New Music coming!!
We are excited that our new project, Aeonic, to be released January 4, 2019 by Mountain Home.
We are excited that our new project, Aeonic, to be released January 4, 2019 by Mountain Home. Listen to the first single Get Me GoneHERE
Rolling Stone gave us some love for Get Me Gone- read what they had to say HERE
New Music!
So excited y'all! We will soon bring our latest project with Atlanta Pops Orchestra Ensemble, “Mountain Overture,” to the stage at MerleFest, one of the country’s premier music festivals, in Wilkesboro, North Carolina.
So excited y'all! We will soon bring our latest project with Atlanta Pops Orchestra Ensemble, “Mountain Overture,” to the stage at MerleFest, one of the country’s premier music festivals, in Wilkesboro, North Carolina.
We think MerleFest a fitting place for us and the Atlanta Pops Orchestra Ensemble to showcase “Mountain Overture” collaboration in a live setting. We sure hope you'll join us
“Mountain Overture,” from Mountain Home Music Company, takes the band’s most-loved songs and elevates them, pulling together the rustic and symphonic for a profound effect. The music scores, arranged by Wes Funderburk and Shelley Washington lift the heartfelt tale of “Trains I Missed” (IBMA 2011 Song of the Year), intensify the sentimental longing of “Blue Mountain,” and draw out the melancholia of “I Hear the Mountains.”
Balsam Range and Atlanta Pops Orchestra Ensemble will perform Friday, April 27 — the day “Mountain Overture” is released — on the Watson Stage. Fans can get a preview of what they will hear on Thursday, April 26 when “Mountain Overture” streams at The Bluegrass Situation ->HERE
Find more information about the festival HERE and pre-order “Mountain Overture”HERE.
The Atlanta Pops Orchestra Ensemble is a 14-piece version of the typically 36-piece Atlanta Pops Orchestra. This condensed ensemble was established during the 70th anniversary season of the Atlanta Pops Orchestra in 2015, in order to take advantage of new opportunities for the Atlanta Pops to perform in situations that are more conducive to a smaller group of musicians. These have included collaborative performances with Zac Brown Band's founding member John Driskell Hopkins at nightclubs, restaurants and churches, with the Joe Gransden Big Band at the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center 2017 Holiday Gala in Atlanta, GA and with Balsam Range at the 2016 & 2017 Art of Music Festivals in Lake Junaluska, NC. The Atlanta Pops Orchestra Ensemble is comprised of string, woodwind, brass and rhythm section musicians from the Atlanta Pops Orchestra.
Can't wait to see everyone on the road this summer! Check out our tour dates!!
We love y'all!
Buddy, Tim, Darren, Caleb and Mar
Spring Tour/ News and updates
We are playing a few brand new (to us) festivals, and are tickled to be returning to some of our favorites, too.
Happy March!
The warmer weather is a nice reminder that festival season is right around the corner! We are playing a few brand new (to us) festivals, and are tickled to be returning to some of our favorites, too. Full tour and ticket links are updated right here on the TOUR PAGE. We've enjoyed quite a few sell-out shows all over the country this winter! We are truly thankful for each of you that come out to see us. It sounds cliché, but you're the reason we are able to make this music that we love so dearly! So thank YOU!
was gracious enough to take time out of her rock-star photography schedule to come see some bluegrass at
in Georgia for our sold out show last week! Hop joined us on a few tunes too! Can you tell we have fun with him?
Check her out, she does amazing work!
Darren has been hard at work this winter writing and recording his first all instrumental mandolin record! This is something he has wanted to do for a while, and he is pretty excited about it! If you follow him on Facebook, (bless your heart) you've probably seen the updates from him as the project has progressed. Be on the look out for that dandy to release soon!
We are excited to announce that Balsam Range will also be putting out a new project in 2018, a collection of some of our favorite BR songs in a collaboration with the Atlanta Pops Orchestra! Those of you that have attended the Balsam Range Art Of Music Festival, have heard the Pops ensemble and Balsam Range together live. We think it's a great unique combination, so we've joined forces once again to put out an album together! Lots more info on this as it comes together. *Special shout out to our pal, Hop (John Driskell Hopkins) for recording this project with us in his amazing studio, Brighter Shade Studios in Atlanta, GA.
March and April dates. See y'all on the road soon!Buddy, Marc, Tim, Darren and Caleb
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.
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.