Mount Royal (album)

Last updated
Mount Royal
Mount Royal (album).jpg
Studio album by
Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge
ReleasedFebruary 24, 2017 (2017-02-24)
StudioEMP Studios, Valley Village, CA
Genre Bluegrass, Jazz, Folk music
Length41:36
Label Free Dirt
DIRT-CD-0081
Producer Gabe Witcher
Julian Lage chronology
Arclight
(2016)		Mount Royal
(2017)		 Modern Lore
(2018)
Chris Eldridge chronology
The Phosphorescent Blues
(2011)		Mount Royal
(2017)		 All Ashore
(2018)

Mount Royal is an album by guitarists Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge which was released by the Free Dirt label in 2017. [1] [2] The record was nominated for a Grammy in the "Best Contemporary Instrumental Album" category. [3]

Julian Lage American musician

Julian Lage is an American guitarist and composer.

Chris Eldridge is an American guitarist and singer. He is a member of Punch Brothers and frequently performs in a duo with fellow guitarist Julian Lage. He is also the guitarist in the house band on Live From Here. He was a founding member of the bluegrass band The Infamous Stringdusters. His father is noted banjoist Ben Eldridge of the Seldom Scene.

Free Dirt Records

Free Dirt Records is a Grammy-nominated independent record label founded in 2006 by John Smith and Erica Haskell that releases folk and roots music.

Contents

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
The Absolute Sound Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [4]

The Absolute Sound review by Greg Cahill said "Mount Royal finds the two guitarists exploring atmospheric acoustic tunes, soft-jazzy instrumentals, and the occasional lyrical ballad. There is also a pair of straight-ahead bluegrass instrumentals on which the guitarists weave crosspicked lines to create lacy melodies. “Goldacre” is a better example of how these talented pickers can blend seemingly divergent styles, with Lage adding his moody minor-chord accents to Eldridge’s traditional bluegrass runs. I had hoped for more of that latter approach, in which the duo unites to create a distinctive, blended sound, rather than alternating between their very different styles". [4]

<i>The Absolute Sound</i>

The Absolute Sound (TAS) is an American magazine which reviews audiophile-oriented sound-reproduction equipment, along with recordings and comments on various music-related subjects.

On Jazz Weekly, George W. Harris stated "Jazz and bluegrass meet on successful terms ... In a setting like this, the only difference between genres is a few flatted notes here and there, as the easy blues and swing define both artists and guitars". [5]

In The New Yorker Alec Wilkinson wrote "Eldridge’s playing is resourceful and fleet. He prefers the lower intervals of the chords and Lage, at times, likes the higher ones, and they both like a measure of scruffy dissonance. Eldridge has always been an adventurous player, and Lage is unrestrained ... I like everything on the record, but Eldridge’s piercing singing is best, I think, on “Things in Life” and “Sleeping By Myself.” Everything else is simply two acoustic guitars, and, even in our present moment of great richness in music of all kinds, it has the virtue of sounding like nothing else.". [6]

<i>The New Yorker</i> Magazine on politics, social issues, art, humor, and culture, based in New York City

The New Yorker is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Started as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is now published 47 times annually, with five of these issues covering two-week spans. Although its reviews and events listings often focus on the cultural life of New York City, The New Yorker has a wide audience outside New York and is read internationally. It is well known for its illustrated and often topical covers, its commentaries on popular culture and eccentric Americana, its attention to modern fiction by the inclusion of short stories and literary reviews, its rigorous fact checking and copy editing, its journalism on politics and social issues, and its single-panel cartoons sprinkled throughout each issue.

Track listing

All compositions by Chris Eldridge and Julian Lage except where noted.

  1. "Bone Collector" – 4:47
  2. "Rygar" (Chris Eldridge) – 3:24
  3. "Everything Must Go" – 4:53
  4. "Things in Life" (Don Stover) – 3:21
  5. "Old Grimes" – 2:51
  6. "Henry" (Julian Lage) – 3:49
  7. "Sleeping By Myself" (Eddie Vedder) – 2:42
  8. "Broadcast" (Lage) – 3:27
  9. "Goldacre" (Lage) – 3:25
  10. "Lion's Share" – 3:32
  11. "Living in the Mississippi Valley" (John Hartford) – 2:31
  12. "Greener Grass" (Eldridge) – 3:02

Personnel

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References

  1. ↑ LageEldridge.com, accessed May 3, 2019
  2. ↑ Free Dirt Records: album details, accessed May 3, 2019
  3. ↑ Cox, Lauren. "2018 Grammy Award NomineesAnnounced: JAY-Z, Justin Bieber & More". Hollywood Life. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  4. 1 2 Cahill, G. The Absolute Sound Review, accessed May 5, 2019
  5. ↑ Harris, G. W. Jazz Weekly Review, accessed May 3, 2019
  6. ↑ Wilkinson, A. The New Yorker Review, accessed May 3, 2019
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