Mark Hodges and his Mountain Fever label have announced the formation of a new brand for releasing and promoting music outside the bluegrass realm. The Travianna Records imprint will cover the broader Americana genre, starting with Echo, today’s debut album from After Jack.
A youthful all-female trio, After Jack writes and sings music with roots in their native Appalachia, but with a different perspective. The group consists of Emil Blankenship-Tucker, Mary Allison, and Rachel Blankenship-Tucker, and you can get a taste of their sound in this recent video shot at the Floyd Country Store, not far from the Mountain Fever Studio in southwest Virginia.
Echo was recorded at Mountain Fever Studio, produced and engineered by Aaron Ramsey.
Hodges shared a few words about his decision to create a second label at this time.
“I’m a lover of all good music. Genre specific isn’t a rule I follow, and there are a lot of records I want to make that don’t fit on the Mountain Fever Records label. Compared to a lot of bluegrass labels we’re still very young but we have worked hard to gain the respect of the bluegrass DJs, and their friendship and support is what has gotten us to the level we are now. Some of the music I want to produce isn’t bluegrass and I don’t want to do anything to abuse the trust of the DJs that have helped me this far.
I feel like I’ve pushed that envelope a little bit already and although nobody has complained (to may face anyway) I would rather draw a line in the dirt and create a home for my ‘everything else’ category.
The name of the new label is kind of a tribute to a friend of mine, Samuel A’Court Ashe Bason, who passed away last year, and the legacy he’s contributed to music. He was a great guy who influenced a lot of people to think outside the box, and to create original music full of emotion and spirit. His family moved to Floyd in the early ’70s and started Floyd’s first communal farm, Travianna. It’s said that it means ‘Across The Way.’ “
Mark also plans to move two of his existing Mountain Fever artists, Delta Reign and Ash Breeze, to Travianna.
The new web site explains the Travianna vision thusly…
Travianna Records seeks to be a melting pot for many kinds of music to mix and merge, creating an experience that encompasses all the best that music has to offer. We want to represent real music, music that was born of many places and with limitless influences. Music……. no boundaries.
