Leftover Salmon’s Andy Thorn Releases ‘Songs of the Sunrise Fox’ Today 9/16

Leftover Salmon’s Andy Thorn Releases Songs of the Sunrise Fox Today 9/16

Available Now: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/andythorn/songs-of-the-sunrise-fox

“Just a Banjo Player Serenading a Wild Fox” —The A.V. Club

BOULDER, CO — Leftover Salmon banjo player Andy Thorn never expected to go viral. But in 2021, he was in his backyard, playing an improvised banjo tune to a wild fox, when his wife caught the whole thing on video. The video made headlines around the world. Soon, Andy was interviewed on the Kelly Clarkson Show, The Dodo, and A & E’s Neighborhood Wars. Even Political Gabfest discussed the video. A New York Times writer, Ferris Jabr, called it “a moment plucked from Aesop.” 

Andy was stunned by the publicity, and by how many people kept asking him about the song. He finally recorded it (“Aesop Mountain”), along with 14 other banjo instrumentals. The resulting album, Songs of the Sunrise Fox, stands in contrast to the music Andy normally plays with Leftover Salmon. This new album isn’t about the flashy banjo picking favored by jam bands. Instead, it’s the banjo melodies Andy would play for his friend “Foxy” at sunrise. The stripped-down band also features Erik Deutsch [Black Crowes] on piano, Greg Garrison [Leftover Salmon] on bass, and Windfield champ Tyler Grant on guitar. 

Andy Thorn
Photo by Molly McCormick

The first single, “Aesop Mountain,” was released last month asd has already garnered nearly 100,000 listens on Spotify. This is the song from the viral video that started all the Foxy craze (that now has 3.8 million views). Thorn says, “I really enjoyed turning it into a full band tune and Erik Deutsch’s piano brought it all together.” The album also includes an acoustic solo version of the song as the closing track.

Other songs include the upbeat solo banjo tune, “Barry’s Bounce,” which was written right around the time Thorn’s baby boy Barry started bouncing around, while the solo clawhammer number “Stork Bite” was written right after his birth. “Red Sun Salutation” commemorates a wintery sunrise and “Dawn is Coming” feels like the winter storm that it was written about with the addition of Garrison and Grant adding  to the mood. “Monarch Morning” is a relaxing duet with Deutsch on piano; Andy wrote this tune in his backyard while butterflies were swirling around. 

As you keep listening you will hear more of the songs that were first performed for Foxy during the morning light, sun pillars, and sundown as his furry little friend sat down and listened and then trotted along…  Foxy even has kids of her own now. “In a world full of crazy, this brought joy to my soul. Thank you,” Eve S. wrote on YouTube. Andy is thrilled to release Songs of the Sunrise Fox and hopes it sends some joy your way as well.

Andy Thorn: Songs of the Sunrise Fox Track Listing:

1. Aesop Mountain (3:28)
2. Barry’s Bounce (1:40)
3. Red Sun Salutation (2:44)
4. Dawn is Coming (3:42)
5. Stork Bite (2:22)
6. Monarch Morning (3:39)
7. The Morning Light (1:25)
8. Whisker Twitchin’ (1:02)
9. Fox’s Fancy (3:06)
10. Fabled Way (3:45)
11. Trot Along (1:37)
12. Fox Trail (3:05)
13. Sun Pillar (1:54)
14. Silver Thorn (3:24)
15. Aesop Mountain (2:20)

Songs of the Sunrise Fox is available at  https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/andythorn/songs-of-the-sunrise-fox.
Vinyl records are  available to purchase at the website www.andythornmusic.com/shop. 

More information at www.andythornmusic.com, facebook.com/andythornmusic.com, instagram.com/_thornpipe_, and youtube: Andy Thorn – Thornhub.

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Sticks N’ Thorns on Tour a Handful of Dates Winter 2020 (Jon Stickley & Andy Thorn)

Sticks N’ Thorns on Tour Winter 2020
Featuring Jon Stickley of Jon Stickley Trio and Andy Thorn of Leftover Salmon

Sticks N’ Thorns is the new project from Leftover Salmon banjoist Andy Thorn and flatpicking guitarist Jon Stickley of the Jon Stickley Trio. Since their teenage years together in North Carolina, Andy and Jon have played together in numerous bands including the Broke Mountain Bluegrass Band (with Anders Beck of Greensky Bluegrass, and Travis Book of The Infamous Stringdusters). At the 2019 Telluride Bluegrass Festival summer Broke Mountain reunited amid rabid excitement (mostly their own). This was slightly more epic than the open mic nights the two had played together back in Durham. 

Today, both Jon and Andy are prominent members of the Jam Grass scene (and still best friends), despite divergent musical paths. Jon stayed in North Carolina and briefly played mandolin with Asheville favorites The Biscuit Burners. Shortly afterwards, he formed his own group, the Jon Stickley Trio, which has been praised by both NPR and the New York Times for the band’s boundary-defying bluegrass. 

