Amanda & Scott Anderson – Another Day

Amanda & Scott Anderson - Another DayScott Anderson’s name has been a familiar one to bluegrass fans in Florida for the past 20 years. He performed and recorded on banjo with Endless Highway, Gentle River and The Bluegrass Parlor Band, and toured as a member of Jim Hurst’s band. Scott has also taught banjo, mandolin and guitar lessons for years in Gainesville.

He did release a solo CD, Rivers, in 2001 but his new project has him more excited than any musical project he has produced to date.

Another Day is a duo album with his teenaged daughter, Amanda. She is featured as the primary lead vocalist and fiddler, with Scott on banjo, guitar and vocals. Amanda, now 16, was 15 when this album was recorded, and had only been playing fiddle for two years at the time. The CD has already gotten some rave reviews, and folks in the bluegrass biz are paying attention to this talented young lady.

“Amanda played fiddle and did most of the lead singing, as well as singing one or two harmony parts at times. Amanda’s fiddle teacher and our friend Tommy Slaughter played of some of the tunes with us. The two of them also played fiddle together on Eileen’s Waltz which was written by my friend Mark Schatz, who also played bass on that cut.

Georgia On My Mind was played masterfully on guitar by another teenager, Austin Wilder. Jarrod Walker (yes, another teenager) played rhythm guitar on Looking In the Eyes of Love, and played some fantastic mandolin on several other tracks. Jarrod’s brother Cory Walker played upright bass on one cut and played some really slick resonator guitar on a few tracks. Most people know Cory as a banjo player (he’s now with Sierra Hull), but he is great on several instruments.

My old bandmate David McMillan (with whom I played in The Bluegrass Parlor Band years ago) played some bass and even drum parts on a few tunes and sang some harmony. He also did a great job of engineering and mastering the CD. My buddy Michael Godwin played upright bass on several tracks, including some really cool stuff on Georgia On My Mind.”

Georgia On My MindListen Now [http://media.libsyn.com/media/thegrasscast/georgia_on_my_mind.mp3]

Scott and Amanda also laid down a version of the jam standard, Red Haired Boy, with something of a Celtic flair.

Red Haired Boy – Listen Now    [http://media.libsyn.com/media/thegrasscast/red_haired_boy.mp3]

Amanda offers her version of Out Of The Rain, written by Jesee Havey, formerly of The Duhks.

Out Of The Rain – Listen Now     [http://media.libsyn.com/media/thegrasscast/out_of_the_rain.mp3]

“Most of these songs are covers – just some of our favorites that we had been doing live. The only exception is Tengo Tres Gatos, which came about in sort of a funny way in the studio. We had some headphone interference from a Spanish language station and some of the music got stuck in our heads. After that lick kept coming back to us every time the mics went off, I decided we’d do something with it.

We combined some inspiration from a few years of Spanish classes, Steve Martin, some canned seafood items from Bodega Latina in Tampa, SNL skits, and our friend Christian Smith to come up with the lyrics.  It’s all very poetic.  :)”

You can visitAmanda & Scott Anderson online, or sample and download the music from Another Day at DigiStation.

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About the Author

John Lawless

John had served as primary author and editor for The Bluegrass Blog from its launch in 2006 until being folded into Bluegrass Today in September of 2011. He continues in that capacity here, managing a strong team of columnists and correspondents.