Return Journey was the Rarely Herd’s first album on their own label, Herd Records, issued as HR 1001 with a 2004 copyright. The band, based in Athens County, Ohio, formed in 1989. Between 1992 and 2000 they had made six albums for Pinecastle, starting with Midnight Loneliness and ending with Part of Growing Up.
The album was recorded in 2003 at Hilltop Recording Studios in Nashville, with Ronnie Reno producing, as he had on the last two Pinecastle records. The band on the sessions was Jim Stack on guitar, Calvin Leport on banjo, Dan Brooks on dobro, Jeff Weaver on bass and Jeff Hardin on fiddle and guitar, and all five sing. Four of them were from the lineup that started the band in 1989; the fifth founder, Alan Stack, played mandolin and fiddle on the Pinecastle albums and isn’t on this one. Reno plays guitar on “Arizona John.”
There are fourteen tracks. They include Johnny Cash and Roy Cash Jr.’s “I Still Miss Someone,” along with “Black-Eyed Suzie,” “Old Church Bell,” “Lonesome Town,” “The Waving Girl” and “Don’t Lay Down the Sword.” Herd Records went on to issue Roundup, Vol. 1 and Fields of the Harvest.
Tracklist
- 1 The Waving Girl 4:08
- 2 Miss Me But Let Me Go 2:32
- 3 I Still Miss Someone alt version 3:18
- 4 A Hundred Years From Now alt version 2:23
- 5 Always Wanting More 2:35
- 6 Dream All Thru The Night 2:54
- 7 Next Thing Leaving Town 1:58
- 8 Old Church Bell 2:48
- 9 Black Eyed Susie alt version 2:03
- 10 I Could Cry 2:23
- 11 Lonesome Town 2:28
- 12 Arizona John 2:54
- 13 Don't Lay Down The Sword 2:32
- 14 Long Time Loving You 2:41
