AMERICAN country singer Dawn Landes returns to her Southern roots on her September 14 album Meet Me At The River on the Yep Roc label.

After a wide-ranging career wherein Landes has toured the world in Sufjan Stevens' band, worked as a producer and engineer at Philip Glass's studio, sung with the New York City Ballet and The Boston Pops, delivered a TED conference talk in Vancouver and written her own musical, Row, she worked with the cream of Nashville’s musical crop on her latest set of 12 songs.

Using session veterans with six decades of Music City experience, in particular Landes forged a partnership with Fred Foster, the veteran Country Music Hall of Famer credited as an architect of the Countrypolitan sound and noted for a client list that includes Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson.

"I was lucky enough to work with the legendary producer Fred Foster for my new record," says 37-year-old Landes. "Fred has been making hits for most of his 86 years. Not only did he produce Dolly Parton's first record (what?!) but he also produced Roy Orbison's biggest hits and some of my favourite Kris Kristofferson songs.

"I learned so much working with Fred on this record and I'm so very proud of it. We recorded everything in Nashville with the heaviest hitters around: Charlie McCoy, Steve Gibson, Bobby Wood, Eddie Bayers, Russ Pahl, Larry Paxton and more."

Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, Landes later relocated to Brooklyn, New York, and is now making her mark in Nashville too. She heads to Europe in the autumn, booked into The Basement at City Screen, York, by York promoters Please Please You for an October 16 gig, where she will be supported by

the Montreal and London duo JF Robitaille & Lail Arad.

Tickets for this 8pm concert cost £10 in person from The Basement, Earworm Records in York and Jumbo Records in Leeds or online at pleasepleaseyou.com.

Charles Hutchinson