Primarily, it involves a name change that acknowledges his long-time musical partnership with Janet Beazely, who has played banjo and sang alongside Stuart as a member of Chris Stuart & Backcountry. Chris tells us that henceforth, the band will be billed as Chris Stuart & Janet Beazley, and that the pair is also offering pared down shows as a duo.
“Janet and I have been doing more duo concerts lately, as well as teaching harmony classes together, so the name change feels right. We still have the big bluegrass band going, and guitarist Eric Uglum and bassist Austin Ward still play with us. We’re looking forward to playing as a band for festivals, etc., but Janet and I are concentrating on the duo show and are going to start on a duo album in the fall of mostly new material.
Also, we’re both teaching at the American River Music Camp in Coloma, CA from July 31 through August 4. Janet will be teaching banjo and I’ll be teaching songwriting. It’s in a beautiful location in the California Gold Rush country. I’ll be teaching how to write an original, traditional song. That is, how to write a song that sounds old, but feels fresh.
The camp is run by the great Joe Craven, so I hope people will check it out.”
You can keep tabs on Chris and Janet online.
