Swings & Heartaches from Lilly of the West

Lilly of the West

Bulgarian folk and bluegrass singer Lilly Drumeva has defied stylistic pigeon-holing since she first came to attention with her band, Lilly of the West, in 1996. Over the course of 9 albums, her music has  involved elements of country, bluegrass, swing, jazz, pop and Bulgarian folk music.

The band’s most recent release, Swings & Heartaches, offers up Lilly’s versions of two popular Americana musical forms, presented in an acoustic, primarily string band setting. As she describes it…

“The ‘swings’ are lively, up-tempo songs from the 1940s/50s, featuring two Patsy Cline hits (Gotta Lotta Rhythm in My Soul and Walkin’ After Midnight), one by Hank Williams (Lovesick Blues), two old western/swing standards (My Window Faces The South, I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter) and a modern swing (Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring).

The ‘heartaches’ are beautiful ballades with strong lyrics. One is a Johnny Cash/June Carter duet (If I Were A Carpenter), another is an Everly Brothers’ classic (Crying in The Rain); a modern nostalgic song by Jools Holland & Sam Brown (Valentine Moon) and two Bulgarian folk melodies (Brala Moms and Malka Moma).”

Lilly also created this brief audio introduction to the new CD:

Swings & Heartaches: [http://traffic.libsyn.com/thegrasscast/Promo_Album-Eng-Mix.mp3]

Joining Drumeva on vocals and fiddle are Yasen Vasilev on guitar, Michail Shishkov on piano and resonator guitar, Svoboda Bozduganova on bass, Michal Barok on mandolin and Milena Vuleva on violin.

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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.