Donal Baylor

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Album cover

Donal's brand new album is available now! Audio previews are available for selected tracks.

AU$29
(includes postage worldwide)


If you prefer not to use paypal contact Donal for alternative payment arrangements.

Donal Baylor - fiddle and guitar
with
Steve Gilchrist - mandolin
Pete Fidler - Dobro
Mick Harrison - banjo
Hamish Davidson - banjo
Lachlan Davidson - mandolin
Andy Baylor - guitar
Mike St.Clair-Miller - double bass
Chris Jacobs - vocals
Ruth Hazleton - harmony vocals

  1. Daybreak in Dixie
  2. Southern Aristocracy
  3. White Rose Waltz
  4. Goodbye to the Blues

  5. Laughing Boy/Old Bell Cow
  6. Farewell to Long Hollow

  7. Town and Country Fiddler
  8. Elzick's Farewell
  9. Fourteen Days in Georgia
  10. I Heard That Lonesome Whistle Blow
  11. Jekyll Island
  12. The Waltz You Saved For Me
  13. My Father's Footsteps

  14. Kansas City Railroad Blues
  15. When I Grow Too Old to Dream

CD liner notes

This album represents the impeccable credentials of a man broadly considered a statesman and ambassador. While it is trite to speak of pedigree and lineage, there is no doubt that Donal Baylor, along with Brothers Pete and Andy, is from fine musical stock.

The history is well known. From playing the front porch sessions at home in Healesville, gigging around with the Baylor Brothers, the Dancehall Racketeers and even Slim Dusty, Donal has been there and done it and mostly more than twice. In recent times Donal has settled in Capital City, Canberra , and emerges from his base in the leafy suburbs of the Inner North to either lead the local pub session or provide the rock, anchor and engine of any and every bluegrass band that happens to be darned lucky to have him. Or he tours around the USA, and, in a coals-to-Newcastle reversal, receives accolades from its bluegrass A-list. 'He is a good musician', Mike Compton said of Donal. Can it get much better than that?

If he is one of the most welcome in a session, Donal is also the most welcoming, being not only a self professed student but a peerless teacher. He comes to the music with the love for it that is only shown by a true disciple and also as someone who sees the intrinsic value of passing this music on. It may be that to the uninitiated Donal is but a perfectionist. In as much as there is no excuse for drinking bad coffee: Donal is a coffee connoisseur, let the record show, there is little excuse with bluegrass for not getting it right. And if there is one man who gets it right and makes sure that you can get it right too, that is Donal. A musician's musician's musician.

Of course, this much takes dedication and practice. One may wonder just how concentrated and committed one has to be to get the fiddle like Donal does. Then again you could always play a round of golf with him, have one look at his swing and you just know how concentrated and committed this man can be. You can also see it in his approach to the guitar, and it is worth remembering that the year Donal won the National Fiddle Championships, he was runner up in the flatpicking.

You'll find "Donal Baylor - Fiddle" on a lot of albums produced over the last 25 odd years. This is Donal's first attempt at one of his own. One may ask why this has taken so long. But when dealing with a man of Donal's calibre, where there is an exceptional ability, there is also a countervailing humility and Donal would simply not be so presumptuous. His many, many fans - everyone who has played with him or sat in the audience, have clearly worn him down. So here we have it, Town and Country Fiddler, from one of the best of those that we know.

John 'JT' Taylor
Canberra 2010