It wasn’t long ago that Rebecca Frazier was a rising star in bluegrass music. Her band, Hit & Run Bluegrass, had been an invited showcase act at the 2005 IBMA World of Bluegrass, and she graced the cover of the Fall 2006 issue of Flatpicking Guitar magazine, the first female flatpicker to earn that distinction.
But as Frazier was receiving critical acclaim for her guitar work, her strong vocals and her songwriting abilities, things turned around when her husband, and fellow Hit & Runner, John, accepted an offer to play mandolin with the John Cowan Band. That meant packing up and moving from Colorado to Nashville, and eventually put their band on an extended hiatus.
Rebecca soon found herself with a new passion, in the personages of three beautiful children, the middle of whom died unexpectedly in November, 2010. The sudden loss was devastating to Rebecca and John, as you would expect, but in grief she rediscovered her creative urge, and began to work on new material, and work over songs she had written in recent years.
The result is When We Fall, due for release on Compass Records May 28. 10 of the 12 tracks were written by Frazier, 4 with her husband’s assistance, 3 of them wicked guitar instrumentals.
John Frazier plays mandolin and adds harmony vocals, with Barry Bales on bass, Shadd Cobb on fiddle, Andy Hall on reso-guitar, and both Ron Block and Scott Vestal on banjo. Rebecca handles all the guitar and lead vocals, with Shelby Means also providing harmony.
Here’s a taste of two tracks from the CD. First is Clifftop, a guitar tune of Rebecca’s.
Human Highway is her arrangement of a Neil Young song.
We hope to speak with Rebecca about the album prior to its release. This is a good’n, folks.
