Bluegrass Treatments

This photo is a scene from the recording session of an incredible new record, First Dance, by Clayton Mathews. Stream it everywhere. It’s a simply gorgeous, gorgeous bluegrass record filled with beautiful compositions and performances, and also features two Handsome Lady Records Club performances (Handsome Lady Records Club is an on-again mostly off-again other band of mine). Clayton invited us (songwriters Jake Hill, Will Knox, and myself) to come and sing two of our songs, “Courthouse Steps” and “Damn, Damn The Radio”, backed by his perfect arrangements and his amazing band of Hot Boys.

This record sounds SO damn good, I really hope you will take a moment to add it to your day. It will make your heart better. It will help adjust your head. It’s that good.

There are millions of wonderful things to enjoy about this record but Clayton’s pitch and tone on the violin are enough to make this work an essential. His playing is precision without sacrificing soul... something out of reach of 99.9% of fabulously talented musicians. Whenever the works of humanity drag you to bottom of the bottom (as we’ve seen this week), the opportunity to contribute to and participate in works of art like this make me so very glad to be a human animal on this flawed and breathtaking planet.