Pharis and Jason Romero have detailed a new album. The award-winning, BC-based duo will share Tell 'Em You Were Gold on June 17 via Smithsonian Folkways Records.
Following 2020's Bet On Love, Tell 'Em You Were Gold was recorded over six days in an old barn on the couple's homestead in Horsefly, BC — a structure the duo worked to restore themselves through milling their own spruce, hoisting beams, and rebuilding its roof.
Pharis and Jason share in liner notes that as a result, "The music made on this record was made in the spirit of that working transformation and in the spirit of the history that old barn contains." Joining the duo on their seventh album are fiddlers Grace Forrest and Trent Freeman, pedal steel player Marc Jenkins, bassist Patrick Metzger and mandolinist John Reischman.
Album opener "Souvenir" and "Pale Morning" arrive alongside the project's announcement, and you can hear them both below. The former also lands alongside a music video, and despite its place in the tracklisting, Pharis reveals "Souvenir" came together on the final day of recording.
"The banjo and guitar vibe changed as soon as we sat down to play it. Jason retuned the banjo and switched from clawhammer to a rhythmic fingerstyle; I slowed the guitar down and played heavy on the downbeat. A couple takes in, and the song sat where you hear it now," she shared in a statement. "The words are about how experiences in life become souvenirs of times, places and people. It's about keeping yourself centred as you carry them. In other words, the souvenirs don't become you - you are at the core of them, and you are gold."
Tell 'Em You Were Gold is now available for pre-order.
Tell 'Em You Were Gold:
1. Souvenir
2. Cold Shout
3. Rolling Mills
4. Sour Queen
5. Pale Morning
6. Trains on the Island
7. Lady on the Green
8. Cannot Change It All
9. The Dose
10. SS Radiant
11. Been All Around This World
12. Black Guard Mary
13. Going to Town
14. Going Across the Sea
15. Five Miles from Town
16. Old Bill's Tune
Following 2020's Bet On Love, Tell 'Em You Were Gold was recorded over six days in an old barn on the couple's homestead in Horsefly, BC — a structure the duo worked to restore themselves through milling their own spruce, hoisting beams, and rebuilding its roof.
Pharis and Jason share in liner notes that as a result, "The music made on this record was made in the spirit of that working transformation and in the spirit of the history that old barn contains." Joining the duo on their seventh album are fiddlers Grace Forrest and Trent Freeman, pedal steel player Marc Jenkins, bassist Patrick Metzger and mandolinist John Reischman.
Album opener "Souvenir" and "Pale Morning" arrive alongside the project's announcement, and you can hear them both below. The former also lands alongside a music video, and despite its place in the tracklisting, Pharis reveals "Souvenir" came together on the final day of recording.
"The banjo and guitar vibe changed as soon as we sat down to play it. Jason retuned the banjo and switched from clawhammer to a rhythmic fingerstyle; I slowed the guitar down and played heavy on the downbeat. A couple takes in, and the song sat where you hear it now," she shared in a statement. "The words are about how experiences in life become souvenirs of times, places and people. It's about keeping yourself centred as you carry them. In other words, the souvenirs don't become you - you are at the core of them, and you are gold."
Tell 'Em You Were Gold is now available for pre-order.
Tell 'Em You Were Gold:
1. Souvenir
2. Cold Shout
3. Rolling Mills
4. Sour Queen
5. Pale Morning
6. Trains on the Island
7. Lady on the Green
8. Cannot Change It All
9. The Dose
10. SS Radiant
11. Been All Around This World
12. Black Guard Mary
13. Going to Town
14. Going Across the Sea
15. Five Miles from Town
16. Old Bill's Tune