Latest News
01/11/06
Press Conference Big Success
Our thanks to all the media who turned out for our Hands Across The Water press conference yesterday. More than that though we want to thank all the artists who got up early and came to perform for us as part of the event. Jim Lauderdale, Maura O'Connell, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Jon Randal, John Cowan, Alison Brown, Andrea Zonn, Tim O'Brien and Darrell Scott all performed for a big crowd of television, radio and newspaper people. We will have pictures of the event soon.
A very special thanks to Donica Christensen from Compass Records as well as David Haley for all the work they did to put the event together.
01/09/06
Worldwide Release Dates
Here is a list of our release dates throughout the world in January
Jan. 9 (Australia)
Jan. 9 (NZ)
Jan. 9 (Italy)
Jan. 9 (France)
Jan. 10 (Japan) also our official US street date
Jan. 12 (Spain)
Jan. 13 (Benelux)
Jan. 13 (Germany)
Jan. 17 (Canada)
Jan. 20 (Ireland)
Jan. 23 (UK)
Jan. 23 (Scandinavia)
01/09/06
Meet the Press
We have been putting in our fair share of hours on the radio recently. Andrea and myself appeared on Marcia Campbell's show on XM Satellite Radio a few weeks back as well as on the Pastor Mustard radio show out in Colorado. I also did an interview on Dan Rein's show in Minneapolis this week which will go out on Sunday 15th January. You can listen to the show on the web at 9am central by visiting kfai.org . The show will also be archived for a couple of weeks after the live broadcast.
On Monday 9th Andrea and myself will be interviewed on the Talk of the Town show on Nashville Television. Also on the show our good friend Jon Randall will perform "Get Through It" with Andrea and Alison Brown.
Talk of the Town airs Monday through Friday from 12:30pm until 1:30pm on CBS, NewsChannel5. The same program repeats each day three additional times on cable channel 50, NewsChannel 5 Plus at 2pm, 6pm and 11pm
On Tuesday January 10th Andrea and I will be interviewed on "Tennessee Mornings" on Nashville's Fox 17. Andrea will peform her track from the Hands project, "Standing Still". The show airs from 6 until 8 central time so it will be an early start.
Also on Tuesday 10th a host of our Hands Across The Water performers will gather for a special press conference in Nashville. Darrell Scott, Tim O'Brien, Maura O'Connell, Jim Lauderdale, Alison Brown, Andrea and many more will be there to answer questions and play some tracks from the CD. 12/08/05
Hands Artists Get 14 Grammy Nominations
We are proud today to congratulate our good friends involved in the Hands Across The Water project for 14 Nominations for the 48th Grammy Awards. The awards will be handed out in February in Los Angeles. The nominations were announced this morning and it was gratifying to see so many people who had lent a hand to our own project getting nominated for other great work they produced over the last 12 months. And so in the tradition of all good award shows everywhere, our nominees are;
Marcus Hummon (who sang on Standing Still with Andrea Zonn and Flook) was nominated for 2 awards as a songwriter, Song of the Year and Best Country Song for Bless This Broken Road by Rascal Flatts.
Vince Gill nominated for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for Building Bridges with Brooks and Dunn and Sheryl Crow.
Rodney Crowell gets two nominations, Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for Shelter From The Storm with Emmylou Harris and Best Contemporary Folk Album for The Outsider.
Tim O’Brien nominated for Best Traditional Folk Album for Fiddler’s Green
John Prine is also nominated for Best Contemporary Folk Album for Fair and Square
Jerry Douglas has been nominated for 4 Grammys
Best Country Instrumental Performance for Who’s Your Uncle with Sam Bush and Bela Fleck from The Best Kept Secret
And Unionhouse Branch from Lonely Runs Both Ways by Alison Krauss and Union Station
Best Country Album –Lonely Runs Both Ways
Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for Restless by Alison Krauss and Union Station
Bonnie Raitt who sang on the Beth Nielsen Chapman track is nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for I Will Not Be Broken from the album Souls Alike
And
Gary Paczosa who engineered the Tim O’Brien song on HATW is nominated for two awards
Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical 2 nominations
Deceiver – Chris Thile
Lonely runs Both Ways – Alison Krauss and Union Station
As you can imagine we will be glued to the Grammy’s this year.
