Album Notes

When Butch Ross was given a Mountain Dulcimer for his birthday a few years ago, he had no idea that it would alter the course of his career. Ross, already an accomplished guitarist and singer/songwriter, fell in love with the primitive sound of the instrument and the creative possibilities that abound in its limitations.

In July of 2002 Butch was a featured performer at the Cork Dulcimer Festival, in Cork Ireland. There he met mountain dulcimer legend Robert Force. Force (who toured for years as a duo with the late Albert d'Ossche and with him co-wrote the book "in search of the wild dulcimer"), was impressed with Ross' playing and his approach to the instrument and offered to produce his next CD and release it on his label, Blaine Street Records.

The result of that collaboration, The Moonshiner's Atlas showcases Butch's command of the traditional (lap) style of playing, as well as his iconoclastic method of holding it upside down, and re-strung like a guitar. Musically, The Moonshiner's Atlas has experimented with blending and blurring the line between old-time and contemporary songs. The man onetime called "Bela Fleck of the mountain dulcimer" makes, "the old songs sound new, and the new songs sound old".