Album Notes

DUO HARMONY winners - Western Music Association - Nov. 2005

National touring, an Emmy for arranging, too many performances to count, and hundreds of enthusiastic current and prior students are all part of Walt Richards' long musical history.

Paula Strong is an avid collector of western, train and folk songs, as well as being a western history fan. Her immersion in music got a very early start, with the support of her musical family

Walt and Paula have been performing together in the southwest for over twenty years, specializing in cowboy and train songs in addition to their folk, blues, and swing tunes and Walt's solo instrumental work.

Both Walt and Paula sing lead and harmony, with Walt adding lead guitar, banjo and mandolin to Paula's rhythm backup. Walt and Paula, as Trails & Rails, won the DUO HARMONY competition at the annual Western Music Association in Albuquerque in Nov.2005.

The current Trails & Rails repertoire is extensive and includes many styles of acoustic music, which gives a lot of variety to their CDs and performance programs.

Their 2003 train song CD, On Track, includes three originals among the 21 selections.

The 2004 CD, Mountains of the Heart, is a collection of fifteen songs and tunes of the old and new West.

Walt's 2004 acoustic album, Instrumental Expressions, features banjo, guitar and mandolin solos in a variety of styles, and includes tunes from the 1800s to the present.

In 2002, Walt and Paula recorded Images of the West, with trio partner Vickie Cottle as the group, Bow Willow. This acoustic CD features eighteen songs, portraying various aspects of life in the West, in trio harmony.

Visit www.trailsandrails.net for more about this eclectic (not electric - although they can be electrifying . . .) duo.