Blue Ridge Reunion - Bill Leslie CD

Product Description Number One CD on the world music charts! Voted by international radio hosts as the Best Acoustic Instrumental Album of 2008. Bill Leslie is an Emmy Award-winning journalist and world music artist whose albums have been among the best-selling on the New Age Reporter charts. A native of North Carolina, Leslies CD, I Am a River, hit number two on the charts in 2006. Famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma praised Leslie as "one of the greats in modern Celtic music." Critics call Leslies music "tranquil yet exhilarating, stunningly beautiful, and full of joy and peace." Compositions have a highly melodic folk and Celtic core taking listeners on a powerful emotional journey. Leslie has produced six albums this decade. His 2004 release, Peaceful Journey, hit number one on the New Age Reporters world music charts in December 2004, while his Christmas in Carolina peaked at number two. Leslie, who plays guitar, Celtic whistle and piano, was named Best New Artist worldwide by the NAR in 2005. His Christmas in Carolina album was named 2005 Best Holiday Album. Leslies latest release Blue Ridge Reunion is a CD and companion book featuring his fathers mountain watercolors. Bill visited the landscapes that inspired his dads art work and composed music based on this new inspiration. Blue Ridge Reunion includes eleven instrumentals and three vocals. Leslie also co-founded the Celtic fusion group Bragh Adair and helped produce the groups two albums Grace in Stone and The Hunt. He currently tours with Lorica, another Celtic fusion group. In addition, Leslie works as an environmental journalist and morning anchor for television station WRAL in Raleigh, NC. A graduate of University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, he has won more than 70 major news awards including two Peabody Awards and five Emmys. He lives in Cary, N.C. with his wife Cindy, daughter Lauren and son Will. Review Those of us who have listened to Bill Leslie for years know that he has carved out his own unique niche in Celtic fusion/roots music. On his most recent CD, Blue Ridge Reunion, Bill provides enough of that traditional style to provide a comfortable familiarity, but he also explores new stories, new instrumentations, even new chords with wonderful results! A tribute to the singer songwriter s father, Blue Ridge Reunion resonates with hints of Classical Music (Albinoni comes to mind) and epic film style all melded with the sometimes restful, sometimes restless themes that we have come to expect from Carolina s Bard. Blue Ridge Reunion is Bill Leslie at his most haunting. --Dr. Garry Crites, Duke University.If the artwork on Bill Leslies Blue Ridge Reunion"CD is more striking than on ny previous CD, so is the music within. The artistry of Bills father adorns the album, and his creativity lives on in the musical artistry of Bill. The vocal tribute "Water of Life is Bills most powerful and distinctive song to date. It will bring a tear to the eye of anyone who wistfully misses a father, or mourns the destruction of our pristine mountains. Toss in a fun song, Mountain Train, again bringing to light Bills dad, and its enough to brighten heaven with a beaming fathers smile. What inspiring artists arose to mountain heights right here in the Goodliest Land of North Carolina...both named William Augustus Leslie! --Bob Inkseep, Raleigh, NCBill Leslie certainly has a talent for composing music that takes us to a certain place and time. I don t know how he does it but it s really wonderful! In both word and song, Bill created a loving tribute to your fathers art, his appreciation of the land, and the clear values he instilled in his children. I dont know that you can ever say goodbye to a parent that you so love and admire. Perhaps its just best to say:Thank you. I promise to pass on the lessons youve taught me. Bill Leslie certainly met that benchmark with this project which includes a companion book by the same name. --Clayton Henkel, North Carolina News NetworkAdditional Info: Personnel: Bill Leslie (vocals, whistling, guitar, piano, keyboards); Clark Wang (cello); Bobby Warner (brass).

Specifics

• Album: Blue Ridge Reunion
• Artist: Bill Leslie
• Label: unknown

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