On The Edge from Frank Solivan

On The Edge – Frank SolivanCompass Records has announced that the Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen album On the Edge (COM4602) is now available in digital format.

The project is the first since Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen and Compass Records linked up in February.

It consists of 10 all-original songs/tunes and, as well as the band members – Solivan (mandolin and vocals), Mike Munford (banjo), Chris Luquette (guitar) and Danny Booth (bass) – guests Tim O’Brien, Megan McCormick and Rob Ickes are featured.

The album has so many highlights that Solivan doesn’t know where to begin ….

Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen“Oh man… where do I start? The material was all really exciting to write, learn and arrange. Everyone in the band contributed to the arrangements and brought a couple of originals in.

We also covered The Letter with some twists and turns thrown in. It’s an old Box Tops hit. We also featured a song by Chris and Karen Walls. It’s called I Fell Short. It is the opening track.

The title cut, On The Edge of Letting Go – written with Jon Weisberger – is a song that touches on the unfairness of mental illness and relationship troubles because of it. Not a subject matter talked about much, and not really written about in song as far as I know. No Chance was written with Jon Weisberger and Paul Fowler. It’s speaks of alcoholism from a down and out alcoholic’s perspective. Very sad song in the upbeat stylings of bluegrass. Danny Booth, our bass man, brought an original into the mix – Wild Unknown. A song touching on his connection to the place where he grew up, Alaska. He sang his butt off by the way!

He is also one of the finest bass players I’ve ever heard. So happy he is in the band. Chris’ guitar stylings are a perfect match as well. And Mike Munford makes everything sound better. Mike also provided one of the two instrumentals on the record, M80, an explosive piece with a ton of energy.”

The album, available on CD April 30, is one of three that Compass Records has just announced as being available in digital format. The others are Peter Rowan, The Old School (COM4600), and Claire Lynch, Dear Sister (COM4610).

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About the Author

Richard Thompson

Richard F. Thompson is a long-standing free-lance writer specialising in bluegrass music topics. A two-time Editor of British Bluegrass News, he has been seriously interested in bluegrass music since about 1970. As well as contributing to that magazine, he has, in the past 30 plus years, had articles published by Country Music World, International Country Music News, Country Music People, Bluegrass Unlimited, MoonShiner (the Japanese bluegrass music journal) and Bluegrass Europe. He wrote the annotated series I'm On My Way Back To Old Kentucky, a daily memorial to Bill Monroe that culminated with an acknowledgement of what would have been his 100th birthday, on September 13, 2011.