Merchandise
Back Eddy Bluegrass has finished their self-titled, debut CD and it is now available.  The project was recorded and mixed at Mixed Emotions Studios by Kenny Lewis.  The new CD features contemporary and traditional bluegrass as well as Back Eddy Bluegrass's own original material.  Included on the album is Little Red Rose, a song written by Hannah Dayton as tribute to her grandmother the morning after she passed away.  When asked what gave her the idea, Hannah said, "my Nanny always painted red roses."  Tracks from the CD can be heard and purchased at www.myspace.com/backeddybluegrass.  To purchase tracks look for the NIMBIT window on the MySpace page.  Tracks are compatible with IPod's.
       
CD's  $15
                 

Also available are the official "Where's Eddy" T-Shirts.  The T-shirts are available in a wide variety of colors and sizes.
T-Shirts  $10

These new products can be purchased at Back Eddy Bluegrass performances or  by mail. Please contact us at backeddybluegrass@gmail.com  to puchase these new products.


Here's what Stan Zdonik of the Boston Bluegrass Bluegrass Union has this to say about the new release:

Southeastern Massachusetts is not exactly a location where you would expect to find first-class bluegrass music. Back Eddy Bluegrass, with this, their first CD, challenges that.  The band features the lead singing of Gayle Dayton and Alex MacLeod.  Both of these performers have found a vocal delivery that works well with the band's easy-to-take bluegrass style and enables them to take on a wide variety of music - all within the bluegrass tradition.

Back Eddy Bluegrass is equally at home with old bluegrass standards like the Jim and Jesse song, Just Wondering Why, tunes from other genres like the Steven Stills classic 4+20 that was recorded in the late sixties by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, as well as their own original material.  This is a band that is not afraid to take their music in new directions, yet their traditional bluegrass background keeps them from going too far afield.

The album begins with Alex on the lead vocal on Rusty Old American Dream, a tune from North Carolina singer-songwriter, David Wilcox.  Gayle picks up the lead on the next cut with one of her own songs, a pretty waltz, Dancing with her Darling.  The remarkable lyrics to the Little Red Rose were written by Gayle and Steve's nine year old daughter, Hannah.  It was written after the death of her grandmother, an avid painter.  Hannah remembers her grandmother through one of her paintings of a red rose. Gayle and Alex collaborated on the melody.

This project also includes several original instrumentals.  The Ken Reback tune, Riptide, combines the energy of an old Monroe mandolin tune with the playfulness of a 50's surfing tune, and Back Eddy Bounce, a Rod Roach original, is reminiscent of an old parlor banjo number.

Back Eddy Bluegrass has a wonderful ability to give new life to older tunes.  Dream, Dream, Dream comes from the songbook of Rhode Island banjoist, Bill Hall.  Back Eddy plays it with a relaxed feel that has a distinct "Island" flavor.  The old Patsy Cline favorite Strange is done here with a hint of a rumba beat, again bringing a fresh and original approach to their music.  Their version of Mr. Man in the Moon takes this tune in a very different direction from the 1993 Patty Loveless recording.   The traditional folk tune Satisfied Mind has been recorded by countless performers including the Byrds and Joan Baez, yet Back Eddy succeeds in giving it their own spin by rendering this typically slow and lilting number as an up-tempo barnstormer.

The vocal harmonies explode on the two gospel numbers Open Door and Green Pastures.  The full quartet, which adds Rod Roach and Ken Reback to the vocal mix, is simply stunning.  This level of harmony blend is rare in general and puts them in a very special category as a regional band.

Back Eddy Bluegrass is a band, in part, with strong family ties owing to the talents of Gayle and Steve Dayton and their 18 year old son Josh.  Gayle got her first guitar when she was 10.  Steve played country and rockabilly in a neighborhood band called Original Sin when he was 14.  When they were dating, Steve and Gayle played country music for money and bluegrass for fun.  It's easy to see which style won out.  Josh grew up listening to bluegrass, and he has since become an accomplished bassist.

Alex MacLeod has sung and played guitar and with several New England bands including Iron Skillet with Gary Skilling and Deer Crossing with his father, Sandy MacLeod, and Keith Hilliard.  Rod Roach is a veteran banjo player in the Greater Boston music scene, having played with Apple Country back in the late seventies, Stoney Lonesome in the eighties, and with the celebrated Tasty Licks, a Boston band led by Jack Tottle that spawned such greats as Pat Enright, currently of the Nashville Bluegrass Band, and Bela Fleck.  An eighteen year old, Bela joined the Tasty Licks after Rod left.  Ken Reback, after delving into guitar, banjo and mandolin settled on mandolin as his main instrument and has played with several regional bands including Bill Hall and North Wind.  

The band's website observes that the "back eddy" of a stream is where you find the big fish. As you listen to this album, I think you will understand how aptly named this band is. If you are looking for that big bluegrass sound - look no further than Back Eddy Bluegrass!


Stan Zdonik
Boston BluegrassUnion
IBMA


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