Today marks the release of Shadows On The Moon, the highly anticipated second album from the UK’s Midnight Skyracer, comprised of four lady Brits and a gal from Northern Ireland. Their crisp style of contemporary bluegrass has won them fans across the British Isles, and in the European and US bluegrass scenes as well.
The band is Leanne Thorose on mandolin, Charlotte Carrivick on guitar, Laura Carrivick on fiddle and reso-guitar, Eleanor Wilkie on bass, and Tabitha Benedict on banjo. Together they have created 13 new tracks to share with bluegrass lovers worldwide.
To celebrate the release, a new music video is available today as well, for the title cut, one written by Eleanor Wilkie. She shared a few words about this somber song and the inspiration that led her to compose it.
“It’s based on a lunar eclipse, but the lyrics actually mean so much more.
It’s a very personal song to me but I am always intrigued as to what it means to other people, so am not giving away much more about it.
After I wrote the lyrics, I began to watch the series American Gods with the main character called ‘Shadow Moon’- coincidence but not based on him at all!
Tabitha, Charlotte, and Laura worked their magic on some lovely chord progressions and tweaks to the melody to make it what it is on the album.”
The Skyracers have been known of late for high quality video production (see their previous vid for Break The Rules), and they have another crackerjack for Shadows.
Wilkie also gave a bit of insight into the video shoot.
“We filmed the video partly in a beautiful old farmhouse is Faulkland, Somerset where we were all staying and rehearsing back in February, and partly in the beautiful cloisters of Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire, which was particularly exciting for the Harry Potter fans in the band, as it was of the locations used for Hogwarts in the films.
We were on a tight time schedule at Lacock. With limited hours of daylight we had to squeeze in filming between when day visitors left in the late afternoon and when the bats, whose flight path through the cloisters we were not allowed to disturb, woke up as the light began to fade. Being February it was absolutely freezing – we regretted those summer dresses in minutes! We love the final video John (John Breese Films) put together though, and feel it really suits the mood of the song.”
Have a look/listen…
Shadows On The Moon is available now wherever you stream or download music online.
