Red Cedar Review releases debut album The Highway with special show at “Back” of Cups
By Lorne Chambers | Editor
A couple years ago, local musician Brad Edwardson made the decision to begin taking his music, specifically his guitar playing, more seriously. Edwardson, who at the time was playing upright bass for the popular local rock band The Royal Tinfoil, began working on fingerstyle and bluegrass guitar playing.
“A lot of the songs I had written previously didn’t really fit into that context, so I started trying to steer my writing in that direction,” says Edwardson, who was soon playing solo all over Charleston. He also began collaborating with mandolin player Aaron Firetag. The two had a great chemistry and Red Cedar Review was born; blending folk, country-blues, and bluegrass to create a sound that is both traditional and their own.
Although Red Cedar has been playing around Charleston now for a couple years, they just recently put out their first full-length collection of songs. They’re celebrating the release of their debut album, The Highway, on Tuesday, July 17 with a special performance in the courtyard behind Jack of Cups Saloon.
“No big surprises, just a casual night of good backyard music,” says Edwardson about the show. I booked it for a Tuesday in hopes that a lot of our musician friends will be able to make it out. It’s tough to go out and see shows when you’re usually playing the weekend nights. Opening for Red Cedar Review is their friend and fellow local musician Lindsay Holler, who also lends her voice, harmonizing with Edwardson on a few tracks on The Highway.
“She is such a great singer, great songwriter, and she’s always got some really cool project going on, like the ‘Women And’ series at the Charleston Music Hall. She plays a big role in making the local music scene as good as it is,” says Edwardson.
Holler isn’t the only guest local musician featured on The Highway. In addition to Edwardson, who plays all the guitar parts and sings lead vocals, and Firetag on mandolin, Jonathan Gray plays upright bass, Steven Sandifer plays all the percussion parts (including snare drum, congas, spoons, shaker, and washboard, and sang some harmonies), Derek Deakins plays the fiddle, and Marshall Hudson plays harmonica on one track.
“I’m really thankful for the amazing musical community here in Charleston,” says Edwardson. “There’s so many great players in town, and I feel lucky to have such a great band on this album.”
Despite being titled The Highway, in making the album, Edwardson and Firetag didn’t use a road map to get to their destination. “Recording a full-length album was always in the back of my mind, but it took time for us to really settle into our own sound, and to gather enough album-worthy material,” says Edwardson.
The bulk of The Highway was actually recorded in one day during one big live session at Fairweather Studios on Sol Legare. “Omar Colon was really easy to work with. He has a great space, a great ear, and a really positive attitude,” says Edwardson.
After recording Edwardson and Firetag took the project over to Spinning Whale Studios, where their friend Endre Tomashek mixed it. “Once again, I found myself feeling lucky to be surrounded by these talented and skilled individuals who were really able to push this project beyond my expectations,” says Edwardson.
The Highway contains 11 tracks, including eight original songs by Edwardson.
“Two of them (“Big Sciota” and “Whiskey Before Breakfast”) are old traditional bluegrass instrumentals,” says Edwardson. “One is the old song “Shady Grove”, of which I used the traditional chorus, but wrote my own verses. The rest are all my own original songs.”
According to Edwardson, the song “Hellhound” was cowritten with a friend back in his hometown of Milwaukee 10 years ago. “That one really stands out to me. I’ve written so many songs over the years, and even if I thought they were good at the time, a lot of them eventually just faded into memory,” says Edwardson. “But for some reason, after all of these years, this one song is still kicking around in the repertoire. I love that.”
For the next few months after the release, Edwardson says he and Firetag will be doing a lot of promotion for the album and seeing what kind of responses they get from it. “Then I suppose it’s about time to start working on the next one,” he says.
