Lawson Rollins’ recordings
have always possessed a grand sense of travel, exoticism and adventure,
narrated by the global guitarist’s prodigious and alacritous classical
fingerstyle play that Guitar Player magazine recently spotlighted by selecting
Rollins as one of the “50 Transcendent Acoustic Guitarists” of all-time. After
embarking upon a creative departure on a few recent projects, the chart-topping
composer-producer-musician, best known for crafting lush amalgams of
contemporary jazz, world music, Latin and New Age over the past twenty years,
charts a more familiar course on his tenth solo album, “True North,” dropping
January 17, 2020 on Infinita Records. Yet there is a marked difference in his
approach.
The prolific Rollins spent the last couple of years
exploring vast horizons. Last year, he assembled “Airwaves: The Greatest Hits,”
which includes the Billboard top 10 hit “World of Wonder” featuring 3rd Force
and earlier this year, he released the experimental “Dark Matter: Music for
Film.” Rollins also scored his first feature film, “Stay Out Stay Alive,” a
multiple award-winning movie opening November 26 for which he served as
executive producer of the film festival favorite. These diverse projects
broadened the scope of his artistic muse, now budding in entirely new and
different dimensions. Culling elements from each one, Rollins picked up his
trusty acoustic nylon string guitar and utilized a fresh approach to write and
produce “True North,” the first album that he produced entirely on his own. The
wide array of projects also impacts the way he plays guitar, which exhibits a
keener focus, discipline and restraint.
“The past couple of years have really expanded my musical
horizons through my work on film music and also the single, ‘And If You Will
Come With Me’ by Israeli superstar singer Idan Raichel. Those experiences
forced me to hone down my quite often exuberant nylon string guitar style to
suit the needs of the particular projects and also to delve more seriously into
other instruments like the electric guitar, synthesizers and electronic
percussion programming. With ‘True North,’ I was able to bring that new knowledge
and perspective back home, in a sense, to the type of nylon string
guitar-centered music that has been my true calling as an artist over the past
20 years,” said the San Francisco-based Rollins who hails from Durham, North
Carolina.
“This is the first album I solely produced and also recorded
all my guitars myself. I was able to take my time to capture performances that
felt natural and unhurried to me, and I'm also really pleased with the warmth
and purity of the acoustic guitar tone."
Change is also evident on the album cover and in the
accompanying booklet, which are bright with pastoral colors and sunlight in
photos taken on the Outer Banks, North Carolina, where Rollins spends a lot of
time each year. Before the holidays next month, radio outlets will get to
experience the first single from “Truth North” when “Bluewave Bossanova,” a
sultry dance of textured world beat rhythms and an impassioned surge of guitar
arpeggios, scales and harmonies, goes for playlist adds. The radio edit
includes the addition of a sensitive soprano sax played by Mary Fettig.
Rollins thrives on the collection, stretching out by playing
nylon string guitar, slide guitar and electric guitar along with keyboards and
drum programming. He’s accompanied by drummer and percussionist Dave Bryant,
bassist Dan Feiszli, violinist Mads Tolling and Stephen Duros who plays
additional keyboards and electric guitar on “With the Wind,” an eclectic and
imaginative album highlight destined to blow to the top of the radio charts.
“Many of the tracks, such as the title track as well as
‘With the Wind’ and ‘Dead Ahead,’ are unlike anything I've ever done, with new
textures augmenting the familiar sound of my main instrument, the acoustic
nylon string guitar. There's a more intense focus on melodic expression on this
album and less on long improvisational flights of fancy. It's all about staying
firmly on course - true north, as it were - and doing what serves the songs
best."
Rollins’ unique brand defies simple categorization and has
proven crossover appeal. He has placed albums in the top ten of Billboard’s
World Music chart and his singles have conquered the contemporary jazz charts
as well as garnered an abundance of airplay from world music and New Age
outlets. Videos showcasing his lightning speed, extraordinary dexterity and
mesmerizing guitar technique have received over 10 million YouTube views. After
debuting in 2000 as a member of Young & Rollins, a duo that dropped four
albums, Rollins premiered as a solo artist in 2008 with “Infinita.” His albums
serve collaborations with an assorted mix of GRAMMY® winners and nominees that
spans Tolling, guitar eccentric Buckethead, Flora Purim, Airto Moreira, Big Bad
Voodoo Daddy and Charlie Bisharat.
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