New Jeff Black Album This Month

After four critically acclaimed commercial releases on label homes, three fan favorite independent releases on his own Lotos Nile imprint, song placement on numerous independent films, thirty plus years of celebrated live performing and songs covered by artists as diverse as Alison Krauss, Waylon Jennings, Sam Bush, Blackhawk and Dierks Bentley, Jeff solidifies his reputation as a creative force in the roots genres with this eighth album.

Black's grassroots following has allowed him to build a career like few other singer/songwriters in the business and to sustain his contribution as an artist in the disrupted music business environment.

"I feel like I already have the brass ring in my pocket, just being able to nurture this thing that I've wanted, this need to observe and relate, since I was 10 years old," says Black. "But I had to ask myself, 'What's the best way to do it now?' Over the past decade I've learned that I have to make changes in how I create music and put it out there."

Produced and recorded by Black in his own Arcana Studio, Plow Through the Mystic delivers a richly textured and intimate canvas of acoustic roots and world instrumentation. The album features contributions from mandolin legend and Newgrass founder Sam Bush, Resonator guitar master Jerry Douglas along with vocal contributions from Matraca Berg, Gretchen Peters and Kim Richey. The album's 14 tracks take listeners down personal paths of faith, doubt and spiritual grit, liberated by tones of gritty neo-folk and dirt blues. At times Black's delivery is intimately conversational like an old, trusted friend, other times fiery with an almost tribal fervor.