Tree of Life - William Coulter and Barry Phillips

William Coulter, guitar, shaker
Barry Phillips, cello, spoons, psaltries
Mike Marshall, mandolin, violin, mandola, mandocello
Kaila Flexer, violin
Esther Landau, flute
Lars Johannesson, wooden flute
Robin Petrie, hammered dulcimer
Shelley Phillips, Celtic harp, English horn, tenor recorder, oboe
Neal Hellman, mountain dulcimer

If you love Simple Gifts, you'll be delighted with this companion album. The Shakers believed that music and dance were gifts received from blessed spirits, and celebrated their innermost spiritual revelations with song. Once more, Barry Phillips, William Coulter and company join forces to revive the Shakers' stirring and joyful music.

Here again is an anthology to cherish: a perfectly choreographed sequence of lovely melodies, upbeat dance tunes and heartfelt hymns. Both albums offer informative liner notes on each song, essays on the Shaker movement, and suggest reading to provide listeners with background information and sources on this fascinating material

Barry Phillips (cello, mandolins, harpsichord and psaltry) received his M.M. in composition from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He has been active in film composition, orchestration and conducting and is a woodworking fanatic as time allows. He has served in various capacities including performer, arranger and producer for numerous Gourd recordings including Simple Gifts, The Fairie Round, The World Turned Upside Down, Tree Of Life, Autumn in the Valley, Wondrous Love and Pavane.

Guitarist William Coulter has been recording and performing traditional music since 1981. His current passion is arranging and singing songs from the Irish Gaelic song tradition. He performs solo and in ensembles, and is preparing two books of guitar arrangements for Mel Bay. William is featured on several Gourd recordings including Celtic Crossing, Simple Gifts and Orison. He received his MM from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and his MA in Ethnomusicology from the University of California at Santa Cruz.