Engelhardt Music Group has a new single for Nashville banjo player Russ Carson, the second from his upcoming full-length album. We all know Russ as the banjo man with Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, and as proprietor of the very popular YouTube Channel, 81 Crowe, so named for Carson’s axe of choice, a 1981 J.D. Crowe model Gold Star banjo.
A lot of bluegrass fans also recall Carson from his many years playing the five with Audie Blaylock and Redline before Skaggs and Nashville came calling.
Russ explains how he came up with the title for this new track, a fiery banjo instrumental called Awesome Sauce.
“Awesome Sauce will be familiar to those who have followed my 81Crowe YouTube channel for a while. I needed a theme song to play at the end of my videos, and this is what I came up with. But the question I constantly got was, ‘What’s up with the name?’
The simple answer is my incredible wife, Bethie. When we first met back in my days with Redline, everything that was cool and exciting was simply ‘Awesome Sauce.’
I played all the instruments on the original track, but this time around with the assistance of Jake Workman, Stuart Duncan, Aaron Ramsey, Mike Bub, and my old Mahogany Style 3….. the tune truly came to life.”
Bethie is a grasser of note as well, who spent several years playing guitar with her siblings as The Burie Family, so she knows from awesome sauce.
Have a listen to Russ’s new single…
Awesome Sauce from Russ Carson is available now from popular download and streaming services online. Radio programmers will find the track at AirPlay Direct.
Look for Carson’s album from EMG later this summer.
