recordings
Sweet Loam
Sweet Loam is mandolinist Joe Walsh’s second solo record, and is the product of several years worth of composing, playing, gigging and traveling within the greater bluegrass and folk community. Featuring some of the finest acoustic musicians found anywhere, including the Gibson Brothers (with whom Joe plays mandolin full time) and Darol Anger, the record is an eleven course musical menu of tastefulness. Made up of new tunes composed for the session, songs reimagined for this setting, and all around inspired playing, Sweet Loam is an exceptionally listenable record.
Released 29 March 2011.
Sample Tracks:
1. Ain’t No One Like You, Solly’s Little Favorite
2. Wolfcat Breakdown
The players:
Joe Walsh – mandolin and vocals
Darol Anger – fiddle
Scott Law – guitar
Karl Doty – bass
Mike Block – cello
Wes Corbett – banjo
Leigh Gibson – guitar and vocals (tracks 7 and 8)
Eric Gibson – banjo and vocals (tracks 7 and 8)
Clayton Campbell – fiddle (tracks 7 and 8)
Mike Barber – bass (tracks 7 and 8)
Owen Marshall – guitar (tracks 3 and 6)
Matt Shipman – guitar (track 9)
Lincoln Meyers – guitar (track 2)
Amanda Kowalski – bass (track 2)
Maeve Gilchrist – vocals (track 5)
Lauren Rioux – fiddle (tracks 1, 4, and 5)
Saturday Night Waltz
Mandolinist Joe Walsh plays with some of the best acoustic acts in New England, teaches a full roster of guitar and mandolin students near his home in Portland, Maine, dodges questions about the Eagles’ guitar player, and is continually searching for the perfect burrito. Originally from Minnesota, he moved to the northeast to enroll at the Berklee college of Music in Boston, MA, as the school’s first mandolin student (and graduate). After his arrival out east he helped start the modern string band Joy Kills Sorrow and joined two of the finest bluegrass-based acts around in Northern Lights and the New England Bluegrass Band. These days Joe splits his playing time between the Gibson Brothers and Scott Nygaard
Joe’s first solo record “Saturday Night Waltz” features many of the finest acoustic musicians in New England, including fiddle players Mike Barnett, Tashina and Tristan Clarridge, guitar players Matt Arcara, Flynn Cohen and Lincoln Meyers, banjo player Wes Corbett, dobro player Roger Williams, cellist Natalie Haas, bass players Karl Doty and Ashleigh Caudill, as well as vocals by Ben Demerath and Maya Lerman. With one foot in the past and one in the present, Saturday Night Waltz is an exciting snapshot of the extremely fertile and creative bluegrass scene that is blossoming in and around Boston.
