From: sunofmusic@gmail.com   
      
   "Black train, black train ... I ain't staying where I'm at," sings Donna   
   Ulisse on the spirited opening track to Hard Cry Moon, her ninth album on the   
   Hadley Music Group label. While the lyric addresses a woman's determination to   
   move on from a failed    
   relationship, Ulisse could be expressing her desire to follow her muse where   
   it takes her. And this time around, it's back to (mostly) original material.   
      
   After a brief detour with 2013's Showin' My Roots, which consisted mainly of   
   classic country covers that had influenced her, the four-time IBMA songwriter   
   of the year nominee (with songs recorded by Del McCoury, Doyle Lawson, Claire   
   Lynch and more) is    
   back with another superb collection of originals that demonstrate her gift for   
   believable narrative, finely wrought detail and genuine emotion. When she   
   wraps her warm, rich voice around these songs, you know they're real to her.   
      
   Ulisse is a writer on 11 of the 12 songs, penning four on her own. Fans will   
   recognize regular co-writers Marc Rossi, with four songs here; Rick Stanley,   
   her husband and touring band member (and cousin of Carter and Ralph); and the   
   award-winning Jerry    
   Salley.   
      
   The first single, "It Could Have Been The Mandolin," recalls a blissful   
   evening in a blossoming relationship. Ulisse did a spoof video to promote the   
   single which is shown below. Young love is also at the forefront of "We're   
   Gonna Find A Preacher," while    
   the feisty "Ain't That A Pity" depicts the downside of love.   
      
   Family stories have always been a key part of Ulisse's music, and here she   
   offers two loving tributes. "Workin' On The C & O" is a poor man's railroad   
   tale about her maternal grandfather, who began his career as a "gandy dancer."   
   "Papa's Garden" honors    
   her grandfather on her dad's side, an Italian immigrant who found great joy in   
   growing things. She lovingly dedicates the whole album to these two   
   grandparents who made such an impression on her.   
      
   In the spine-tingling "The River's Runnin' Free," the singer stumbles upon an   
   acquaintance in the act of some eerily suspicious behavior by the water,   
   demands: "Are you here to lay some kind of trouble in the ground, or are you   
   here digging trouble up?"    
   At the other end of the emotional spectrum is "Just As Long As We're   
   Together," a love-conquers-all promise. And the gorgeously mournful title   
   track is the type of acoustic traditional country ballad that no one can   
   deliver like Ulisse.   
      
   The sole cover is the country classic "Whispering Pines," a song Ulisse has   
   long loved, and one originally made famous by Johnny Horton, her husband's   
   all-time favorite male vocalist. Ulisse sings the chestnut like one of her   
   own, her voice tenderly    
   pleading for the return of her baby.   
      
   The album closes with the lullaby-like "I'll Sleep In Peace At Night" which   
   includes Fayssoux McLean on harmony, one of Ulisse's vocal idols from the time   
   she first heard her singing harmony on the early Emmylou Harris records.   
      
   Ulisse handed the production reins to six-time IBMA guitarist of the year   
   Bryan Sutton (Hot Rize, Ricky Skaggs, Harry Connick Jr.), who also was at the   
   board for Showin' My Roots. As on previous albums, Ulisse is surrounded by   
   some of the top pickers in    
   bluegrass -- which is to say some of the best musicians on the planet: Casey   
   Campbell, a member of Sutton's touring band, on mandolin; Dennis Crouch (June   
   Carter Cash, Emmylou Harris, Diana Krall, Steve Earle) on upright bass. Stuart   
   Duncan (Alison    
   Krauss; James Taylor, the Goat Rodeo Sessions album with Yo-Yo Ma, Chris Thile   
   and Edgar Meyer) on fiddle. Scott Vestal (Dolly Parton, Doyle Lawson, Sam   
   Bush) on banjo. Brent Truitt of the SteelDrivers engineered and mixed.   
      
   With Hard Cry Moon, Donna Ulisse offers more proof that, whether she is   
   interpreting the work of others or her own compositions, she has earned her   
   spot as one of bluegrass music's most captivating artists.   
      
   The album is available at Amazon, iTunes, CDBaby, County Sales and many other   
   online stores.   
      
   http://www.donnaulisse.com   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)