Reel World String Band

The Reel World String Band is celebrating its 30th year of performing. Their new CD Live Music has just been released. It was engineered and produced by Kiya Heartwood, Outlaw Hill Studio. The fiddling and singing of the band has never been better. Originals of the band fill this CD with newfound spirit. Bev Futrell's song about Bill Monroe and the environment, ,is a defining moment for this band so committed to the region, its music and its beauty. The creative edge of this new CD shows off a stylistic diversity. Keyboardist Elise Melrood's instrumental Karsen's Reel is highly arranged and ethereal. Sue Massek writes of Mother Jones' daughters in the union song Cosby and Karen Jones swings with her playful lyrics in Gone Camping.

Not only has the band been in the studio for this latest release, but Reel World continues to perform throughout the region, collaborating with writers (recently with Kentucky native Silas House), activists (Sierra Club and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth) and other singer songwriters (recently recorded a CD with Joyce Brookshire, Cabbagetown Ballad, produced by Elise Witt & DeDe Vogt). The band is revered as a Kentucky historical treasure having been featured along with musicians Loretta Lynn, Helen Humes and numerous other Kentucky celebrities, in Kentucky Women: Two Centuries of Indomitable Spirit and Vision, 1997, edited by Eugenia K. Potter, giving credence to the band's longevity and contribution to the rich musical heritage of Kentucky.