Orange on Blue CD – Max & Donna

Max and Donna are really a treat – fabulous musicians with a wonderful way of playing together. Jay Ungar, Dancing on the Air: WAMC – Albany NY

A fabulous concert! It was so great to have you both here. You and Max truly make beautiful music together – a very rich and sweet collaboration. Robin Russell, Strafford VT Folk Series

I’ll be riding the bliss wave you guys left behind for weeks. You just made an awesome weekend for a whole load of people! Much love to you three awesome superstars!!! Jennifer Stafford, Tri-City-Trad director, Albany

ORANGE ON BLUE’s collection of nine tunes (six of them Donna and/or Max originals) takes the listener on a sweet and wistful journey through Celtic, Québecois and fingerstyle guitar landscapes. Donna and Max’s abiding love of slow, evocative airs and waltzes is well-documented here, leavened by rhythmically interesting original tunes.

Release/mailing date: Jan 2, 2012. U.S. ORDERS $15 postpaid, FOREIGN ORDERS $20 postpaid. Contact Donna at donna@fiddlingdemystified.com to order. Order yours now through PayPal!

Track Samples . . .

1. Da Slockit Light (Tom Anderson) – Written by Shetland fiddle legend Tom Anderson, the title means ‘the light gone out’. This is one of the fiddle world’s favorite Scottish airs, with both guitar and fiddle sharing leads here. Max Cohen starts this one off on solo guitar and Donna joins in on fiddle.

2. Bonnie Kate’s Jig (Donna Hébert) / Gwendolin’s Jig (Max Cohen) – Donna and Max put their tunes together in this quirky medley. The first tune, written for fiddler Katherine First’s birthday, is a crooked jig that bops from 6/8 to 9/8 and back, mining Scottish bowings and French-Canadian rhythms. The second tune hopped out of Max’s guitar and is reprised in track six on solo baritone guitar!

3. Valse pour Carmelle Bégin (Philippe Bruneau) – Donna learned this from Québecois pianist and accordionist Mario Loiselle in the early 1980s. Written for the folklorist who collected M. Bruneau for the Museum of Man in Canada, this is a waltz where the trick is to make the fiddle sound like a button accordion!

4. Morning Song / Marche du célibataire (both Max Cohen) – Max’s guitar magic is evident on these original marches with a medieval flavor.

5. Sweet Journeys (George Wilson) – Donna says it’s a tossup whether this tune or Carmelle Bégin are her favorite waltzes, but they are both in her top five! She had a lot of fun adding multiple harmonies to this one! The medley begins with Max’s solo guitar.

6. Gwendolin’ Jig (Max Cohen) – Max’s solo turn on California: luthier Peter Rodman’s beautiful baritone guitar.

7. Orange on Blue (Donna Hébert & Max Cohen) / Long Distance (Max Cohen) – Title track is an air inspired by the incredible fall foliage around Donna’s house in Western Mass. Donna penned the first half of the tune, Max the second. The second, wistful tune is a guitar solo from Max.

Music samples ©, published 2011, Donna Hébert & Max Cohen. All rights reserved.

FIDDLES: Donna Hébert - GUITARS: Max Cohen. Max’s baritone guitar built by Peter Rodman. PRODUCERS: Donna Hébert, Max Cohen. ENGINEER: Max Cohen  MIXING: Max Cohen and Rusty Annis, Shoestring Studios. MASTERING: Mark Miller, Slaughterhouse Studios. DESIGN/PHOTOGRAPHY: Donna Hébert, Kylie Howsam. MANUFACTURED BY: NIMBIT, Framingham MA