Tasteful and clean, melody oriented flatpicking bluegrass guitar by this 13 year veteran as lead guitarist for Grammy Award winning Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys.

13 MP3 Songs
COUNTRY: Bluegrass, COUNTRY: Country Folk



Details:
Nashville (May 20, 2007) - James Alan Shelton, the veteran lead guitarist for Ralph Stanleyâs Grammy-winning Clinch Mountain Boys band, will debut Walking Down The Line, his ninth solo album May 22.

Walking Down The Line, on Sheltone Records, is a collection of folk, bluegrass, and country classics that finds Shelton mixing it up with some of most renowned musicians in the business.

Included in this all-star lineup are bassist Barry Bales of Alison Kraussâs Union Station band and mandolinist Adam Steffey, a Union Station alumnus now with Mountain Heart; acclaimed gospel and bluegrass vocalist Judy Marshall; banjo wizard Steve Sparkman and fiddler Dewey Brown, both of the Clinch Mountain Boys; rhythm guitarist and mandolin-maker Audey Ratliff; and traditional-style banjoist Daniel Grindstaff, of Jesse McReynoldsâ Virginia Boys. It is a pickers Paradise.

âIâve chosen songs that represent a specific place and time in my own development as a musician,â Shelton explains. âI feel that good music is good music whatever the source.â

Sheltonâs choices and executions are dazzling. The albumâs title song is a Bob Dylan composition that has become much beloved in bluegrass circles. Then there are the hallowed folk tunes and parlor ballads that everybody knows (by sound if not always by title)ââSoldierâs Joy,â âFair And Tender Ladies,â âSalt Creekâ and âMy Grandfatherâs Clock.â Here also is Stephen Fosterâs wistful mid-19th century lament, âHard Times Come Again No More.â

Shelton dips into the Carter Family, Bill Monroe and Roy Acuff archives, respectively, for âMotherless Children,â âMethodist Preacherâ and âFireball Mail.â Moving forward on the calendar, he covers Roger Millerâs tenderly paternal âOld Toy Trainsâ; âNashville Blues,â from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Bandâs epochal Will The Circle Be Unbroken album; and Simon & Garfunkelâs majestically forlorn âSounds Of Silence.â Rounding out this treasury is the Tony Ellis homage, âStephen,â on which Shelton plays both lead guitar and banjo. In this age of rapid fire machine gun-like guitar players, Sheltonâs melody oriented style of playing is a breath of fresh air.

Enhancing the value of this album are the Shelton-penned liner notes, which describe the backgrounds of the songs and players in rich and personal detail.


Norma Morris
Morris Public Relations
P. O. Box 210588
Nashville, TN 37221-0588
Phone: 615-952-9250
Email: norma@morrispr.biz