RISE

Merle Travis was a country singer and guitarist whose legacy is the most famous of all guitar fingerpicking styles - Travis Picking. It’s quite particular with rhythmic bass notes played by the thumb and syncopated with fingers tapping out intricate melodic or rhythmic lines on the other strings. Requires a lot of practice and if you don’t practice it, sometimes you get a unique picking style of your own!

That’s how Rise began. Bit of Travis bluffing, sounding quite good with an Emaj7sus2 chord. Some shimmering electric guitar to ground the rolling syncopation, seasoned with a deep throated mantra from the double bass and we are well on our way to what one keen listener has described as a hypnotic sound. A bit of ‘U2’ air added by the keyboards and the palette is fixed.

The theme is one of hope and resilience. In this age of concern, “ the beat of this world doesn’t move you now…”, but you Rise.

Tightly focussed, vocals from Ally and Lisa weave together to make it clear, this is a hymn, a song of praise for those “building dreams from the ground to the stars”, and who Rise.