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Last year, Eliza Gilkyson grabbed the bull by the horns to deliver a 2020 album that promoted "… unity, commitment and action during this epic and critical showdown of power against the people of the US and our world today." On her latest album, which moves away from social politics, she seems to be following a similar instinctive impulse that arises out of love for the country and its people. Songs From the River Wind is described as her love letter to the Old West.

Songs From the River Wind consists of snapshots of people and places, lives and loved ones, which she lost and found during her years of wandering through the west as a musical minstrel in search of the home of her heart. The album will be released on January 14, 2022 on Howlin ’Dog Records.

Inspired by memories of characters and events that led to their enduring love affair with the West, the songs span 40 years – from originals to vintage classics – culminating in her recent decision to permanently move to Taos, where she has long been deeply rooted is last.

With a nod to her father, folk singer Terry Gilkyson and his 50s folk group "The Easy Riders", which recorded original and traditional folk songs with a distinctive Western flair, Eliza teamed up with her old friend Don Richmond to produce the record and win Don's popular Southwest band "The Rifters" to sing backup harmonies.

“The 'Rifters' are like the 21st century version of the 'Easy Riders',” says Eliza. “My father would have loved her, and having her sing and play with me on this record is the icing on the cake. It's all part of bringing these different parts of me together and bringing my past as a songwriter and as a whole person into my present. It was an enlightening adventure for me. "

Don and Eliza went for the kind of western / folk sound that underscores their love of storytelling and true blue characters, their love of rivers and mountains, and their joyful return to the desert plateau "at the foot of the mountain" now calls home.

Eliza quotes the Irish poet George Moore, who said: "A man travels the world to find what he needs and returns home to find it." To find home in the world, ”she says.

Songs From the River Wind is the story of this search, of life and love, of the people and places in her beloved West and the river of longing that brought her to the place where she could finally rest and feel her bones with certainty that she was home.

In addition to announcing the album, she unveils the album track "At the Foot of the Mountain", on which she shares a deep love for her home in the mountains and paints an attractive pastoral vision for these strange times we live in. She conjures up a time when things were much simpler – a rural life, where life goes on as it has for generations, living in houses made of clay and sand, picking apples and harvesting corn.

Please visit https://elizagilkyson.com for more information

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