Pharis & Jason Romero To Release New Album SWEET OLD RELIGION May 18

Pharis & Jason are releasing their new album Sweet Old Religion this May 18. This is their first album of all-original songs, and it's their first album in a couple years, after a harrowing year that saw their instrument building workshop destroyed by fire and rebuilt by their community. Pharis & Jason are, simply put, two of the finest banjo makers in the world, and the music they make as a duo is subtle and sublime, informed by tradition but yearning for a better future.

For millennia, humans have traced out meaning in the constellations. The stars have been watched and wondered at by poets, farmers, and astrologers looking for guidance and inspiration. On a summer night in 2016, these same constellations hung over the forests and rivers of Horsefly, British Columbia. Down below, a host of friends and family members were camped out in tents on the acreage of Pharis & Jason Romero. Since the release of their last album, the Juno Award-winning musicians and celebrated instrument makers had taken a year-long sabbatical from touring and recording to welcome their second child, build some banjos, and tear down their house and build a new one with the help of their local and extended community. But the stars had other plans in mind. As a fire came in the night to claim their shop, the Romeros found themselves surrounded by the community that came to support them. "I think being 'pushed to the edge' is a perfect way of of describing how that summer felt. The day after the fire, support just started pouring in," says Pharis. "It was overwhelming, this sense of receiving when we had absolutely nothing to give other than love and thanks." And in the midst of the chaos of building and rebuilding, taking care of children, and feeding everyone, Pharis says, "music and songwriting were hovering at the edge but never came inside. There was no space to just sit and be and let thoughts, melodies, and ideas ferment." These experiences and the growing sense of gratitude would soon be connected and drawn together through music, becoming Sweet Old Religion, Pharis & Jason's first album made up of entirely original songs.

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