MIKE POST ANNOUNCES NEW SOLO ALBUM “MESSAGE FROM THE MOUNTAINS & ECHOES OF THE DELTA”
AVAILABLE APRIL 5 FROM SONY CLASSICAL – PREORDER NOW
OUT TODAY: LEAD SINGLE “CAMPFIRE BREAKDOWN/NIGHT SKY” – LISTEN HERE
THE ICONIC COMPOSER FOR LAW & ORDER, THE ROCKFORD FILES, MAGNUM P.I. & MORE BRINGS A-LIST SOLOISTS TOGETHER WITH A FULL ORCHESTRA IN CELEBRATION OF BLUEGRASS & BLUES MUSIC
NEW YORK, NY (February 23, 2024) – From the iconic “dun-dun” sting that has become synonymous with the Law and Order universe to instantly recognizable riffs from The Rockford Files, Hill Street Blues, Magnum P.I., L.A. Law and more, Emmy®- and Grammy®-winning composer MIKE POST has helped shape half a century of pop culture with his beloved television themes. Now, he celebrates the music that inspired this prolific career with Message from the Mountains & Echoes of the Delta, a truly unique solo album that pays homage to bluegrass and blues music, available April 5 via Sony Classical. Making its debut today alongside album preorder is the collection’s lead single “Campfire Breakdown/Night Sky” – listen here.
The way composer Mike Post simply describes himself now – “I’m an American musician” – is as grateful and respectful as it is limitless in its compass and its ambition. His new solo album, Message from the Mountains & Echoes of the Delta, emerged as his own celebration of the music of the American people that has inspired him in a career spanning six decades. Presented as a pair of original works, the album combines the sounds of a bluegrass band (Message from the Mountains) and a blues band (Echoes of the Delta) – joined by two “dream teams” of soloists who are his longtime friends and colleagues – with the rich palette and expressive power of a full orchestra.
The first in a pair of original works encompassing the album, Message from the Mountains features nine multifaceted movements utilizing the sounds of bluegrass to celebrate the mingling of tradition and diverse cultural experience in American music. The immensely talented and decorated members of these rhythm sections are as follows: Herb Pedersen (5-string banjo); Gabe Witcher (fiddle); Mike Witcher (dobro); Patrick Sauber (acoustic guitar/mandolin); and Amy Keys (orator). Echoes from the Delta, meanwhile, reflects and explores the exuberant joy and the well of anguish that forged the blues in 14 short, expressive movements. Joining Post and the orchestra as soloists are Sonny Landreth (slide guitar); Eric Gales (electric guitar); Abe Laboriel Sr. (bass); Abe Laboriel Jr. (drums); Robert Turner (organ/piano); Jon O’Hara (keyboards); and Amy Keys (vocalist).
MIKE POST: MESSAGE FROM THE MOUNTAINS & ECHOES OF THE DELTA
TRACKLISTING –
1. Message from the Mountains: I. Journeys – The Message
2. Message from the Mountains: II. Onward
3. Message from the Mountains: III. Sunrise Special
4. Message from the Mountains: IV. Redemption Valley
5. Message from the Mountains: V. Campfire Breakdown – Night Sky
6. Message from the Mountains: VI. Fort Smith Waltz
7. Message from the Mountains: VII. Strings Afire
8. Message from the Mountains: VIII. Spirit of the Owl
9. Message from the Mountains: IX. Destined to Dream
10. Echoes of the Delta: I. John the Revelator
11. Echoes of the Delta: II. River Walkin’
12. Echoes of the Delta: III. Just Before Dawn
13. Echoes of the Delta: IV. Highway 41
14. Echoes of the Delta: V. Little Zion
15. Echoes of the Delta: VI. The Gate to Greenwood
16. Echoes of the Delta: VII. Crossed Road
17. Echoes of the Delta: VIII. Riley Smiles
18. Echoes of the Delta: IX. Riffs ‘Round the Sun
19. Echoes of the Delta: X. Sunday With Maudes
20. Echoes of the Delta: XI. Boogie Offspring
21. Echoes of the Delta: XII. Backside Middle
22. Echoes of the Delta: XIII. Sunny in the Second Line
23. Echoes of the Delta: XIV. Light the Dark Sky
24. Echoes of the Delta: XV. The Call
25. Echoes of the Delta: XVI. Circle Back Home
ABOUT MIKE POST
If his name is not instantly recognizable, Mike Post’s music is. His unforgettable themes for The Rockford Files, Hill Street Blues, The A-Team, Magnum P.I., NYPD Blue, L.A. Law and many other TV classics – including the Law & Order family of dramas (notably, in the landmark, two-note “dun-dun” effect he created) – are part of the soundtrack of modern American life.
Steeped in music from childhood, Post was a go-to session musician as a teenager in the Los Angeles area, quickly becoming part of a legendary collective of studio musical virtuosos known as The Wrecking Crew. Post played for virtually everyone active in the LA recording scene during this time. Most notably he worked on all of Sonny and Cher’s early hits, starting with “I Got You Babe.” While working for producer Jimmy Bowen, he formed The First Edition, featuring then unknown bassist/vocalist, Kenny Rogers. A breakout success – and at 23, winning the first of his five Grammy® Awards – with his arrangement of the 1968 instrumental smash hit “Classical Gas” raised Post’s profile as a composer, arranger and producer, before television changed the course of his career in the early 1970s.
Over the years, he’s written the music for seven thousand hours of TV including: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Law & Order Criminal Intent, Law & Order, NYPD Blue, The Rockford Files, Magnum PI, Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, The A-Team, Wiseguy, Hunter, The Commish, Quantum Leap, Doogie Howser MD, Blossom, Hooperman, The White Shadow, Hardcastle & McCormick, Byrds of Paradise, News Radio, Silk Stalkings and Renegade. Theme songs from The Rockford Files, The Greatest American Hero, Hill Street Blues and L.A. Law all became chart-topping records and landed Post four of his five Grammy® Awards. In 1996 he won the Emmy® for outstanding achievement in Main Title composition for the critically acclaimed Murder One.
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