Album Notes

Meridian Green\'s recording, In the Heart of This Town, was the first CD released on StringBender Records. Her musical roots grew out of being folk legend Bob Gibson\'s daughter, and she later blossomed as country/rock originator Gene Parsons\' musical partner.

In the Heart of This Town opens with Listen To The Thunder, by Jane Gillman, a country ballad acknowledging the precariousness of all of our lives with \"isn\'t it a wonder you\'re still here.\" Birds Fly South is a haunting song about being bound to one place in a migratory world. Just Away was recorded with Bill Bottrell and Dan Schwartz of the Tuesday Music Club. The Lorax (In Laytonville), a cajun-y tune, is based on a true story about a small town effort to ban a Dr. Seuss book. Sarah Lou looks at the universal longing to \"...light up my daddy\'s eyes.\" Song For Sienna is about the cathedral a Renaissance community built \"in the heart of this town.\" Come On Wind is an invitation to live one\'s dreams. Where Does Time Go? is a slightly Brazilian and Andean tinged tune. Abilene has a slow, sweet patina of New Orleans. Hometown is a parade of a song, rejoicing in having a home.

\"The moment between meaning to begin this recording project and having begun it was when I decided to dedicate the project to building community through music. The title comes from the line in Song for Sienna, which was inspired by the cathedral that took the people of Sienna three hundred years to build. When I stood in the cathedral, I was in the presence of faith and love and a commitment to building for the future that made me feel cherished by my ancestors. When I left the cathedral it was with a longing to find a way to send my love and esteem to future generations.

\"Within days of my decision to dedicate the project to building community through music, and naming this recording project In The Heart of This Town, came the news that our little village of Caspar, California was for sale. Once a lumber company-owned mill town, Caspar is now a sleepy village overlooking the Pacific Ocean. To me it seems as if the benevolent universe heard my desire to build community through music and gave me the gift of this opportunity to work with my friends and neighbors to create a sustainable village for the next hundred years.

\"I don\'t know where building community through music will lead. Reality is already beyond my wildest dreams. Here in Caspar and everywhere I travel, I love to be with people making music. Let\'s sing our hearts out and build a place and preserve a planet where future generations will know that we loved them.\"

BIO:

Meridian Green\'s original Americana folk fusion moves down the back roads of country music to the earthy rhythms of hoedowns, Motown, Brazilian jazz and Celtic jigs. With a voice described as angelic, she takes her listener on a journey through a lively neighborhood where the deeply personal lives next door to the purely fictional and flirts with the downright political.

Daughter of folk music legend Bob Gibson, Meridian grew up in Greenwich Village, enchanted by the magic of live music and songs well sung. After coming to live on the Mendocino coast in Northern California, she first performed Romanian czardas, Portuguese fado, and Appalachian and ragtime tunes with the Gypsy Gulch International String Band, and later, bluegrass and country rock with former Byrds member, Gene Parsons. After more than 20 years of playing to enthusiastic audiences and garnering rave reviews, her expanding repertoire of original material has her on the road to new acclaim as a solo artist.

Meridian has one solo and two duet albums to her credit, as well as guest appearances on a variety of other recordings. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, BBC Radio, Vintage Guitar and Dirty Linen. She has performed at festivals everywhere -from the Healdsburg Guitar Festival in California, to the Owen Sound Festival in Canada, to d\'Or L\'Eglise in France. Her nightclub and coffeehouse appearances include Godfrey Daniels in Pennsylvania, Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, California, The Bottom Line in New York City and The Greys in Brighton, UK. She has sung with Tom Paxton, Geoff Muldaur, Mary McCaslin and many others. In addition to her writing and performing, Meridian is the co-creator of Fender\'s popular guitar accessory, the Parsons/Green B-Bender.

In a world full of performing songwriters, Meridian\'s uniquely beautiful voice and wittily engaging world view are an irresistible invitation to audiences to keep coming back for more.