OUTLANDERS is an album of songs near and dear to my heart that I started writing in 2008, which came into focus during my first residency at The MacDowell Colony in 2009, and which I adapted and recorded with some of my best musician friends over the course of the next 6 years.
They're mostly love songs. And they're a record of the ways I was working through the tensions between compositional hybridity and clear, direct songwriting.
The core group of musicians involved is:
Nathan Koci, keyboards/vocals/occasionally French horn (which he plays way better than anyone who never practices should play that instrument)
Ron Wiltrout, drums
Taylor Levine, electric guitar
Leah Coloff, cello
Some tunes involve much larger forces, including Timo Andres on piano, Miki Cloud and Caroline Shaw on violin, Erin Wight (viola), Eileen Mack (clarinets), Matthew Wright (trombone), Chris Coletti (trumpet), Michelle Farah (oboe), Kelli Kathman (flute) and Kris Saebo (bass).
Eventually, I combined this into an album produced by Philip White.
Outlanders was released on New Amsterdam Records in February 2016, with album art by Gabriela Salazar.