Psychograss Now Hear This CD

Ahhhhh, Psychograss' latest. What a treat to these tortured ears atthis chronological intersect. Here is a music lover's dream.Take the finest players on each instrument in a given field, and bestow themwith enough years of studio rehearsal and performance time to allow theircollective creative consciousness to gestate, thereby giving birth to newconfigurations and new structures of music. These cats have been doing thisfor 9 years and it just keeps getting more interesting.One might suppose that a lover of bluegrass, or American acousticmusic, or picking music, or whatever the term, might wonder.... Whatharmonic, and rhythmic innovations in the form have occurred since, oh saythe Eisenhower Administration? What new ideas have been birthed in thismusic since the time of Sputnik? Psychograss provides us with a textbook intheir most recent recording.This is the importance of Psychograss to music. Having devoted multiplelifetimes to studying traditional American forms of music, they have thetaste and intellectual curiosity to accept input from modern musics, as wellas from different geographic locales. It's like hearing all the good partsof music played at once.On this, their most recent CD, Psychograss continues to raise its own bar.The arrangements unfold with delight; the melodies spin in an upwarddirection; the tones are rich and full, and the players are truly the bestyou can find in any style of music. As composers, no punches are pulled, nomusical stone left unturned. Multilevel. Layer upon layer. Bar after bar oforiginal, groundbreaking, delightful music.These cats invite us along on their most developed musical journey to date.The listener hears familiar elements of the best acoustic music, classical,bluegrass, jazz, world music, swing, Irish and modern music. It's awonderful bag and they are having a heck of a good time with this music andwe can crank it up and for just a moment pretend that we are all virtuosos,playing joyous music with the best musicians on the planet.-Danny Barnes, October 2004Violinist, fiddler, composer, producer and educator, Darol Anger is at home in a number of musical genres, some of which he helped to invent. He is well-known as a founding member of five innovative groups: Newgrange, the Anger/Marshall Band, the Turtle Island String Quartet, the Montreux Band, and the David Grisman Quintet. Working with some of the world's greatest improvising string musicians: Stephane Grappelli, Mark O'Connor, Bela Fleck, Michael Manring, Mike Marshall, Michael Hedges, Jerry Douglas, et al., has given Anger a unique perspective on string music, resulting in his inventing and developing innovative string techniques. As well as actively performing all over the world, he has co-led annual seminars with the TISQ at Stanford, Oberlin and Amherst colleges, and numerous lecture-demonstrations throughout the year. He also guest instructs at Berklee College of Music and Mark O'Connor's Fiddle Camps, and is String Chair of the International Association of Jazz Educators. Anger has produced dozens of critically lauded recordings since 1977 which have featured his compositions and performances. Highlights include the Heritage Folk Music project, which brings together some of the most important voices in the traditional, contemporary folk and bluegrass music scene; the Anger/Marshall Band's JAM and Brand New Can, which set new standards for the Newgrass/jazz genre; and his latest release, Diary of a Fiddler, which sets Anger in duet with the most prominent and innovative fiddlers of our time. He has authored seven books dealing with techniques and materials on every aspect of vernacular string playing. Mike Marshall is now one of the top 4 mandolin players in the world, and an in-demand, influential guitarist. He also collaborates regularly with Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, and Sam Bush, as well with his longtime associate Anger with whom he plays in the Anger/Marshall Duo, and the chambergrass ensemble Newgrange. He haJazzTimes (p.71) - "[A] fascinating jumble of styles....Psychograss' performance is nuanced without pretension, playful but not juvenile."
Dirty Linen (p.50) - "[I]ncredible musicianship and complex subtleties make the group both relevant and easy on the ears."