Soft Soothing Fiddle
This meditative 15-song album and accompanying 20-song video by Bluegrass Hall of Fame and Museum educational director Randy Lanham is a true labor of love with a fascinating story behind it.
A while back, Lanham’s father was in the hospital and Lanham noticed how hard it was for him to relax or sleep amidst all the hubbub and coming and going of doctors and nurses. Then he remembered even further back when he’d once played fiddle in the nearby Chapel of the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph in Maple Mount, Kentucky, and how serene and spiritual it had sounded—rather unlike anything he’d experienced before.
So, thinking about his father and others in similarly stressful situations, he arranged to record a soothing and soulful instrumental collection of hymns, spirituals and slow waltzes in the chapel, accompanied by his friends Chris Armstrong on guitar and Chris Joslin on Dobro, mandolin and bass.
“My hope is that people listen to this music when they want to relax or ease anxiety,” Lanham explains of the songs, which were recorded in the nearly 100-year-old chapel on a more than 150-year-old fiddle. “I believe there are many healing properties in music and hope that this music helps people.”
Many of the songs themselves are more than a hundred years old. They include such familiar titles as “Rose of Sharon,” “Danny Boy,” “Jesus Loves Me,” “Maiden’s Prayer,” “Ave Maria,” “Lanham Waltz,” “Sweet Hour of Prayer,” “Old Rugged Cross” and “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” among others.
To get back to the “labor of love” aspect of this project, Lanham is sharing this music with the world for absolutely free. The concert is available on YouTube. (Search “Randy Lanham Soft Soothing Fiddle” to watch the full hour-long show.) And Lanham will provide MP3 files to anyone who emails him a request at: [email protected]. The album is also available on all streaming services.
Also included in the video are stories of what inspired these timeless masterpieces to be written in the first place. “My hopes are for many more people to be comforted by this gift of music that God gave us to share,” Lanham explains.
