Multi-Artist CD Features Bluegrass, Country, Americana & Folk Music
From Singer/Songwriter Dennis Duff
Nashville, TN – Dennis Duff’s latest album, SONGS FROM LYON COUNTY, is available for digital pre-order now from Bandzoogle and physical CDs from Gracey Holler Music. The disc, which features a host of guest artists and tunes ranging from Bluegrass to Country to Americana and Folk, will be in stores September 7. For the project, Duff has assembled gifted vocalists to interpret a cohesive and compelling group of songs. Guests include Paul Brewster (Ricky Skaggs band), Darin and Brooke Aldridge (Mountain Home Music), Josh Shilling (Mountain Heart) and IBMA award-winner Bradley Walker (Gaither Music), as well as rising star, Holly Pitney (Mo Pitney band). Duff sings lead on four of the album’s nine songs.
The diverse offering leads off with the breezy, creek-side stroll through memories of moonshine, stills and simpler times that is “Wilson Holler.” Deceptively upbeat with a hooky fiddle repeat courtesy of Jason Carter and with Paul Brewster singing lead, the shady groves and shady men described are easy to visualize. Duff takes over vocal duties for “Road To Dover,” a song based on childhood memories. Whippoorwills, dogwoods, rivers and roads all line that path of recall, drawn inevitably on by Carter’s compelling fiddle work and the wheel-turning rhythms of Cody Kilby’s mandolin.
Drawing deep on local history, Duff resurrects the Planters Protection Association in “Night Riders.” Josh Shilling’s gritty lead vocal drives a track that features Andy Leftwich on a churning fiddle refrain and the pounding hoofbeat repeat of Alan Bartram’s acoustic bass. Often the only recourse of justice for an isolated community, the PPA numbered over 10,000 members, both black and white, defended abused wives and children and brought tobacco monopolies to heel.
Darin and Brooke Aldridge take “TC And Pearl” and lift the mood with a tale of love at first sight, faith, family life and the heaven on earth joy a simple life can bring. Their combined vocals are mesmerizing; trilling high notes, earthy mid-range and a solid feel for the song make this a disc highlight. Hypnotically deceptive, “37 Flood” sweeps the listener away just like the waters of the mighty Ohio River swept away farms, families and a way of life. Plinking mandolin notes mirror raindrops falling, while the eerie fiddle run mimics the wind that met the treetops as the water reached them. This powerful and magical track features Duff’s most compelling vocal outing to date, as it projects a memory that is embedded firmly in the local psyche.
The first single from SONGS FROM LYON COUNTY is an emotional rendering of “When I Leave Kentucky” that features Bradley Walker and Holly Pitney in a riveting duet. “Hey Mr. TVA,” is a sorrowful lament that tells the story of the U.S. government’s use of imminent domain to rip half of Lyon County away from landowners to create Land Between the Lakes. It was also the inspiration to write all the other “untold” stories on the album, including the the haunting prison song “Castle On The Cumberland” and the ode to the hobo lifestyle “Iron Hill.”
TRACK LIST
“Wilson Holler”
“Hey MR. TVA”
“Road To Dover”
“Night Riders”
“TC And Pearl”
“Castle On The Cumberland”
“Iron Hill”
“37 Flood”
“When I Leave Kentucky”