The sequel to the popular and award winning Close Kin: A Reunion of Bluegrass & Old Time Music project. Close Kin: Our Roots Run Deep again features the blending of the bluegrass, old-time and American styles of music in one album. Featured artists range in ages from eleven to seventeen years of age who can hold their own with the very best musicians and vocalists today. Close Kin: Our Roots Run Deep will be produced by award winning songwriter/singer Johnny Williams, and will feature superb arrangements and vocal and instrumental combinations of 12 carefully selected familiar and not-so-familiar songs performed by the very best young entertainers from the Blue Ridge and Appalachian Highlands regions. They include: Madison Shepherd, West Jefferson, NC - clawhammer banjo Jared Boyd, Laurel Fork, VA - clawhammer banjo, guitar, vocals Levi Funk, Fries, VA - old-time fiddle, vocals Kitty Amaral, Elk Creek, VA - old-time fiddle Lindsey Nale, Galax, VA - vocals Daniel Greeson, Jamestown, NC - bluegrass fiddle, guitar David Chrisley, Wytheville, VA - bass Cathrine Conner, Stuart, VA - mandolin, guitar, vocals Jonah Horton, Wilkesboro, NC - mandolin, guitar Clay Russell, Troutdale, VA - bluegrass banjo Austin Greer, Marion, VA - bluegrass banjo Karl Cooler of Mountain Roads Recordings says, “As soon as the original Close Kin project was completed, I knew that we had created something very special. Johnny Williams and I immediately started planning this album. Most all of the artists from the original recording are teachers and we looked first to their students. As with the artists from the Close Kin project, where better to showcase the youth artists who will carry the sounds of our region forward? We quickly found all of the talent needed for the perfect combination to create this recording. Following in the model of the original project, it was especially important to us to pick songs that were both familiar and not overly recorded then team up the artists into combinations that are unlike anything out there today”. Johnny Williams adds, ”This follow-up youth project to Close Kin is something Karl and I have wanted to do for a while. The performers we have recruited to play are representative of the great musical talent from Southwest Virginia and North Carolina, regardless of their young ages. These players have collectively played this region’s music for most of their lives at a very high level of musicianship. Most of them will be playing together for the first time as well as embarking on tunes and styles of music they have not been accustomed to. But I'm sure as you will hear they will pull it