About the Rifters - The Rifters are Rod Taylor (guitar, mandolin, vocals), Don Richmond (guitar, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, pedal steel guitar, dobro, harmonica, vocals), and Jim Bradley (bass, vocals). Putting out more music than it seems should be right for three guys on stage, the Rifters employ a wide range of acoustic and electric instruments, combined with soaring three-part harmonies, to provide a mesmerizing variety of music from driving blue-grama-grass to ethereal desert beauty. The years of playing to the dance crowds in their northern New Mexico homeland has given their music a toe-tapping rhythm that is engaging and undeniable. With a pedigree of bands like Hired Hands, the Rounders, and South by Southwest among them, the Rifters are truly a musical voice of their region of high desert vistas and mountain majesty.From the liner notes - We weren't planning on doing an all original CD - we had a few tunes that seemed like good candidates, but once the ingredients were assembled and the required architecture was achieved, the spark seemed to have been struck and songs started blooming up from wherever songs come from. And they seem to have arranged themselves as notes and observations on this journey of life we are all on, from the vantage point of being a good ways down the path. We hope they bring a little light and warmth to you on your road!We're pretty excited about this new CD - there's some fine tunes we've been playing for awhile, and some that just jumped out of the ether when were in the studio, and they seemed to want to go for a ride together, so here we are! Architecture of a Fire is about relationships as campfire - spark, fuel, close but not too close, room to breathe - and then suddenly the flame blossoms, and all the air is sucked out of the room. It's a cool tune. A Hundred Miles is one of the Rifters most popular tunes in the live set, with it's soaring sense of the wide open spaces. We hope you'll check out these, and the rest too - hope you enjoy them!