com/all/shoregrass, where you can hear 2-minute samples of every song. All the details about the recording will be there. But you'll have to see the liner notes to see the special photos and read about where they came from! Note: CDBaby will take a couple of weeks to set up and should be ready by early July.

Check out our myspace page at http://myspace.com/shoregrass to hear 2 samples of the new album plus some updated selections from the previous 2 albums. And there's always our band website where more details and ordering info are available: http://www.shoregrass.com.

Musicians on this recording include:

Frank Shaw (banjo, vocals): former bass player and vocalist with Clean Living, which recorded 2 albums on the Vanguard label. Winner of the 1st place old-time banjo award at the 2001 Roxbury Contest.

Barbara Shaw (guitar, vocals): writes most of the original material performed by the band. Left corporate life behind to dabble in guitar, fiddle, bass, piano, things bluegrass.

Paul Pozzi (mandolin, vocals): incredible tenor range singer and Monroe-style mandolinist.

Jonathan Shaw (bass): multi-instrumentalist, multi-genre musician son of Frank and Barbara, taking time from his current tour with a rock band to return to his roots for this recording.

Stacy Phillips (Dobro and fiddle): talented grammy winning performer ("The Great Dobro Sessions"), author of many books and videos, instructor and internationally acclaimed artist.

Bud Morrisroe (fiddle on 1,7,8): former member of Apple Country and many other fine bands.

Wooooooohooooooo!! (Sorry... end of shameless self-promotion, but I'm just so excited about getting this project finished!)

Subject: RE: New ShoreGrass Recording: Going Home
From: GUEST,Allan and Arden
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 11:22 AM

Cant wait to get it. How much and we will send you a check or hungarian. :) See you in the Fall , or sooner Allan and Arden

Subject: RE: New ShoreGrass Recording: Going Home
From: karen k
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 10:16 PM

I've heard 11 of the 14 songs and it is wonderful. Barbara is a great songriter. I'm not a bluegrass fan but I love what this group does. You owe it to yourself to get this cd as soon as you can. You won't regret it.

karen

Subject: RE: New ShoreGrass Recording: Going Home
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 10:24 AM

Thanks, Allan and Karen! Actually there are 16 songs:

1 The Letter (Barbara Shaw) 2:33 At a songwriting workshop at the Old Songs Festival in NY, Bob Franke challenged Barbara to write a song in the form of a letter. This resulted, based on real family (4 generations) and real feelings. Bob never heard it that day.
2 Going Home (Barbara Shaw) 3:11 Sights seen, lessons learned, roads traveled, it's finally good to be going home.
3 Hillside Home (Barbara Shaw) 4:20 Inspired by a scene in the Kennebec river valley in Maine, this song showed up after trying to imagine some of the stories behind the view.
4 Back in the Days (Barbara Shaw) 4:06 A brand new old-time country weeper. You've heard it before but never quite like this.
5 Glorious Day (Barbara Shaw) 2:57 A first poem at age 9 (same name) had basically the same theme. Life is good.
6 The Weary Road (Barbara & Frank Shaw) 2:43 Inspired by Rev. Gary Smith's Christmas Eve sermon based on Edmund Sears' poem "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," using a stanza not found in the carol.
7 Goodbye, My Good Old Friend (Barbara Shaw) 2:01 Goodbye to a friend who left too soon but left much behind.
8 Emmalina Tasker (Barbara & Frank Shaw) 2:27 This song first showed up on Barbara's fiddle as a variation of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Frank provided the family history and some finishing touches to the lyrics and chords.
9 Waiting to See You Again (Barbara Shaw) 4:03 Everyone has someone they wish they could see again. This song is about the wait.
10 Ruth and Naomi (Stacy Phillips) 2:35 Here's the Old Testament story about Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth of "whither thou goest" fame, among other important things. The original version is on Stacy's CD "On the Inside."
11 December Waltz (Barbara Shaw) 3:16 Inspired by the nostalgia and melancholy mixed with the joy of the season, there is a presence during December of those loved ones long gone, a time when memories come true.
12 Aunt Pam's Garden (Frank Shaw) 1:50 Dedicated to the kind and eccentric godmother from West Virginia with the hilltop garden.
13 Sixteen Tons (Merle Travis) 3:03 We still love this delicious old chestnut, especially now that we put the grass to it.
14 I'm On My Way Back to the Old Home (Bill Monroe)
3:03 A tribute to the man who started it all, because in some ways it all comes home to him. Many have recorded this song, but it bears repeating.
15 Soldier (Barbara Shaw) 2:32 A song about any soldier from any country at any time in history during any war. Very little ever changes.
16 When Will There Be Peace (Barbara Shaw) 3:14 This song reflects the questions, hopes and quest of many of us as we attempt to understand.

Subject: RE: New ShoreGrass Recording: Going Home
From: kendall
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 04:54 PM

Save us one.

