Album Notes

If you saw a photo of Ryan Tilby and Drew Williams, you'd
think you'd seen them before, but you'd wonder where.
It might take you a minute to associate their faces with the
fat, sweet folk elements coming from the backline of Peter
Breinholt's Big Parade. But while their faces may have
you scratching your head for a moment, you'd recognize
their playing like an old friend after just a few bars.
Between them, they've brought to audiences all over the
world enough mandolin, banjo, guitar, bass, dobro, and
fiddle to serve as the girders upon which world-class acts
are built. They share a musical vocabulary that spans
genres and generations.

As the two step confidently off the backline, some of the
tastiest sentiments from that expansive musical vocabulary
leap to life in Tilby and Williams' first duo release,
"Two for the Show." With a generous nod to the roots of
the Bluegrass tradition, there are enough genuine fireworks
here for the most stringent of purists, together with enough
innovation to demonstrate just how deep is the well of
musical experience from which this cool water is drawn.

The album breathes with spontaneity--innocence even--that
while cleanly engineered, runs unhindered by the weight of
heavy production. It's a front-row seat in an intimate
house to two days worth of tracking-you get Tilby and you
get Williams, and that's the meal. And what a meal.
These two young musicians are both rooted in traditions
older than their parents, and reaching beyond the
conventions in a way that leaves you not knowing what to
expect next. They do it with reverence, thoughtfulness,
and, of course, monster playing.

The bottom line is, with Tilby and Williams able to chunk
out a diamond like this between first bell on Monday and the
weekend, venerable bluegrass crossover acts like Ryan Shupe
and the Rubberband, or even the auspicious Nickel Creek, had
better watch their backs.