Album Notes

"There are two reasons why I've chosen the acoustic path," offers Korby in a recent interview, "from an aesthetic perspective, the subtlety of expression that comes with an acoustic instrument is just so much greater than anything in the electric world-the fragility of an instrument, the delicacy and attention with which it must be handled...mimics the delicate vulnerability of the human spirit in a way that electrically powered things cannot. For me, putting an electric current between your hands and your ears sort of wraps the quietest murmurings of your soul in noisy cellophane. You're louder, and maybe more people can hear you, but you're shouting. I think there's plenty of shouting in the world right now and not nearly enough whispering.

"The other reason I play acoustic music is because I like old things. Acoustic instruments have an old, old story, and I like being a part of that story. Everything about acoustic music has a connection to a past filled with all the yearnings, heartbreaks, triumphs-every human emotion on the palette, in every epoch and context. It's all there, and you're part of it, every time you strum a G chord on your flat top. I don't know why, but I feel a intuitive connection with the past-and with that connection, a sense of meaning and relevance-every time I sit down and try to play an old fiddle tune like Bill Cheatham or Whiskey Before Breakfast. I guess I'd say that something I see missing in popular music today is this sense of tradition, of building and adding to that which came before you and will continue after you. Of being a part of the story, rather than being an eternity unto yourself."