Subject: RE: New ShoreGrass Recording: Going Home
From: karen k
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 10:07 PM

Can't wait to get a finished copy. Barbara, will you be at Old Songs.

k

Subject: RE: New ShoreGrass Recording: Going Home
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 10:36 PM

Karen, we will not be going to Old Songs this year. We used to go to Jenny Brook festival in VT every year until we started going to Old Songs (same weekend), and decided to go back to Jenny Brook this year for a change. Mostly because one of my favorites, Lynn Morris is going to be there. She's been incapacitated as a result of a stroke the last few years and is finally recovering enough to perform, so I want to see her. One of the sweetest female voices in bluegrass.

Anyway, we'll miss you guys and will be back next year.

By the way, the first song on this CD (The Letter) was written two years ago at Old Songs at the Bob Franke workshop. I never got the chance to play it for feedback at the followup session -- too many people vying for the chance and me too shy to raise my hand or too emotional about the song or something. Anyway, you can hear it on our myspace page. It came out pretty good.

Have fun, and thanks for the comments.

Subject: RE: New ShoreGrass Recording: Going Home
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 26 Jun 07 - 08:43 AM

Our new CD is now up on CDBaby.

SHOREGRASS: going home

Subject: RE: New ShoreGrass Recording: Going Home
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 26 Jun 07 - 01:11 PM

Listening to your CD as I type this. You are some kind of fine songwriter, Barbara. The best compliment I can give is that I can't tell your songs from traditional ones.

You people just keep topping yourself.

Jerry

Subject: RE: New ShoreGrass Recording: Going Home
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 26 Jun 07 - 04:40 PM

Jerry, you are such a fine songwriter yourself that it's a great compliment coming from you. Not to say that the other nice words are not also most welcome and appreciated! I'm sure you understand what a heady feeling it is to hear your songs come alive on a recording. Read something recently about the magical power of music that science cannot explain at all. So true.

Subject: RE: New ShoreGrass Recording: Going Home
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 26 Oct 07 - 12:57 PM

I was very excited to open my November 2007 issue of Bluegrass Unlimited magazine to find this review of our new album! Now I can breathe again. Nothing worse than deafening silence when you put out a new recording. Also heard that Sing Out! has selected it for review in the upcoming winter issue.

Shoregrass is a New England band consisting of Frank (banjo) and Barbara (guitar) Shaw along with son Jonathan (bass) and Paul Pozzi (mandolin), Stacy Phillips (fiddle and resonator guitar), and Bud Morrisroe (fiddle). "Going Home" is a showcase for original numbers mostly penned by Barbara including "Glorious Day," "The Letter," and "Goodbye My Good Old Friend." Also featured are Bill Monroe's "I'm On My Way Back To The Old Home" and Merle Travis' "Sixteen Tons." Shoregrass has created a pleasant collection of down-home music that should attract considerable attention for the band.

Subject: RE: New ShoreGrass Recording: Going Home
From: Rabbi-Sol
Date: 26 Oct 07 - 01:12 PM

You can hear them do songs from this album LIVE if you come to the Borderline Folk Music Club concert in New City (Rockland County), NY on Saturday night, November 17th.
                                                   SOL

Subject: RE: New ShoreGrass Recording: Going Home
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 31 Dec 07 - 02:26 PM

The new ShoreGrass CD "GOING HOME" got the following review in the Winter 2008 edition of Sing Out! magazine, which just came out today:

SHOREGRASS Going Home – Shaw Family Publishing

    There was a time when bluegrass wasn't big business. Emphasis was placed on the true nature of the music, not the spit and polish available in the modern recording studio. Shoregrass is a throwback to those lazy Sunday afternoons at the music park with a picnic lunch and friends all around enjoying sincere and talented players providing the sweet music of the mountains.
    Banjoist Frank Shaw and his wife, guitarist Barbara, are the core of Shoregrass. They hail from Connecticut and are joined by their son Jonathan on bass, Paul Pozzi on mandolin, and Stacey Phillips on Dobro and fiddle. Barbara and Frank both sing and between them have composed twelve of the sixteen selections on Going Home.
    The CD opens with "The Letter" by Barbara, written after a songwriting workshop conducted by Bob Franke at the Old Songs Festival. The assignment was to write a song in the form of a letter. The subject is a familiar one to those of us who have moved far away, not able to visit the home place as often as in the past. The title track, which follows, was also written by Barbara. Its subject once again is universal – the everlasting searching for a home.
    Further on in the CD, Stacey Phillips contributed the holiness hymn "Ruth and Naomi," another tune about restlessness and wandering. "I'm On My Way Back to the Old Home" is a tribute to Bill Monroe and, although many have recorded this classic, Frank and Barbara more than do it justice. The CD concludes with the ultimate question – Barbara's "When Will There Be Peace" with the hope of an end to the cycle of never-ending war.
    Shoregrass is a refreshing reminder of what bluegrass music is really all about: a talented, family-based band that seem to truly relish playing and singing together. - TD

Happy New Year to all! We'll be doing some pickin' and grinnin' tonight for sure!

Barbara

Subject: RE: New ShoreGrass Recording: Going Home
From: GUEST,allan .s
Date: 31 Dec 07 - 03:45 PM

Have a good new year night. Us oldies will be snuggled in our warm bed.....

Subject: RE: New ShoreGrass Recording: Going Home
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 02 Jan 08 - 10:15 AM

Hope you're all rested, Allan S! See you at the next hoot (Jan 20)?