Meanwhile, Andy enjoyed a stint in Larry Keel and Natural Bridge, then relocated to Colorado, where he joined the Emmitt-Nershi Band (with Bill Nershi of the String Cheese Incident, and Drew Emmitt of Leftover Salmon). Soon, Andy joined Leftover Salmon, ending the band’s multi-year hiatus. Leftover Salmon had just been waiting, it turned out, for their “missing banjo link.” Since then, the band has released multiple studio albums, using Andy’s original songs as the title tracks.

Sticks N’ Thorns is for everyone who wants to see what happens when two childhood friends reunite to bring everything they’ve learned from their music careers — and from life on the road —  to their new musical hijinks. Get ready for old-school classics, buddy shenanigans, and genre-defying bluegrass.

Sticks N’ Thorns Winter 2020 Tour Dates:
1/9 Thu – 185 King Street – Brevard, NC
1/10 Fri – The Neighborhood Theatre – Charlotte, NC
1/11 Sat – The Hunt House – Atlanta, GA
1/12 Sun – 3rd and Lindsley – Nashville, TN *
2/13 Thu – Steamboat Unplugged – Steamboat, CO ^
2/14 Fri – Animas City Theatre – Durango, CO #
2/15 Sat – The Liberty – Telluride, CO
2/16 Sun – The Surf Hotel – Buena Vista, CO
2/17 Mon – Shakedown Bar – Vail, CO
2/19 Wed – The Mesa Theater – Grand Junction, CO

* w/ Jon Stickley Trio
^ w/ Tyler Grant & Presented by Partners in Routt County & WinterWonderGrass
# w/ Robin Davis

For more information please visit www.facebook.com/JonStickleyTrio and www.facebook.com/andythornmusic. 

 

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Leftover Salmon’s Banjoist Andy Thorn Releases Video Ode To Cannabis Pioneers

BANJOIST ANDY THORN RELEASES “BLAZING NEW FRONTIERS” VIDEO 

An Ode To The People Who Built The Cannabis Industry,
Just In Time For The 420 Holiday, The Song Tells The Story of America’s 1st Licensed Pot Broker, Who Also Happens To Be Thorn’s Wife

IT IS THE 1ST SINGLE FROM HIS UPCOMING SOLO ALBUM, FRONTIERS LIKE THESE

Pre-order The Full Album Now & Stream “Blazing New Frontiers” at → https://lnk.to/FrontiersLikeThese

BOULDER, CO — After a decade of touring and three studio albums with legendary jam band Leftover Salmon, banjoist Andy Thorn is releasing his first solo recording in eight years, Frontiers Like These, on June 21 at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. To make this album, Thorn called in his oldest friends, who now happen to be in meteoric acoustic bands, including members of Mandolin Orange, Town Mountain, Jon Stickley Trio, and Big Fat Gap.

Andy is excited to release a video of the album’s first single “Blazing New Frontiers” on Friday, 4/19 — just in time for the 420 holiday. Watch it here → https://youtu.be/CEFwbA2u46c.

The song tells the story of America’s first licensed pot broker, who also happens to be his wife, Cecelia May Thorn. “Blazing New Frontiers” is an ode to the people who built the cannabis industry, who tried to find their way in an increasingly corporate landscape. The video, directed by award-winning director Eric Abramson, was shot in the facilities of her actual former clients, 14er Holistics’ Grow. It depicts Andy performing in an indoor grow room while Cecelia acts out her pot brokering business throughout Boulder, with cameo appearances by members of Leftover Salmon.

Denver’s Westword call it “an amusing peek into the zany ins and outs of Colorado’s most famous business.” In the Westword interview about the song, which is based an old poem written by Cecelia, Thorn says, “It’s a salute to all the growers and people who helped pioneer the industry… Some of the words are ‘You can’t grow a plant without a radio tag/You can’t sell a pound without a barcode bag,’ and the chorus goes, ‘You can call us crooks and gangsters/But we’ll still be pioneers/We’re the first state to go legal/We’re blazing new frontiers.’”

Written and produced by Andy Thorn, Frontiers Like These features 11 original tracks including four instrumental numbers and seven vocal tracks featuring lush harmonies by Emily Frantz and Andrew Marlin of Mandolin Orange. The lyrics and soundscapes capture a snapshot of American life — from North Carolina to the Rocky Mountains and beyond. Inevitably, the album references climate change and economic inequality. The album also features Jon Stickley on guitar, Town Mountain’s Bobby Britt on fiddle, and Big Fat Gap’s Miles Andrews on bass, the decades of Carolina-based picking friendships are palpable from the first notes.

Frontiers Like These was recorded in the musicians’ hometown of Chapel Hill at The Rubber Room. It was done over the holidays, so everyone was back in town visiting family. The recording sessions felt like a Carolina bluegrass family reunion, but most of these songs were actually written at 7300 feet above sea level, in Thorn’s high-altitude Colorado home.

For more information, please visit www.Andythornmusic.com, www.instagram.com/_thornpipe_, and www.facebook.com/andythornmusic.

 

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