Buddy Miller’s Majestic Silver Strings New West Records

Buddy Miller, named Artist of the Decade by No Depression Magazine, teamed up with esteemed guitarists Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell and Greg Leisz to create The Majestic Silver Strings, a monumental musical experience to be released on CD, with bonus DVD, March 1, 2011 via New West Records.

The Majestic Silver Strings, produced by Buddy, is his re-imagination of country songs, loaded with guitars, atmosphere and attitude. Guest vocalists on the album include Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin, Lee Ann Womack, Chocolate Genius, Ann McCrary and Julie Miller. Rounding out the band are Dennis Crouch on bass and Jay Bellerose on drums. The Majestic Silver Strings and the album’s guests are among the most well respected and in-demand current musicians. Making a record of this caliber was a dream and took luck of scheduling to make come true. A bonus DVD with concert footage of the first, and only performance to date with Buddy, Marc, Bill and Greg playing the tracks selected for this project, will be included with the CD. The musicians re-interpret classic country songs written by some of the most esteemed songwriters including Lefty Frizzell, Roger Miller and George Jones, whose hit “Why Baby Why” is sung by Buddy on the record. The band also tackles a few traditional compositions and several new songs including “God’s Wing’d Horse” written by Julie Miller and Bill Frisell. Many projects boast one guest vocalist; Buddy has six revered friends lending their voices to the recording including Emmylou Harris on “Why I’m Walkin’” and Lee Ann Womack on “Meds.” Buddy also does a duet of “I Want To Be With You Always” with Patty Griffin.

The musicians re-interpret classic country songs written by some of the most esteemed songwriters including Lefty Frizzell, Roger Miller and George Jones, whose hit “Why Baby Why” is sung by Buddy on the record. The band also tackles a few traditional compositions and several new songs including “God’s Wing’d Horse” written by Julie Miller and Bill Frisell. Many projects boast one guest vocalist; Buddy has six revered friends lending their voices to the recording including Emmylou Harris on “Why I’m Walkin’” and Lee Ann Womack on “Meds.” Buddy also does a duet of “I Want To Be With You Always” with Patty Griffin.

Buddy, who has spent much of this year on the road leading Robert Plant’s Band of Joy, recently collaborated with both Plant and Patty Griffin to produce two of the current Grammy® nominated albums. (Robert Plant’s Band Of Joy is nominated in the Best Americana Album category while Patty Griffin’s Downtown Church is nominated in the Best Traditional Gospel Album category.) Buddy currently holds the Americana Music Association honor as Instrumentalist of the Year, while two years ago he swept the awards taking home trophies in almost every category including Album of the Year for Written in Chalk, a collaboration with his wife Julie. Written In Chalk, only the second collaboration from the couple, quickly received high marks among the industry's elite critics including 4 stars in Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times, Maverick and Mojo.

Bill Frisell is one of the most sought-after guitar voices in contemporary music. His prominence as a composer and bandleader has grown steadily over the past 25 years. He has also contributed to the work of such collaborators as Elvis Costello, Paul Motian, Jim Hall, Ginger Baker, Jack Dejohnette, Ron Carter, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, Suzanne Vega, Loudon Wainwright III, Van Dyke Parks, Vic Chesnutt, Buddy Miller, Rickie, Lee Jones, Ron Sexsmith, and numerous others, including Bono, Brian Eno, Jon Hassell and Daniel Lanois on the soundtrack for Wim Wenders’ film Million Dollar Hotel.

Greg Leisz is an American guitarist and multi instrumentalist known particularly for his work on lap and pedal steel guitars. A native of Southern California, he began playing guitar in the fertile garage band scene of the early to mid 60's and was soon drawn into the west coast's emerging synthesis of folk, rock, blues, and country music. In the late 80’s/early 90s Greg played on a number of seminal albums by emerging roots artists and singer / songwriters including Jim Lauderdale, Dave Alvin and kd lang. Since then he has had an extremely prolific career as a studio and touring musician playing on hundreds of albums by a wide variety of artists including Willie Nelson, Joni Mitchell, Emmylou Harris, Beck, Allison Krauss and Robert Plant, John Fogerty, Miranda Lambert, Lucinda Williams and Ray Lamontagne. Greg has also collaborated on a number of projects with fellow Majestic Silver Strings member Bill Frisell. In 2010, he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement for Instrumentalist Award by the Americana Music Association.

Marc Ribot, who the New York Times describes as “a deceptively articulate artist who uses inarticulateness as an expressive device,” has released 19 albums under his own name over a 30-year career, exploring everything from the pioneering jazz of Albert Ayler to the Cuban son of Arsenio Rodríguez. Rolling Stone points out that “Guitarist Marc Ribot helped Tom Waits refine a new, weird Americana on 1985's Rain Dogs, and since then he's become the go-to guitar guy for all kinds of roots- music adventurers: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Elvis Costello, John Mellencamp.” Additional recording credits include Elton John/Leon Russell’s latest The Union, Solomon Burke, John Lurie, Marianne Faithful, Joe Henry, Allen Toussaint, Marisa Monte, Allen Ginsburg, Trey Anastasio, Madeline Peyroux, Patti Scialfa, Sam Phillips, Akiko Yano, The Black Keys, and many others. Marc works regularly with Grammy®award winning producer T Bone Burnett and NY composer John Zorn. He has also performed on scores such as "Walk The Line (Mangold)," "The Kids Are All Right," and "The Departed" (Scorcese)."

MAJESTIC SILVER STRINGS TRACK LIST: 1. Cattle Call Buddy Miller sings 2. No Good Lover Buddy Miller & Ann McCrary sing 3. I Want To Be With You Always Buddy Miller & Patty Griffin sing 4. Barres De La Prison Marc Ribot sings 5. Meds Lee Ann Womack sings 6. Dang Me Chocolate Genius sings 7. Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie Marc Ribot sings 8. That’s The Way Love Goes Shawn Colvin sings 9. Freight Train Instrumental 10. Why I’m Walkin’ Emmylou Harris sings 11. Why Baby Why Buddy Miller & Marc Ribot sing 12. Return To Me Lee Ann Womack sings 13. God’s Wing’ed Horse Buddy & Julie Miller sing

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