12/07/05 Television and Radio
The press coverage has already started here in the US and Andrea and myself have already done a few interviews.
We will also be making some interview appearances on television and radio near you soon, including an interview with "America's Truckin Sweetheart" Marcia Campbell on her syndicated radio show.
On Sunday ( December 11th) Andrea (and maybe me) will appear on KAJX Aspen Public Radio
www.aspenpublicradio.org between 10am and 12 noon MST. This is with the famous Pastor Mustard who has been the MC at the Telluride festival in Colorado for the last 30 years. Just being on with the Pastor is an honor in itself.
We will be appearing with Brian Donovan on WGBH in Boston on his Celtic Sojourn show.
Another appearance will be on Nashville's Fox 17 News on January 10th 2006 with a further interview and live perfromance on Talk of The Town the same day.
I will also be appearing on GAC's On The Edge of Country show, nationwide with Kylie Harris. Stay alert for dates and time of all of these shows and updates for more shows to come.
12/07/05 - Domain Name Boss Runs for Children
 One of the first people who stepped up when we asked for help was Steve Teague the boss over at ClickGroup in the UK. Steve didn't hesitate for a second when we asked him for the use of the handsacrossthewater.com domain name which he owns. He has given us use of the name free of charge and has supported us all through this great journey.
Now Steve is striking out for children in a much more energetic way by running the grueling 26 miles of the London Marathon in aid for children with leukemia. The run takes place on April 23rd 2006.
Anyone who wants to chip in and sponsor Steve on this very worthy but painful run can visit his charity page at;
https://www.bmycharity.com/V2/stevet
Leukemia is a terrible disease and I know from very personal experience how it devastates families all over the world, so if you have any spare change left after buying up all our CDs please pop over and give Steve a few cents and some support. As a bonus he has offered to buy the highest sponsor lunch at a restaurant of their choosing. Hmmmm, I know a really nice one in Hawaii!
11/21/05
The CD will now go on sale in America on December 20th. The date change was due to requests from retailers asking to have it available for the Holiday season. Thanks to our distributors and manufacturers for their great help in getting this done early.
Click HERE to order the CD now!
10/21/05 The CD is in Hand
We finally took delivery of the first batch of promo copies of the Hands Across THe Water CD this week. We think it looks beautiful and we already know it sounds great. It was such a joy to finally see the fruits of all this work become a reality. Now we just have to wait for the release worldwide and for all of you to buy it. In the meantime we have put some more audio samples on the music page HERE. Enjoy!
8/16/05 Release Date Change
After much deliberation we have decided to delay the release of the CD until the anniversary of the Tsunami. We decided that since the anniversary is only a few months away and at a time when people are at their most generous we will be able to raise a lot more money for the children. The CD is ready and we are very excited for you to hear it but our main mission is to help the children and we feel that this postponement will reap more rewards and ensure a better future for them. So be patient and you will have some great music to listen to over the holiday season. In the meantime check out some of the tracks on Candace's website in the news item below.
6/30/05 Hands Team on the Radio
 Andrea and John did two radio interviews this week in the run up to the release. John joined Andrea in Boston where she was appearing with James Taylor as part of the summer tour and they went to the WGBH studios in town to talk to Brian O' Donovan. Brian has an extremely popular Celtic music show called A Celtic Sojourn. Brian did a 45 minute interview with the Hands team and the show will go out in a few weeks. You can check Brian's show at; A Celtic Sojourn
Also the great Candace Corrigan just added the Hands Across The Water show she did a few weeks back with Andrea and John to her website. Candace's show is a Podcast that you can download and listen to on your computer, burn it to disc or add it to your i-Pod. The show has also been taken up by radio stations here in the US and the Podcast is now listed on i-Tunes as well as Podcast Alley. Check out the show and be the first to hear some complete tracks from the albums here; The Nashville Nobody Knows
6/30/05 Cover Art and release date finalized
 At last we can reveal that the Hands Across The Water CD will be released on August 16th. This is great news for us as well as the thousands who have emailed us already to ask when they could buy a copy.
