It's been more than a year since we first gathered in the studio to begin recording as many songs as was humanly possible for extremely busy folks to do on scattered schedules, with professional and personal obligations constantly interconnecting, dates and players juggled, day to day, week to week for months and months. I spent three weeks touring Iowa, then North Carolina and Kentucky and, most recently, New York State and New England. Matt worked feverishly to finish Far Away Again for the August 13, 2023 release concert. Recording took him from Indy to NYC, and all the way to Poland, for a magnificent collaboration of players from the US, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine and Canada. (Rusty and I included) In October of 2023 Matt relocated to Chicago, and Peddler's French will have their first ChiTown concert on April 18th at Uncommon Grounds Lakeview.
Through it all we kept working on our next release, an entire album of songs of Huskies, mushers, bush pilots, and wilderness trails. Trail Angels has been two years in the making, the very first song, 16 Huskies; Into the Northern Lights, having manifested in January of 2022, the result of hearing tales of mushing across the Alaskan tundra from veteran dog sled racer, writer and public speaker, Karen Land. Huskies became the first of many lyric collaborations, and I'm very excited to be so near to releasing to the world 10 songs with words by Karen and myself. (One instrumental Matt and I did for all you old time cloggers and flat foot dancers out there)
So, coming soon is Trail Angels, 11 songs about dogs, the Arctic, mushers, pilots, and the people who love them. Two years, a dozen guest musicians, and many, many sessions later, the album will be released in May, available for pre-sale a week or so before the official release date. Thank you, Matt, Rusty, Danny, Zorba, Ray, Melodi, Bruce, JD, Dan and Bill for making the album possible. You all sound great!
Here's a sneak peak at the album art by Iditarod photographer, Jeff Schultz.
