Album Notes

Praise for the Multi-Instrumental Zak Borden:

"Borden's Lizzies Have Chops to Spare"
- The Willamette Week, Portland, OR

"Richly Chiming Mandolin" - Paste

"All Manner of tuneful Sorrow" - Guitar World Acoustic

Zak Borden is a picker, songwriter and singer of American roots music. He is triple threat on guitar, mandolin and vocals and just damn well loves to write songs. His voice plunges from a high tenor to a rumbling baritone/bass that draws on sources from the deep and broad American musical experiment. Zak has clocked tens of thousands of road miles in the US and Europe and worked with leading purveyors of traditional and contemporary acoustic music. He toured, recorded with and co-produced roots-rocker Casey Neill, worked with songwriter Willy Mason, Bluegrass Grammy nominee Kate MacKenzie, Late great fiddle god Johnny Cunningham, and enjoyed cameo appearances with everyone from L.A.’s The Watson Twins to Northhamtons’s Tracy Grammer. Gaining a rep as a consummate session player, he has in the last year, nearly doubled his discography. Zak has appeared on albums that also feature, among others, Tim O’Brien, Danny Barnes, Darol Anger, Eyvind Kang, Andy Statman, and the master bassist/cellist Buell Neidlinger, the latter having hired Zak for several projects. Lately, he has been touring extensively in the U.S. and across Europe as a duo with Americana chanteuse Rachel Harrington.

Zak was born amidst the folk music scare in Cambridge, Mass where he was exposed to all kinds of roots music. His uncle played in New Mexico's Last Mile Ramblers (with Junior Brown). His sister sings Hank tunes and picks the banjo, a cousin that tours the world rockin', His grandfather built guitars and fiddles and his songwriting aunt worked and played at the renowned Longview Recording Studio. But things became critical at 16, when one midnight in July he witnessed two members of Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys playing on the street....in other words...Zak had no choice.

Zak is also a passionate and sought after instructor having taught for 15 yrs at workshops and festivals including a faculty spot at The Festival of American Fiddle Tunes.