Festivals, Happenings, Tour Dates Katherine Forbes Festivals, Happenings, Tour Dates Katherine Forbes

It's time for the Art Of Music Festival!

We've been waiting for this for a long time, but it's here! This weekend, December 2 and 3, we will present the Balsam Range Art Of Music Festival. We are so proud to be able to produce an event like this in Haywood County, NC. We know that people are coming from all over the country to spend some time in our home area. The weather report looks great, and the musical lineup is really something special. Marty Stuart and The Fabulous Superlatives, The Lonesome River Band, John Driskell Hopkins, and even the Atlanta Pops Orchestra. Balsam Range will be playing both nights, including a set with the Atlanta Pops on Friday night. We even have some special guests playing some Christmas music with the orchestra. Our pals from our recording studio will be there as well. Plus some special guests sprinkled in for good measure!

There will be workshops of all kinds, and fun audience participation events as well.

There are a few tickets left, but will be gone soon! We sure hope you can come see our home and hear some great music!

Check out the festival page right off of this website. It has all the details!

Tim

Read More
Albums Katherine Forbes Albums Katherine Forbes

Today is the day! Mountain Voodoo is out!

We are so proud to bring you our new album, Mountain Voodoo, and it's available TODAY!!

We took a long time picking songs, arranging, and recording the songs. We are proud of the results, and we think you are going to love it. This is the best collection of songs we have ever had. There is a story in every one of them.  We encourage you to get it today! You can get it at balsamrange.com, iTunes, Amazon, all the usual places!

Here is what the press is saying.

The Journal of Roots Music

OCTOBER 18, 2016God, but I love vocal bluegrass. There is something in those harmonies, especially with the high lonesome wail, which brings me to my knees. I am not religious but I could see where one might be converted after hearing great vocal bluegrass groups like Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver or the Seldom Scene. The songs don't have to be religious in nature -- just the music can do it. Even I, heathen that I am, can feel something tugging at my soul when I hear it.

Part of that might have to do with my father, who loved the music as much as I did. When I was a kid, we would watch The Grand Ole Opry, and even before that, we'd listen to it on the radio. We loved all of the music but when they played a vocal bluegrass song it almost made us stop breathing, it was so good. Jimmy Martin, Bill Monroe -- when they came on, all talking stopped.

Dad always said that if there was more music and less talk in church, he might actually go.

I miss those times. I miss my father. I wish he could be here with me so we could listen to Balsam Range's Voodoo Mountain together. He would love it.

The group kicks off the album with a bang. This is pure (what was once called) Newgrass, the kind of stuff on which Tony Rice and Ricky Skaggs based their reputations. It features acoustic guitar (mostly picked), bass, mandolin, fiddle, and banjo -- and voices. The voices are crucial. You can jig and reel and you can breakdown without vocals, but you cannot have the best of what bluegrass offers without great vocals.

Think harmonies sung by angels. Think harmonies stacked to the ceiling. There isn't anything like it, or as some of my friends would say, “There ain't nothin' lak it.”

Oh, it's not all smooth as glass.

“Hello Heartache” is swing straight out of the Bob Wills and Lefty Frizzell songbooks. Rice and Skaggs could have played “Don't Walk Away” during their stint with the Bluegrass Album Band. “Wish You Were Here” could squeeze tears from a stone. “I Hear the Mountains” would easily be a hit for someone the caliber of Vince Gill, which is not to say that these guys do not do it service.

Want a little breakdown? “Chain Gang Blues” more than fills the bill.

All told, Balsam Range serve up 13 songs on this album, every one a beauty.

Read More