Alaya is the first solo album by fiddler Bobby Britt, a Chapel Hill, North Carolina, native and longtime member of Town Mountain, and was released as a self-issued CD on 21 March 2018. It was made after complications from a medical procedure kept him from moving to Spain for graduate study at Berklee; Andrew Marlin of Mandolin Orange produced it and encouraged him to record his own album.
Eight of the eleven tracks are instrumentals. Britt wrote two fiddle tunes, “Tar Heal” and “Out of the Woods”; the rest include the traditional “Big Footed Man in the Sandy Lot,” the slow air and hornpipe “The Fairest Rose,” the Irish reel “Silver Spire,” “Garfield’s Blackberry Blossom,” “Constitution March,” and a closing waltz by Marlin, “Farewell Mother.” Marlin’s mandolin, Allison de Groot’s clawhammer banjo, Jerry Brown’s guitar and Emily Frantz and Josh Oliver of Mandolin Orange fill out the band.
The three vocal tracks are songs that Doc Watson recorded. Marlin sings lead on “Look Up, Look Down That Lonesome Road” and “Little Orphan Girl,” and Oliver takes the lead on “When I Die, I’ll Live Again,” with Marlin and Frantz adding harmonies.
Tracklist
- 1 Tar Heal 3:02
- 2 Big Footed Man in the Sandy Lot 2:47
- 3 When I Die I’ll Live Again Source Recording 3:02
- 4 Out of the Woods Source Recording 2:52
- 5 Slow Air and Hornpipe: The Fairest Rose 3:12
- 6 Constitution March 3:19
- 7 Look Up Look Down That Lonesome Road Source Recording 4:23
- 8 Silver Spire 3:15
- 9 Garfield’s Blackberry Blossom alt version 2:42
- 10 Little Orphan Girl alt version 3:55
- 11 Farewell Mother 4:39
