On Monday Brance mentioned an upcoming album from Tim Stafford and Steve Gulley in his piece about Blue Highway’s 15th Anniversary concert in Roanoke. We had posted last year about this project when Tim and Steve first started recording in May of 2009.
Now completed, and entitled Dogwood Winter, the record is another left hanging by the shuttering of Pinecastle Records in February 2010. Tim tells us that Steve is currently shopping the finished master to a number of record companies, but nothing has yet been finalized.
When Tim was working with Brance and I this week on a Ron Block guitar DVD, he let us hear the album, and it is a doozy. All of the songs were co-written by he and Gulley, and features the two of them as the primary vocalists. Tim handles the guitar with Gulley on bass, Ron Stewart on banjo and fiddle, Adam Steffey on mandolin, and Justin Moses on fiddle and reso guitar. The songs range from in-your-face bluegrass to introspective ballads, all carefully crafted and brilliantly performed.
In the latter category, a real standout is Angel In Waiting, recorded as a duet with Tim’s solo guitar serving as the perfect counterpoint to Steve’s plaintive vocal. This one will have an impact when the CD is released. Cruising, a grassy barnburner, is another that should be a fan and radio favorite. Each of the pickers get a chance to shine and, as one would expect, they tear it up.
Here’s hoping that someone picks this project up soon so that we can all get to hear it!
