Appalachian Journey is the second album from the string trio

String trio

A string trio is a group of three string instruments or a piece written for such a group. The term is generally used with reference to works of chamber music from the Classical period to the present.-History:...

 of bassist and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 Edgar Meyer

Edgar Meyer

Edgar Meyer is a prominent contemporary bassist and composer. His styles include classical, bluegrass, newgrass, and jazz. Meyer has worked as a session musician in Nashville, part of various chamber groups, a composer, and an arranger...

, fiddler and composer Mark O'Connor

Mark O'Connor

Mark O'Connor is an American bluegrass, jazz, country and classical violinist fiddler, composer and music teacher. O'Connor's music is wide-ranging, critically acclaimed, and he has received numerous awards for both his playing and his composition...

, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma

Yo-Yo Ma

Yo-Yo Ma is an American cellist, virtuoso, and orchestral composer. He has received multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011...

. James Taylor

James Taylor

James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....

 and Alison Krauss

Alison Krauss

Alison Maria Krauss is an American bluegrass-country singer, songwriter and fiddler. She entered the music industry at an early age, winning local contests by the age of ten and recording for the first time at fourteen. She signed with Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album in...

 join the trio individually on two Stephen Foster

Stephen Foster

Stephen Collins Foster , known as the "father of American music", was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century...

 songs arranged for the trio. Sony Classical released the disc in 2000. The album joined a number of other recordings released since Appalachia Waltz

Appalachia Waltz

Appalachia Waltz is the first album from the trio of fiddler and composer Mark O'Connor, double-bassist and composer Edgar Meyer, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Sony Classical released the disc in 1996. The album announces a new kind of Americana-styled Western art music, with ancestry in old-timey,...

that continue a new kind of classical music tinged with and influenced by the sounds and structures of America's

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 own musical traditions. It is possible that the titles of these albums imply a continuity of the American classical tradition begun by Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...

 in Appalachian Spring

Appalachian Spring

Appalachian Spring is a modern score composed by Aaron Copland that premiered in 1944 and has achieved widespread and enduring popularity as an orchestral suite...

. Unlike their first album, the three virtuosos spent several months on the compositions

Musical composition

Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...

 and arrangement

Arrangement

The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...

s, from July 19 to September 10, 1999.

Track listing

1. "1B" (Edgar Meyer)
2. "Misty Moonlight Waltz" (Mark O'Connor)
3. "Hard Times Come Again No More
   Hard Times Come Again No More
   "Hard Times Come Again No More," is a parlor song by Stephen Foster. It was published in New York by Firth, Pond & Co. in 1854 as Foster's Melodies No. 28...
   
   " (Stephen Foster - arr:James Taylor, Yo-Yo Ma, Meyer, O'Connor)
4. "Indecision" (Meyer)
5. "Limerock" (Traditional - arr:O'Connor, Meyer)
6. "Benjamin" (Taylor)
7. "Fisher's Hornpipe" (Traditional - arr:O'Connor)
8. "Duet for Cello and Bass" (Meyer)
9. "Emily's Reel" (O'Connor - arr:Meyer)
10. "Cloverfoot Reel" (Meyer)
11. "Poem for Carlita" (O'Connor)
12. "Caprice for Three" (O'Connor)
13. "Second Time Around" (Meyer)
14. "Slumber my Darling" (Stephen Foster - arr:Meyer)
15. "Vistas" (O'Connor)

Personnel

• Mark O'Connor, violin
  Violin
  The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
  
  
• Yo-Yo Ma, cello
  Cello
  The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
  
  
• Edgar Meyer, bass
  Double bass
  The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
  
  
• James Taylor, vocals on "Hard Times Come Again No More", guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
   on "Benjamin"
• Alison Krauss, violin
  Violin
  The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
  
   on "Fisher's Hornpipe", vocals on "Slumber My Darling"