Lawson Rollins: Traveler

Many people travel from an encapsulated distance, staying at posh brand name hotels and dining under the golden arches while others prefer to explore by blending amongst the natives for a more immersive and organic experience of the actual sights and sounds of a culture. Award-winning guitarist Lawson Rollins lives by the latter philosophy, taking his guitar with him to view and interpret his global journeys.
Writing 12 expansive compositions that are wordless diary entries of his travels, Rollins’s virtuoso guitar parlance speaks a universal language on tales of exhilarating adventure, intriguing mystery and enticing romance on his new album, “Traveler.”
“The album is melodic and full of rhythmic jazz,” says Rollins. “The album starts with the African-flavored title track and continues north of Spain (‘Barcelona Express’ and ‘Meeting in Madrid’), France (‘Café Paris’), Germany (‘Berlin Bossa’) and England (‘Across the Moors’), and then over the Atlantic to Louisiana (‘Beyond the Bayou’) where I lived for a time after college. Next, we head to California with ‘Marching West’ and ‘Journey Home.’ The album concludes with the modern, electronica-infused ‘Urban Trilogy’ that evokes my times spent in New York, London Tokyo and San Francisco. On this journey, my guitar serves as a kind of filter through which my impressions of the world are processed and expressed in the language of music.”
The result is an album loaded with great songs of passion and strength! Lawson Rollins is the ultimate tour guide.