Arden, North Carolina — A living legend recently inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, master mandolin player and singer Roland White is celebrating a trailblazing period of his storied career with new recordings of songs he helped make classic a half century ago. Roland White and Friends: A Tribute to the Kentucky Colonels is a collection of hand-picked favorites that comprise an ultimate tribute to a groundbreaking era in the genre. The album is available for pre-order HERE and will be released from Mountain Home Music Company on October 26.
Featuring a broad range of some of today’s most talked-about acoustic musicians and singers, the project offers a new take on the magic of the original music made by the Colonels in key live and studio recordings from the early 1960s.
The Kentucky Colonels — with the line-up Roland first formed in 1954 — became one of roots music’s most iconic bands. It is only now, decades later, that we can see the strong threads of musical influences the group has had on bluegrass and the greater acoustic music world. Acknowledging that influence — and White’s career-long generosity to younger musicians — this special project from Mountain Home Music Company produced by Ty Gilpin and Jon Weisberger, set out to join the pioneering artist with a myriad of today’s players who both respect the legacy of White and the Kentucky Colonels and do justice to it by capturing the excitement, instrumental prowess, and emotionally delivered vocal performances for which the Colonels were known.
With artists Brooke and Darin Aldridge, Kristin Scott Benson, Aaron Bibelhauser, Russ Carson, Jeremy Darrow, Nick Dauphinais, Gina Furtado, Jeremy Garrett, David Greer, Brittany Haas, Josh Haddix, Justin Hiltner, Lindsay Lou, Kimber Ludiker, Drew Matulich, Patrick McAvinue, Darren Nicholson, Lyndsay Pruett, Jon Stickley, Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, and Jon Weisberger, Roland White and Friends: A Tribute to the Kentucky Colonels reignites the spirit of the past and brings it to the present, transforming the music into modern-day classics.