Artist Info: String Bone is the project name for songwriter Barry James Payne who is based in Southern Ontario. He currently plays live with Dan Henshall on upright bass and Steve Wood on Peddle Steel and has shared the stage with some fabulous artists in the last year - Shannon Lyon, Mel Brown (Etta James, Bobby Blue Bland), Rob Szabo (The Groove Daddies), Roger Marin (Fred Eaglesmith), Romney Getty, Mike Alviano, Bill Toms (Bruce Springsteen, The House Rockers), Allison Brown (Girls With Glasses), Matthew De Zoete, Montreal's Kaya Fraser, John Allaire (The Town Cryers), Kim Clarke (The Falcons) and many others. Payne has been playing and writing songs for many years having played in roots and rock bands since the 80's. He set out in 2006 to write and record a full-length CD, which was released as "nadir" on May 21, 2009. Produced by Shannon Lyon, Chris Giesbrecht and himself. String Bone writes songs about real life struggles and his powerful lyrics “often paint vivid portraits of some of the darker corners of Southern Ontario life, as in the tracks Killing Town, Wash Away Our Sins and Southern Ontario Chill” (quoted from The Kitchener-Waterloo Record—Sept. 17, 2008). His sound has been described as Roots-Americana, but also defined as diverse and having influences in Folk, Blues, Rock, Country, Gypsy, Celtic and Classical with the help of many fellow musicians who play with Payne live or in the studio. Payne's approach to songs are conversational, at times almost talking while delivering songs, to singing with passion. As Lyon and String Bone started this project in January 2007, they each chose their top ten songs from a pool of 24 songs that String Bone had played for him one night. They ended up with 14 songs after their lists were combined. The next session they recorded all 14 songs with just voice and guitar, so they could listen and work out arrangements and later decide the final cut of 10. During the recording, Payne kept writing and so, two of the songs from that original batch were replaced by a couple more newer and more appropriate songs. In particular, the intro written by Payne & Munro and the second song on the record, Wash Away Our Sins, which fit perfectly with the intro. ABOUT THE RECORD: String Bone – nadir Released May 21, 2009 Produced by Shannon Lyon, Chris Giesbrecht & Barry James Payne. Recorded and Mixed by Chris Giesbrecht, except Midnight Train & Portland, Maine Mixed by George Leger III. Mastered by George Leger III. Barry James Payne - vocals/acoustic guitar/harmonica Musicians (with a little help from my friends…..) Shannon Lyon - electric guitars Chris Giesbrecht - keyboards/guitar/bass/drums/acoustic & electric guitar/vocals Bob Egan - Peddle Steel/Lap Steel Antonia Munro - violin/vocals Mike Alviano - electric guitar Romney Getty - vocals Nicole Andrea Aube - vocals Jeff Cowell - drums Jay Schneider - bass/lap steel/mandolin Tomas Bouda - upright bass Paul Shilton - accordion Todd Donald - vocals This is the new record by Canada’s String Bone, aka singer-songwriter Barry James Payne, whose infectious and thought-provoking tunes weave back and forth from one style to another drawing you in for closer inspection. The songs Killing Town, Midnight Train, Portland Maine, Wash Away Our Sins, Southern Ontario Chill and If I Had A Dream are all standout tracks. Each song grooves a little bit differently with a hotlist of some of Kitchener, Ontario’s, and for that matter, some of Canada’s finest musicians and artists, which include Shannon Lyon, Bob Egan, Romney Getty, Mike Alviano and others as noted above. Ex-Wilco sideman and current Blue Rodeo peddle steel guru Bob Egan, provides his stellar chops on several songs, including memorable work on “Midnight Train” - one of several great performances on this record. With Blue Rodeo on the road in Vancouver at the time, Egan laid down his peddle track on Midnight Train backstage at the Malkin Bowl prior to their evening concert. Another stand-out Egan performance has got to be on the song “If I Had A Dream”. His Lap Steel performance in If I Had A Dream rips it up in epic roots-rock style. Egan contributes to 5 songs putting his own stamp on each one and proving why he is one of the best sidemen in roots rock. Shannon Lyon, the record’s lead producer and one of Canada’s most gifted singer-songwriter’s, took on this project at Payne’s request and collaborated with co-producers - multi-instrumentalist and technical/audio engineer Chris Giesbrecht and Payne himself. Together they created wonderful landscapes of authentic Americana, roots-rock, folk and alt.country-blues gems. His electric guitar performances in Wash Away Our Sins, Southern Ontario Chill, Killing Town and Too Young For Romance raise the songs to another level and are definitive highlights of the record. At the beginning of the project he helped Payne complete two of the songs and is credited as a co-writer for Midnight Train and Portland, Maine. Payne says, “I played all of the songs for Shannon at the start of this project and these two songs just needed that little extra push. So we collaborated on the chorus for Midnight Train, just taking it that extra couple of bars and changing the chord progression and that is one of the major pay-offs in the tune and it really made sense when we were done. On Portland, Maine, which is basically a lost-love story in desperate search of a make-up, I was missing the instrumental bridge section, that again, just takes the song to a bit of a pay-off. It’s the part you want to hear each time. Again we collaborated together finding the right chord patterns that made sense and created some angst in the song. When Shannon asked me if I would like peddle-steel, I jumped at the opportunity to bring Bob Egan in and he just nails this song - the part he recorded in the instrumental break is just brilliant! I love it!” This is String Bone’s second independent release. Also available is 2008’s The Killing Town EP. Enjoy “nadir” and let us know what you think - we’d love to hear from you - and check the web-sites for more info.