Pharis & Jason Romero

Pharis and Jason Romero are pure craftspeople.
A renowned banjo builder, Jason spent years developing his own personal designs, and on 'Tell 'Em You Were Gold', his handmade instruments take center stage. Over a half dozen uniquely crafted banjos are played by the duo in the course of the album. There's conviction and delicacy in this music, which ranges from duets that showcase the pair's deep psychic and artistic connection to solo banjo meditations and full band romps. Recorded over six days in an old barn in Horsefly, British Columbia, the album displays the multiple Juno Award-winning duo playing music that is honest, direct, and reflective of life's beauty and knottiness.

Pharis and Jason Romero are pure craftspeople. A renowned banjo builder, Jason spent years developing his own personal designs, and on 'Tell ‘Em You Were Gold,' his handmade instruments take center stage. Over a half dozen uniquely crafted banjos are played by the duo in the course of the album. There’s conviction and delicacy in this music, which ranges from duets that showcase the pair’s deep psychic and artistic connection to solo banjo meditations and full band romps. Recorded over six days in an old barn in Horsefly, British Columbia, the album displays the multiple Juno Award-winning duo playing music that is honest, direct, and reflective of life’s beauty and knottiness.

For fans of Woody Guthrie, Roll Columbia is a trove of new discoveries, and a celebration of his genius and lasting contributions to both the history and musical traditions of the Pacific Northwest. In 1941, the Bonneville Power Administration commissioned Guthrie to write 26 songs that would help promote to the public the construction of dams and hydroelectric power plants along the Columbia River. Seventy-five years later, present-day artists with ties to the Pacific Northwest who have been influenced by this fruitful time in Guthrie’s career have gathered together to record their own interpretations of the songs.

The 'Roll Columbia' project will celebrate the 75th anniversary of Woody Guthrie's incredibly creative month writing songs along the Columbia River back in 1941. We are recording first album to ever include all 26 songs that Guthrie turned in to the Bonneville Power Administration 75 years ago, with many of our region's finest musicians contributing tracks to the project. Though the songs are all about the Columbia River region, their quality and impact over the past decades made them uniquely significant to Guthrie himself and the struggle of the United States to escape the Great Depression. The musicians who've freshly interpreted these songs come from all around our country, and all now reside in the Pacific Northwest.

Chicago-based bluegrass outfit Special Consensus has covered a lot of musical territory in the nearly half a century since banjoist Greg Cahill founded the band in 1975. Two-time GRAMMY nominees and six-time International Bluegrass Music Association winners, the group has amassed an expansive discography of over 20 releases including 2020’s CHICAGO BARN DANCE which highlighted the important role the Windy City played in the early development of bluegrass music.