Gulley and Stafford – Just Along For The Ride

The first single from the upcoming Steve Gulley and Tim Stafford CD, Just Along For The Ride, is now available to radio via Airplay Direct. The album, a songwriters project featuring the pair’s compositions, is called Dogwood Winter, and it is expected to hit in the late summer on Rural Rhythm Records.

The two each perform with different bluegrass touring acts. Stafford is the guitarist with Blue Highway, while Gulley travels with Grasstowne. Though the two have been close friends and collaborators for some time, this marks the first time they have recorded an album together.

As Steve tells it…

“This recording project is, quite simply, two good friends and writing partners recording some of their songs in the way they heard them when they were originally written. It was truly a great experience to record and create a collection of music that was all original. Tim has been my primary writing partner for years – as well as a one of my best friends.

Besides being a good friend and collaborator, Tim is one of best musicians on the planet, so it was really cool to finally get to work with him in the studio on our own project. I think this a singer-songwriter record in every sense of the word. There’s traditional bluegrass, country-flavored tunes, middle-of-the road ballads and stripped down arrangements with just guitar and vocal. It’s a wide variety of styles but has one underlying theme or focus – the songs themselves.”

Tim explained that the initial concept was to get their songs more widely heard.

“While Steve and I have been fortunate to have quite a few songs cut by various artists over the years, this record began as a vehicle to get our songs out there that—with one exception—hadn’t been previously recorded. We picked 14 of our best tunes that we felt would be a good cross-section of our work, and the record, from the beginning was going to be all about the song.

Since most were bluegrass, we decided to enlist our friends Adam Steffey, Ron Stewart, and Justin Moses to help Steve and I lay down grass tracks that would highlight those songs.”

The single is a ripsnortin’ barnburner of a song with Gulley on vocals.

Just Along For The Ride:      [http://www.ruralrhythm.com/audio/GS/clip-gulley-stafford-SINGLE.mp3]

Radio programmers can download the single for airplay at Airplay Direct.

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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.