Also we are very proud to reveal the beautiful cover of our album. The cover art was done by Nashville artist Natalie Cox Mead with graphic design for the rest of the cool booklet done by the wonderful Griffin Norman. We think it is both beautiful and perfect for this special project. You can see more work by Natalie at her own web site at; www.nataliecoxmead.com
4/20/05 Rodney Crowell lays down final vocal track of the project
Rodney Crowell live
at Springfest
|
One of the best singer/songwriters to ever have come out of the country and roots music scene, Rodney Crowell became the man who recorded the very last vocal track for the Hands project. Rodney came into Compass studios in Nashville and sang on Paul Brady's version of 40 Shades of Green. The song is very popular in Ireland but despite being written many years ago by Johnny Cash is still relatively unknown in America.
Rodney has been at the forefront of the American music scene for many years as a songwriter and is also a great live performer. Paul Brady is also a successful songwriter having written hits for Santana, Tina Turner and Bonnie Raitt among others. Paul also has a very successful performing career and his latest album is gaining rave reviews worldwide.
4/8/05 The Duhks and Bryan Sutton do their thing
The busiest young band in music right now; The Duhks, finally got time to record their parts for the album over two days in Winnipeg. The band recorded some beautiful parts for a track submitted by Scotland's Karen Matheson and Donald Shaw from the band Capercaillie. The song is a gorgeous old Robert Burns poem called Ae Fond Kiss. While the Duhks were playing their parts in Winnipeg, ace guitarist; Bryan Sutton added his own amazing guitar style to the track in the studio in Nashville. The final mix is one of the most haunting and beautiful tracks on the CD.
04/07/05 Mindy Smith sings with Solas
One of the finest singers and songwriters to have emerged in recent years joined the Hands Across the Water project this week when she sang on the Solas track "Reason Land"
Solas recorded the track at Bil VornDick's studio in Nashville and in various hotel rooms on tour several weeks ago but it was just this week when Mindy finally had the chance to come in and add her unique powerful vocals to the track. The track has already been mixed by the more than capable hands of Andrea and Erick.
3/30/05 Mixing Nearing Final Stages
Beth Nielsen Chapman with
studio engineer Erick
Jascowiak
|
Erick, Andrea and John are back in the studio this week finishing off some more mixes for the project. Last week Beth Nielsen Chapman (pictured right with
Erick Jaskowiak
) dropped by to listen to and approve the final mix of her track. Beth recorded an old hymn, "Be Still My Soul" with Christine Quin and Bonnie Raitt helping out on backing vocals. The track was then downloaded to a studio in Australia where Donald Shaw and Michael McGoldrick, who were on tour with Capercaillie, recorded accordion and flute tracks for the song. The final mix was done at Compass in Nashville.
Other mixes that were finished in the last week include; Fair and Tender Ladies by Tim O'Brien with Lúnasa, Cumberland Plateau by John Cowan with the Brock McGuire Band and This World's Family by Jim Lauderdale and Maura O'Connell. In fact there are now ten tracks completed with just six left to mix.
3/16/05 Welsh star Cerys Matthews joins the team
Welsh Star Cerys
Matthews recording
at Compass
|
In one of the most exciting and fun days in the Hands Across the Water studio so far, Welsh superstar Cerys Matthews joined John and Andrea and a host of Nashville's best session musicians to record a new song for the project. Cerys was the lead singer with the rock band Catatonia who enjoyed huge success in the 90s with hits such as Mulder and Scully. Cerys herself has enjoyed a successful solo career which included a duet with Tom Jones on the song Baby it's Cold Outside. The song Cerys recorded for the Hands project is a traditional Welsh song called An Occasional Song and Cerys sings it in English and her native Welsh. The team were joined in the studio by bassist Byron House, guitarist Steven Sheehan and legendary drummer and percussionist Kenny Malone. The track will also feature the brilliant John Jorgenson on clarinet, Stuart Duncan on fiddle and Tom Britt on guitar.
More News |
