MAY 22
PHARIS AND JASON ROMERO
Pharis & Jason have just released their third record as a duet. It's called A Wanderer I'll Stay, and the timing feels perfect. After their second release Long Gone Out West Blues came out in early 2013, they found themselves with a highly acclaimed album, one with a "refreshing veteran spirit", in keeping with their love of songs new and old.
Singing vibrant duets, writing heartbreaking songs, playing hand-made banjos and loving old acoustic guitars, Long Gone Out West Blues won this small town BC couple a Canadian Folk Music Award for Traditional Singer (and nominated for Traditional Album of the Year), an Independent Music Award nomination for Americana Album, and two Western Canadian Music Awards nominations. It was included on many Best of 2013 lists. Now raising a family while sustaining on an ever-growing line of custom handmade banjos, Pharis and Jason have carved out new songs - heartbreak to wilderness dwellers, gourd banjo instrumentals to moaning refrains - and put their singularly recognizable stamp on some beautiful covers. A Wanderer I'll Stay is a new step for the pair, with instrumental guests on fiddle, bass, pedal steel and even drums. Recorded at their home in Horsefly in early winter this album and the live performances of the new songs are a wonderful evolution of this duo's never-ending quest for good songs and beautiful sounds.