Pharis & Jason Romero—whose old-time, country-folk, and early roots music has made them three-time Juno Award and seven-time Canadian Folk Music Award winners—recently announced the release of their new album, Tell ’Em You Were Gold, out 17 June 2022 on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.
Today, they share two more new tracks from the album, ‘Cannot Change It All’ and ‘Old Bill’s Tune’. The performances were recorded live in Horsefly, BC. The first song started with a banjo tuning and grew with the lyrics. Pharis wrote the words for ‘Cannot Change It All’ after camping in the Chilcotin mountains while thinking of all the incredible people working to make the world a better, more thoughtful place. She sings an ode to the possibility of a better world with an open-eyed view of just how difficult that world will be to achieve; she carries that knowledge in her tone, never expressing it with words, but in the shadow of heartbreak that flickers through the song.
While the prior track started on the banjo, Pharis and Jason looked to the fiddle for ‘Old Bill’s Tune’. “We wrote a song called ‘Ballad of Old Bill’ and the melody felt like a fiddle tune,” says Pharis. “Originally we worked this up with Josh Rabie on fiddle and John Hurd on bass; on this recording Grace Forrest takes the helm on fiddle with Patrick Metzger on bass.”
Tell ’Em You Were Gold is Pharis and Jason’s seventh album as a duo, and the first since 2020’s Bet on Love which we reviewed here. Our David Morrison waxed lyrical about the duo and will no doubt, do so again soon…he said if you “generally dig soulful roots music written and performed with great skill by couples that are deeply in love, able to rise above unexpected life challenges, and fully focused on their art, you’ll undoubtedly flip for this lovely album.” Listening to this, let’s make that a double flip.
Tell ’Em You Were Gold is out June 17th on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
Pre-order / pre-save here: https://orcd.co/pharis-jason-romero