Ray Legere - The Day the Train Pulled into Town (2019)

For the past 15 years, Janet Crawford has been involved in various music projects in her hometown of Sackville, New Brunswick. Always happy to step in and assist in fundraising events Janet has been featured in many performances with her musical friends. In 2009 she released her first CD project entitled, Matter of Time. This CD was a collaboration with Canadian poet Douglas Lochhead and consisted of 10 tracks based on Lochhead poems. Her second CD project, Dancing Underneath the Stars was released in 2015. Produced with Ray Legere it featured classic jazz standards, some country swing tunes and 5 original songs. Janet has been a featured vocalist with the Nova Scotia based jazz group, The Elastic Big Band for the past 10 years.

Ray Legere is a world-renowned fiddle and mandolin player, a household name for music lovers across the Maritimes, and a resident of Sackville New Brunswick for the past 21 years. His astonishing technique and boundless musical energy enthrall and excite musicians and audiences alike, and continue to garner what is already a lifetime of justly deserved accolades. From New Brunswick Ray tours the world and records with the top musicians in many musical genres. He has played with most of the great North American bluegrass players, including legends like Tony Rice, Dave Grisman, and Doc Watson. Highly versatile and deeply knowledgeable, Ray is the session player that everyone wants to work with. Ray has seven solo CDs to his credit, some featuring his own compositions, and is heard on upwards of 500 recordings as a session player. He runs his own recording studio and label in his home in Sackville, New Brunswick, and has enhanced the recordings of a countless number of artists by adding mandolin, fiddle and guitar tracks of his own making. He is a regular guest on concert stages throughout the Maritimes, often performing with his band Acoustic Horizon. Because of his musical versatility and Acadian background, Ray is in the unusual position of regularly being invited to perform with both anglophone and francophone artists in the region, and is a regular member of the band for the Quebec hit television show Pour lamour du Country.

Ray is a multiple ECMA award winner, has won numerous awards for his fiddling and mandolin playing, and was recently inducted into the NB and NS Country Music Halls of Fame. His portrait is also on the Sackville Arts Wall as one of our great local artists. On November 4 Ray was honored with a New Brunswick Lieutenant Governors Award for High Achievement in Performing Arts.

“Ray and I both feel very fortunate to live in a community that still experiences the rumblings of the train”, said Janet Crawford. “Working on this Train project has been very fulfilling for us both and we’re excited for everyone to hear this new CD”.