Flatpicker Mo Canada has a new CD, released appropriately enough on Flatpicking Guitar Magazine’s label. Entitled Grassoline, it features 12 instrumentals that highlight Canada’s celebrated guitar playing, with assistance from some of the most skilled pickers in bluegrass. Tony Rice, Randy Kohrs, Phil Leadbetter and Scott Vestal contribute, along with Darrell Webb, Ed Canada, Raymond McClain and Wyatt Rice, who engineered and produced the project
Canada, 25 years old, studied in the bluegrass music program at East Tennessee State University. He is also joined on Grassoline by Raymond McClain, director of the prgram at ETSU, and former bandmates there, JP Mathes and Taro Inoue.
Mo’s web site contains a powerful endorsement from the reigning IBMA Guitar Player of the Year, Bryan Sutton:
“What a great recording. Mo Canada shines in this collection of mainly new tunes. He really does a great job showcasing his personality as a guitarist here. To me, one of the hallmarks of a great bluegrass instrumentalist is playing with drive without overpowering the sound of the band as a whole. Mo certainly doesn’t let me down. I’m impressed with his wonderfully mature sense of melody and groove. If this weren’t enough, Mo’s got one of the best tones I’ve heard in a long time. Anyone interested in Bluegrass guitar should give this recording a serious listen.”
There are no audio samples up on the FGM Records site, but one track plays on Mo’s site, which also contains a nice gallery of photos taken during the Grassoline recording sessions.
