What we originally reported as a David Lee Roth bluegrass CD is actually something in between that and a bluegrass tribute cover project. It clearly will not be a Roth release under his own name, but it seems likely that he will add vocals on a track or two.
Here is the latest info as it was explained to me. The CD is being produced by John Jorgenson for CMH Records. The project started out as a simple tribute album but is growing into something much larger. The tracks feature a lot of bluegrass superpickers David Grisman, Stuart Duncan, Scott Vestal, Rob Ickes, John Cowan, Brad Davis, etc.
Brad was here in my studio last night and I was able to speak at length with him about the project. He had just finished his parts (guitar and some background vocals) on Wednesday. It’s being recorded at Masterfonics recording studios in Nashville. Brad said the tracks are all covers of David Lee Roth tunes, but done bluegrass style. He was extremely impressed with the arrangements and production ideas. He was excited to have been able to play a “big G run” in the tune Jump.
Although the CD started out to be a tribute album, when David’s sister, who works at CMH, told him of the project he became interested and expressed a desire to participate. Details are still being arranged, but yesterday tracks were cut with Cowan singing a scratch vocal. Roth is going to listen to the tracks and make a final decision as to whether he will participate in the project. Brad’s only fear was that John Cowan sounded so good singing the scratch vocals, Diamond Dave might not want to do them over!
