Great Shakes is the latest album by Session Americana. Featuring Jefferson Hamer
Release September 2016
Produced by Jefferson Hamer and Session Americana
Mixed by Paul Q. Kolderie
Engineered by Jefferson Hamer, Alex Hug and Ry Cavanaugh
Recorded at Kimon;s House, Ry's House, Jefferson's House and Armory Sound
Mastered by Ian Kennedy at New Alliance Studio
Photography by Topher Cox
Design by Shaun Wortis
Great Shakes (2016)
Great Shakes, the new album from Session Americana with Jefferson Hamer, makes a bold statement for the Boston-area collective that has been playing together since 2003. Whereas previous albums have harnessed the sprawling
familial energy of the group, Great Shakes is a focused reflection of a six-piece version of the band that has been playing together sporadically for the past few years: Billy Beard (drums), Ry Cavanaugh (guitar), Kimon Kirk (bass), Jim Fitting (harmonica), Dinty Child (multi-instrumentalist), and Jefferson Hamer (guitar). While some of the songs on the record
will be familiar to fans of the live group, the band also worked on new material together during their weeks-long sojourn in January 2016. Some songs fit together like jigsaw puzzles, with lyrics from one member and music from another, while other songs evolved through conversation and much experimentation. The product, scheduled for release in September 2016, feels more like the birth of a band than the seventh record of a collective.