While banjos are Pharis Romero’s life, — she builds them with her husband Jason, she actually doesn’t play one.
“It’s actually quite embarrassing,” she laughed from her home in Horsefly , B.C.
They play the Lethbridge Folk Club Wolf’s Den, Jan. 9, supporting their brand new CD “Long Gone Out West Blues,” which was just released on Tuesday, Feb. 5.
Luckily her husband knows banjos inside and out. He built high end musical instruments for a living and had just struck out with his own custom banjo making company when he met Pharis in 2007.
“He started playing banjo when he was 20, so he knows how a banjo should sound,” she said adding while he builds the necks and hardware to the customer’s specifications, she does the inlay and decorative work.
“It’s pretty impressive. He builds about 300 a year. He’s a talented woodworker,” she praised.
They duo have a pretty full sound in their live show as Jason switches between various guitars and of course, banjo, while she sticks to playing rhythm guitar on her 1937 Martin guitar.
Both of them are also talented musicians.
They grew up, Pharis in Horsefly, and Jason in a small northern California town, surrounded by old time country and roots music and had already established careers when they met.
Their debut Cd as a duo, “A Passing Glimpse,” immediately gained accolades upon it’s 2011 release. It won New/Emerging Artist of the Year at the 2012 Canadian Folk Music Award, Americana Album of the Year at the 2012 Independent Music Awards and was included on many Best of 2011 lists including Folk Alley, Uprooted Music Revue, Folk-DJ listserve and Galaxie Folk-Roots. It was also the #1 album on the North American Folk DJ playlists, and in the Top 20 albums on the Roots Music Report into 2012.
“We didn’t expect it. It wasn’t a surprise, but we don’t go into making a record expecting anything,” she said.
“ We’re part of a pretty supportive roots and country scene in Canada where critics and our peers are still interested in buying records off of each other and want the tactile experience of reading liner notes while listening to music. So we’re very grateful for that,” she said.
She is really excited abut the brand new CD.
“There is is definitely more original material on it. The last one was more our interpretations of old country and bluegrass music,” she said.
“Long Gone Out West Blues is more focused on the music for the duo,” she said adding the writing process was more collaborative.
“We each write a lot on our own, then we bring songs to the other for fine tuning, finesse and completion,” she said.
“We chose the ones we loved the most out of all of the songs we wrote,” she continued.
They recorded the music in and sent it to David Travers-Smith for mastering and mixing.
“It doesn’t take long. We’re pretty in-house. We don’t have anybody else listening to it and sending it back to us,” she said.
“We’re very happy with it.”
They are also very happy abut beginning a new tour.
“This is our first tour as a duo, so we’re excited about it,” she enthused.
“There are two voices, lots of traditional and old time music, vintage instruments and a lot of banjo,” she summarized.
“ We’re looking forward to meeting a lot of new people,” she said.
Pharis and Jason Romero play the Lethbridge Folk Club Wolf’s Den, Feb. 9 at 8 p.m.
Calgary blues and roots musician Erin Ross will be opening the show.
Tickets are $20 for members, $25 for non-members.
