Search - Mike Farris, Cumberland Saints :: The Night The Cumberland Came Alive

Mike Farris who recently was honored with a Dove Award for his 2009 SHOUT! Live release wanted to give back to his hometown who sufferred during the May 2010 flood in Nashville. This 6 song charity EP was recorded at the historic Downtown Presbyterian Church in one afternoon and proceeds will be used to help flood victims via the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. The Night The Cumberland Came Alive features an all-star cast of musicians including: Sam Bush, Kenny Vaughan (Marty Stuart), Ketch Secor and Gill Landry from Old Crow Medicine Show, Byron House (Robert Plant), as well as Ann, Regina and Alfreda McCrary (The McCrary Sisters), Derrek Phillips and Eric Holt from Farris' own Roseland Rhythm Revue. The title track's lyrics deal directly with the flood, and Farris penned "Dear Lazarus" along with Ketch Secor just days before the recording. Musically it is in keeping with the old roots Gospel flavor that Farris' has been known for on previous releases but with a more blues and country feel. "Stylistically, pre-war American music has long been a passion of mine," Farris says of the project. "Before the flood, we'd been searching for songs that would evoke the struggle and the victory of the working class, a sound rising up out of flesh and bone, of spit and spirit. But then, as a city, we were hit square in the gut by this unbelievable flood. And that sound meshed with the spirit of resurrection we saw rise up all over this area. When we gathered in that historic church to lay it all down, what happened was beyond our imaginations."