Highland Travelers (Mountain Fever MFR 180511) was released on 11 May 2018, four months after the band was announced. Adam Steffey (mandolin), Keith Garrett (guitar) and Gary Hultman (dobro), all formerly of the Boxcars, joined Jason Davis (banjo) and Kameron Keller (bass) from Junior Sisk & Ramblers Choice, and the group signed with Mountain Fever Records in Virginia. The eleven tracks were recorded at Mountain Fever Studios in Willis, Virginia, with Aaron Ramsey producing alongside the band and Mark Hodges.
Garrett sings lead on most of the songs, with Steffey on lead for “Girl That Loved Me” and “I Guess I’ll Go On Dreaming” and Hultman on “World So Full of Love.” Garrett wrote “The Little Tennessee,” with Jeff Baker, about people whose livelihoods were left behind when the TVA dammed rivers in the middle of the twentieth century; it was released to radio as the first single and by May 2018 was number one on the Bluegrass Today weekly airplay chart. Dolly Parton wrote “Kentucky Gambler,” a song Merle Haggard recorded, and Davis wrote the closing instrumental, “Poplar Knob.”
The band did not last the year. On 15 November 2018 the members announced they would not continue without Steffey, who had decided to take a break from the music business and was leaving his faculty position in East Tennessee State University’s bluegrass program after the fall semester. The album was the only one Highland Travelers released.
Tracklist
- 1 Girl That Loved Me 3:25
- 2 Always Will Be 2:56
- 3 That's All Behind Me Now 2:13
- 4 World So Full Of Love 3:00
- 5 I Guess I'll Go On Dreaming 2:10
- 6 The Little Tennessee 2:56
- 7 Kentucky Gambler alt version 2:54
- 8 It's You Again 3:06
- 9 Do You Ever Think Of Me 2:45
- 10 The Old Country Church alt version 2:26
- 11 Poplar Knob 2:25
