Family Reunion, released independently on September 17, 2021, followed Della Mae’s 2020 album Headlight. It was recorded in May 2021 at Tonal Park Studio in Maryland, once the band members, who live in different places, had all been vaccinated and could play in a room together again. Through the pandemic they had kept in touch with fifteen months of weekly live-streamed shows and a Patreon fan club, and the band says that community inspired and funded the record. The album features new members Vickie Vaughn on bass and Maddie Witler on mandolin.
The lineup is Celia Woodsmith (vocals, acoustic guitar), Kimber Ludiker (fiddle), Avril Smith (electric guitar), Maddie Witler (mandolin) and Vickie Vaughn (bass), with Smith, Witler, Ludiker and Vaughn singing harmony. Charlie Pilzer engineered, Dan Knobler mixed and Randy LeRoy mastered. Six of the nine songs are originals, among them “These Songs,” which opens the album, and “Ride Away,” the first single; the three covers are John Hartford’s “You Don’t Have to Do That,” Gillian Welch and David Rawlings’s “Dry Town” and Hazel Dickens’s “A Few Old Memories.” Della Mae had a Grammy nomination for Best Bluegrass Album behind them, for This World Oft Can Be (2013).
Tracklist
- 1 These Songs 3:28
- 2 You Don't Have to Do That 2:45
- 3 Ride Away 3:09
- 4 Goodbye My Friend / Waltz for Lois 3:59
- 5 The Way It Was Before 4:08
- 6 Dry Town Source Recording 2:42
- 7 Heart of My Home 3:39
- 8 A Few Old Memories alt version 4:27
- 9 The End 3:27
