True North Lawson Rollins

• 1 True North 04:31
• 2 With the Wind 04:44
• 3 Perpetual Motion 03:28
• 4 Bluewave Bossanova 04:24
• 5 South Beach 03:58
• 6 Full Sail 03:43
• 7 Dead Ahead 03:58
• 8 Yearning to Know 04:57
• 9 Year Abroad 04:23
• 10 Nostalgia 03:16
• 11 In the Shadows 03:50
• 12 The Winding Road 04:31
• Total Runtime 49:43

Info for True North

On TRUE NORTH, Lawson Rollins offers 12 new original compositions that showcase the guitarist at the peak of his compositional skills with his melodic and daring improvisational flair on full display. From the Electronic-infused intensity of “With the Wind” to the plaintive bossa nova sway of “Bluewave Bossanova” to the delicate pulse of “Yearning to Know," the album explores the wide range of genres, emotions, and moods that have come to characterize the dynamic and adventurous musical journey Lawson has offered fans throughout the 20 years and 14 albums of his career.

Lawson states, "During the past couple of years I expanded my musical horizons working on film music contained in my Dark Matter album and also the single “And If You Will Come With Me” by Israeli super-star singer Idan Raichel. Those experiences forced me to hone down my quite often exuberant nylon string guitar style to suit the needs of the particular projects and also to delve more seriously into other instruments like the electric and slide guitar, synthesizers, and drum programming. With True North, I was able to bring that new knowledge and perspective back home, in a sense, to the type of nylon string guitar-centered music that has been my true calling as an artist over the past 20 years. Many of the tracks, such as the title track "True North” as well as "With the Wind" and "Dead Ahead," are unlike anything I've ever done, with new textures augmenting the familiar sound of my main instrument, the acoustic nylon string guitar. There's more of an intense focus on melodic expression on this album and less on long improvisational flights of fancy. It's all about staying firmly on course - true north, as it were - and doing what serves the songs best."

True North marks Lawson’s return to his signature style of acoustic nylon string guitar playing after his 2019 experimental music foray Dark Matter: Music for Film and 2018’s Airwaves: The Greatest Hits which featured the Billboard top 10 contemporary jazz radio smash hit “World of Wonder (featuring 3rd Force)”.

On True North, Lawson is back to doing what he is most known and admired for: staying true to the direction of his artistic inner compass and delivering the kind of inimitable guitar playing, creative instrumentation, and memorable compositions his fans have come to love.

Featuring the radio hit “Bluewave Bossanova”, heard on Sirius-XM’s Watercolors channel 66 and other major contemporary jazz radio stations across the U.S.

“His classical tone is gorgeous, his technique is impeccable. His subtle genre blending is compelling.” (Guitar Player Magazine)

“It’s not often that a Latin jazz guitarist generates millions of views on YouTube with short instrumental pieces, but Lawson Rollins is used to defying expectations” (Guitar World Magazine)

"The sound is impeccable, the compositions dynamic, and the technique dazzling." (Acoustic Guitar Magazine)

Lawson Rollins, nylon string guitar, slide guitar, electric guitar, keyboards, drum programming
Davo Bryant, percussion
Dan Feiszli, bass
Mads Tolling, violin
Stephen Duros, additional keyboards, electric guitar on ‘With the Wind’

Mastered by Joe LaPorta at Sterling Sound
Produced and Composed by Lawson Rollins

Lawson Rollins
Few artists inhabit their music as seamlessly as multiple award-winning, Billboard Top 10 ranked guitarist and composer Lawson Rollins. He plays his instrument with a soulful intensity that combines the stimulating rhythmic drive of rumba, salsa, and samba with graceful melodic finesse and free-flowing improvisational flair. Acoustic Guitar Magazine describes his playing as 'impeccable' and 'dazzling', while the prestigious Guitar Player Magazine ranks Lawson as one of the “50 Transcendent Acoustic Guitarists” of all time and writes, "Lawson Rollins is a bona fide star...The key to Rollins' mass appeal is his signature artistic balance between classically influenced compositional refinement, infectious exotic rhythms, and the unbridled intensity of full-on shred."

Over the past 20 years, Lawson’s 10 solo albums and 4 albums with his prior group Young & Rollins have landed in the Billboard Top 10 World Music Chart and spawned several Billboard Top 30 contemporary jazz hits, winning him an ever growing fan base attracted by his melodic, exhilarating solos and exotic, cross-genre instrumentation performed by internationally renowned musicians. Sensational videos like “The Fire Cadenza” and "Locomotion" - a jaw dropping display of his electrifying speed and gift for merging rhythm and melody - have attracted millions of broadcast television and internet viewers including over 10 million views alone on YouTube.

Lawson's critically acclaimed, award-winning, genre defying solo albums - INFINITA, ESPIRITO, ELEVATION, FULL CIRCLE, TRAVELER, INFINITE CHILL, 3 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT, AIRWAVES: THE GREATEST HITS, and DARK MATTER: MUSIC FOR FILM - landed high on the contemporary jazz radio charts and produced a Billboard #1 song - "Moonlight Samba" from ESPIRITO. For two consecutive years, he earned a 1st Place award in the prestigious USA Songwriting Competition. He also won three Gold Medals in the Global Music Awards for Instrumentalist, Album, and Top 10 Albums of the Year for his TRAVELER album. As a testament to his enduring appeal on radio he was asked to serve as "Celebrity Guest DJ" on Sirius-XM Radio, available to listen to here.

His albums feature numerous collaborations with artists from around the globe, including Grammy Award winners and nominees like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Charlie Bisharat (of Shadowfax), Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, Mads Tolling, Kayhan Kalhor (of the Silk Road Ensemble) and Horacio Hernandez, as well as Billboard #1 charting contemporary jazz masters like 3rd Force and Praful. An ever growing cast of eclectic, notable artists continues to expand his world-fusion sound, with musicians such as Idan Raichel, Buckethead, William Aura (of 3rd Force), and Shahin Shahida (of Shahin & Sepehr) contributing to the mix.

In his globally-inspired music, Lawson incorporates the propulsive drive of Afro-Cuban rhythms with a style based on the music of Spain, India, Persia and the Arab world. "All music has a hybrid quality," Lawson believes. "Thousands of years of travel, trade and communication between cultures created new forms of musical expression. The Spanish guitar embodies this with its ties to the Arab oud, the Persian tar, even the sitar, so weaving those strands together seems natural to me."

This album contains no booklet.