The Foreign Landers, a husband-and-wife duo featuring David and Tabitha Benedict, is set to release their first full-length album, Traveler’s Rest, in November. We are delighted to premiere a single today.
The clever name for their group is taken from the fact that the Benedicts are truly an international couple. Tabitha is Irish, and performs with a pair of UK bands, Midnight Skyracer, and with her brothers in Cup O’Joe, and David is a native South Carolinian who also performs with Cup O’Joe, and is well-remembered for his previous work with Mile Twelve and as an online instructor and personality. So the two of them split their time between the US, Northern Ireland, and England, meaning one of them is in a foreign land most of the time.
Both of them are virtuosic instrumentalists, David on mandolin and guitar, and Tabitha on banjo and guitar, and while both sing in The Foreign Landers, it is Tabitha’s voice that attracts the most attention. Starting with Cup O’Joe as a teenager, and an Agnew, her distinctive vocal delivery turned heads all over the world for its unique tone and soft yet strong impact. She also excels as a songwriter, and she and David have written the bulk of the material on Travelers Rest.
Like most of the original songs on the project, today’s single, Garden, is autobiographical in nature, written about their recent adventure of moving into their first home together, and all that entails.
“Since this last summer was our first in our new home here in Travelers Rest, we had high hopes of planting a garden. But sadly we were still traveling too much to water our plants, so instead we decided to write this song as a bit of catharsis. It’s a song about laying down roots wherever you are no matter what the circumstances may be, and it will be featured on our upcoming album named after our new hometown, Travelers Rest. On Garden we had the privilege of working with the great Brittany Haas who really brought this song to life with her beautiful fiddling. Thanks for listening!”
It is a gorgeous track. Have a listen…
Garden from The Foreign Landers is available now as a single from popular download and streaming services online. Pre-orders for the full Travelers Rest album are also enabled online, for both download and on CD, at the Benedicts’ Bandcamp site. Delivery is anticipated for November 12. Album pre-orders include streaming of two of the project’s 12 tracks.
