WESTCHESTER, PA (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Appleseed Recordings is delighted to announce that David Bromberg, one of America's foremost "roots" musicians since the Sixties as a solo performer, band leader, and session man, will release his first new studio album since 1990 in February 2007 on the independent, West Chester, Pa.-based CD label. Appleseed will be celebrating its 10th anniversary with this and many other exciting and significant new CDs in the coming year.
Bromberg's new CD, tentatively titled "Try Me One More Time," presents the singer/musician in a solo setting, one man and his guitar(s) exploring his trademark mixture of folk, blues, bluegrass, ragtime, and other "roots" styles on material including the self-penned title track, Bob Dylan's "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry," early Bromberg mentor Rev. Gary Davis's "I Belong to the Band," and Elizabeth Cotten's "Shake Sugaree."
Bromberg, an acknowledged virtuoso on guitar, mandolin, dobro and other stringed instruments, first made a name for himself in the late '60s and early '70s as a musician's musician, working as a session man for Bob Dylan (on "New Morning," "Self Portrait," and "Dylan"), Kris Kristofferson, Tom Paxton, Jerry Jeff Walker (with whom he toured for several years), Eric Andersen, John Prine, Dion, Link Wray, Ringo Starr, and many others. The David Bromberg Big Band, with which he performed and recorded in the late '70s and still reconvenes on occasion, prefigured the raucous, loose-limbed approach to American roots music currently being plied by Bruce Springsteen and his "Seeger Sessions" band.
After touring and recording extensively throughout the '70s, a somewhat burned-out Bromberg stepped off the music industry merry-go-round in 1980, moving from San Francisco to Chicago to study violin making. Lured back to his native East Coast two decades later by an invitation to serve as an artist-in-residence in Wilmington, Del., Bromberg has been operating David Bromberg Fine Violins, a retail shop, in recent years and playing an increasing number of concerts, most frequently as a solo performer. His most recent studio album, "Sideman Serenade," was released in 1990.
"We are so proud to add David Bromberg to our fine roster of musical legends, since David is an incredible musician and performer with a wonderful feeling for so many forms of music," says Appleseed found and president Jim Musselman. "I approached David's manager, Steve Bailey, months ago about David releasing a new recording, and we both convinced David to have fun recording whatever he wanted, with full artistic control."
In signing to Appleseed, Bromberg joins several of his former colleagues now on the label (Tom Paxton, Eric Andersen) and a roster that also includes Pete Seeger, Donovan, Al Stewart, and other folk/Americana/topical music-oriented performers. Appleseed also played a major role in inspiring the new Bruce Springsteen CD, "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions," approaching Springsteen to record a Seeger-related song for its 1998 tribute to folk icon Seeger and his music, "Where Have All the Flowers Gone: The Songs of Pete Seeger." On October 3, Sony will re-release Springsteen's "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions" in an "American Land" edition that includes a version of Seeger's Vietnam-era "Bring Them Home (If You Love Your Uncle Sam)," first updated to reflect the invasion of Iraq with new lyrics by Seeger and Appleseed's Musselman for inclusion on Appleseed's 2003 release "Seeds: The Songs of Pete Seeger, Vol. 3," and now with additional topical lyrics penned by Bruce.
Seeger and Springsteen will be linked again through their participation in another upcoming 2007 release in Appleseed's tenth anniversary year. Seeger, Springsteen, Natalie Merchant and actor Danny Glover are only some of the artists who will be featured on an upcoming CD tentatively titled "Feels Like Home." The CD, which exemplifies Appleseed's mission to "sow the seeds of justice through music while exploring the roots and branches of folk and world music," is part of a project created by the "Give Us Your Poor" national awareness initiative based at UMass Boston in a joint effort with Appleseed and the Berklee School of Music Internship Program. "Feels Like Home" features musical collaborations between nationally established artists in various genres and homeless singers, songwriters and instrumentalists in a consciousness- and fund-raising CD and a separate film.
For more information about David Bromberg, please visit his website at davidbromberg.net. To learn more about Appleseed Recordings, visit www.appleseedrec.com or contact Alan Edwards: (ph) 215-628-4562; (e-mail) Joevinyl@aol.com. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
