High res Photo: Marc Jenkins & Jamaal Hyder	High res Photo: Jamaal Hyder	High res Photo: Jamaal Hyder

Pharis & Jason Romero released their first duo record, A Passing Glimpse, in July 2011.

#1 Album on the North American Folk DJ playlists - September 2011.

Completely and absolutely beautiful - just great.
– Frank Hennessy, BBC Radio Wales

Quite simply it would be a crime if this album were to linger forever in a banjo music backwater - it must surely be a contender for the North American folk album of the year. 9/10.
– Americana UK

... a record that is further proof that the epicenter of Appalachian mountain music may very well have moved to the Pacific rim.
– Driftwood Magazine

... an album that just might convince you that a little heartbreak is beautiful. I haven’t heard anything closer to the lonesome feeling evoked by Charlie and Ira Louvin.
– Penguin Eggs

... a triumph of melodic and harmonic simplicity.
– Aberdeen Voice

With songs that are deceptively simple, their voices blend in harmony and hover in the air before taking up permanent residence with the listener.
– Folk Alley

"Wow! Every so often you’re introduced to an act that bowls you over. Pharis and Jason have perfect, yearning harmonies, classic song-writing (and great song selection), deceptively simple, deeply-satisfying arrangements and a warm and natural sound that makes you think they’re in the room with you - all adorned with little twists and turns that grab your attention all over again."
– Sandy Semeonoff, Celtic Music Radio (UK)

This is by far one of the best Folk albums I have heard all year. Listening to them is a pure joy.
– Christine Linde, KBCS

Pharis and Jason sing like birds and play wonderful old time music. Listening to their recording, I hear a banjo and a guitar, and imagine these two sweet and talented people opening the door to their cozy home in the wilds of British Columbia. The wind howls and the rain drives outside, but inside is a warm fire and a music from the true vine.
– Tim O'Brien

Pharis and Jason Romero have that duet sound that I love; the close, tight, enmeshed harmonies, so that sometimes you can't tell who's doing what—but you don't care. It's the whole that creates the feeling and gives you the chill bumps. Great songs and spare, tasteful accompaniment. I loved it.
– Alice Gerrard

I like this CD a lot. It makes me think of the music I grew up on back in Kentucky. Great songs, and some really great playing too!
– Ricky Skaggs

Coming from a thousand miles and a border apart, Pharis and Jason Romero met in 2007 at an old-time fiddle jam. Both had been playing music for decades – Pharis her whole life – and both were drawn to early country, old time, blues, bluegrass, and fiddle-banjo music. In 2010 they moved their home and the J. Romero Banjo Company north to Pharis' hometown, the small interior B.C. town of Horsefly. In this wilderness hamlet they build their finely crafted banjos, and write and sing dreamy old time country – with enough jagged edges to feel modern – playing guitars and clawhammer and fingerstyle banjo to the songs and tunes, new and old, they adore.

Writing songs about ageless characters, hard living, loss and love, Pharis’ songs have been played on radios around the world, and she was called a “historical treasure” by the BC Folklore Society. On stage from a very young age with her family's country music band, she was a co-founder of the western Canadian outfit Outlaw Social, an award-winning and innovative roots-folk band that released two celebrated albums from 2005 to 2009.

Jason was a fixture on the Arcata, CA bluegrass and old-time scene, and is "one of the best old-time banjos players I've ever heard " (hearthmusic.com). He's fluent in banjo styles from early fingerstyle to clawhammer to bluegrass, and when not playing banjo, his resophonic and acoustic guitar playing is a distinct texture, melodic and percussive.

Jason and Pharis played with the acclaimed Haints Old Time Stringband, with fiddler Erynn Marshall and mandolinist/guitarist/songwriter Carl Jones. The Haints released their debut recording, Shout Monah, in 2009. "They play and sing superbly" (fRoots), and Shout Monah was named one of the best banjo releases of 2009 (Banjo Newsletter). SingOut magazine said “This is a very special recording, one that [we]’ll return to time and again.”

In 2010 Jason and Pharis went on to release their concept recording Back Up and Push. This instrumental album of fiddle tunes by nineteen celebrated west coast old-time fiddlers with guitar and banjo back-up earned them the accolade "old-time duo of Canada" (Penguin Eggs).

2011 brought the release of their first duo album, A Passing Glimpse. A beautiful collection of songs lovingly sourced from old recordings or written by Pharis, it's an album of acoustic & National guitars, fingerstyle and clawhammer banjo, and plenty of powerful duet singing. In September 2011 A Passing Glimpse was the #1 Album on the North American Folk DJ playlists, and continues to attract audiences globally.

Aside from building and performing, they also spend much of their year teaching at music camps and workshops including BC Bluegrass Workshops, Fiddle Tunes, Voiceworks, Fiddle Works, 108 Mile Bluegrass Camp, Georgia Straight Guitar Workshop, and others.

Discography
Pharis & Jason Romero - A Passing Glimpse (July 2011)
Jason and Pharis Romero & Friends - Back Up and Push (July 2010)
The Haints Old Time Stringband - Shout Monah (May 2009)
Outlaw Social - Dry Bones (2007)
Outlaw Social - a seven song e.p. (2006)

Reviews & Interviews for A Passing Glimpse
Folk Alley
Americana UK
Driftwood Magazine
Bluegrass Today
Penguin Eggs
Fiddlefreak
Songs:Illinois
Uprooted Music Revue
Folk Words
Northern Sky Music Magazine
Flyinshoes Review
R2 (Rock’n’Reel) Magazine
Aberdeen Voice
Common Folk
RecordDept
Bearly Rambling
Fatea Records
Scotsman
Lonesome Highway

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