Patchwork River

Patchwork can refer to a collection of incongruous pieces, parts not necessarily united into a whole. But sometimes, in the hands of great craftsmen and women, those parts merge into a thing of beauty and warmth. Patchwork River weaves together the lyrical mastery of Robert Hunter (Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan) and the songcraft of Grammy Award-winning artist Jim Lauderdale into something greater than the sum of its considerable parts. Jim is doing it the slow way. He never got the lucky breaks that shoot one performer to the top while hundreds of equal or greater merit slog around playing bars, releasing streetwise records that provide songs for others to cover. But doing it the hard way is where soul comes from, not the manufactured kind but the real thing. We all know this by heart, we ve seen the movie. Well, Jim is a movie of his own. I m proud to call him a friend and I know what I say is true. This man has what it takes. If you don t like country with a humble jolt of human soul, leave him alone. - Robert Hunter on Jim Lauderdale Robert has been a master for a long time now. He s one of the greatest writers that has ever lived in my book. He says things in songs that have never been said before. He paints pictures that have never been seen. I can t believe that I ever got to meet him, much less work with him. He s a world class genius. Jim Lauderdale on Robert Hunter

Jim Lauderdale has never been known to shy away from a worthwhile collaboration, having cut some outstanding sessions with bluegrass icon Ralph Stanley and sat in with a broad range of artists from Lucinda Williams and Dwight Yoakam to Solomon Burke and Elvis Costello.