• Virtuoso Adam Hurt to Release Gourd Banjo Album Featuring Bluegrass Legends

    Back to the Earth is a follow-up to Hurt's cult classic album Earth Tones.
    Adam Hurt - Back to the Earth

    NASHVILLE, TENN. — Adam Hurt has announced the release of Back to the Earth, a follow-up to his seminal solo gourd banjo album Earth Tones (2010).

    The gourd banjo, an ancestor of the modern banjo akin to the instruments brought to America by West African slaves, has a rich history and deep cultural ties to the music of Appalachia. A veritable master of clawhammer banjo, Hurt has once again put together a gorgeous collection that honors the traditions and pushes the boundaries of the instrument, this time inviting fellow nonpareils of traditional music, both new and old, to join him.

    He is accompanied by the likes of Brittany Haas (fiddle), Paul Kowert (bass), Jordan Tice (guitar), Marshall Wilborn (bass) and David McLaughlin (mandolin), long-time musical collaborator Beth Williams Hartness (guitar), and Country Music Hall of Fame member Ricky Skaggs (mandolin). In this way Back to the Earth builds on the foundation laid by Earth Tones by maintaining a connection to the music of the past while offering listeners a contemporary interpretation.



    Deemed a "banjo virtuoso" by the Washington Post, Hurt fused several traditional old-time idioms to create his own elegantly innovative clawhammer banjo style, having been introduced to the instrument at age eleven in his native Minnesota. A respected performer and teacher of traditional music, he has played at the Kennedy Center, conducted banjo and fiddle workshops at many venues around the country and abroad.

    He has placed in or won most of the major old-time banjo competitions in the South, including three first-place finishes at Clifftop, and has appeared on the cover of Banjo Newsletter. Hurt has become a cornerstone of American traditional music, helping to revivify the venerable clawhammer banjo style through his extensive teaching and performing.

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