Freehand

Originally released in 2003 I titled this album Freehand because it developed over time with no overarching plan. I would go into the studio when I had something I believed in and gathered the cuts in an improvisational way. As I said in the original liner notes, when I was in art school we'd often start a drawing class by fixing our eyes on a subject and letting our pencils glide across the paper, delineating the picture that was framed in our mind's eye. Never looking at the paper. Freehand. Loose. Fluid. Feeling the connection, the contour, the groove. That's the feeling I hoped to capture. I was particularly honored on this album to play with two of my dobro heroes, mentors, and friends, Mike Auldridge and Stacy Phillips. I learned to play the dobro by dropping the needle 10 thousand times on Mike's groundbreaking "Dobro" album and internalizing every note. Stacy's playing on Tony Trishcka's album "Bluegrass Light" showed me a spirit of adventure, playfulness, and joy that illustrated how the dobro could fit in any kind of music. I've tried to incorporate the lessons I learned from them in my own music. This album is dedicated to two other great artists, mentors, and friends- John Jackson & John Hartford Special Thanks: Parry Marston • Richard Russell • John Miller • Brad Inserra • Becky Knowles • Josh & Evelyn Graves • John O • Trish Byerly • Emily, Miles, & Sarah Laven • Bruce Lamb • Stuart Brune • Ron Phillips • Michael Dunn • Shirley Lowe •