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CEDAR HILL REFUGEESS In September 2006, Clift met with John Carter Cash in Hendersonville, Tennessee where the two conceived an ambitious project melding the Central Asian influences of Jadoo with traditional American mountain music, including songs from the vast catalogue of the Carter Family. In October, Clift flew to Tashkent, Uzbekistan and met with Tatar guitarist Enver Ýzmaylov and the members of Jadoo for the first recording sessions of the project. Upon his return to the United States, he reconvened with Cash in Tennessee to begin introducing the contributions of internationally revered mountain singer Ralph Stanley, recipient of the National Medal of Arts in 2006, country music icon Marty Stuart, The Peasall Sisters (O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Down from the Mountain), Randy Scruggs, Ronnie McCoury, John Cowan, Greg Leisz, and Ron Miles, thus forming the group Cedar Hill Refugees. This project, entitled Pale Imperfect Diamond is scheduled to be released in 2009 When Jack Clift first heard traditional Uzbek music, it didn’t seem exotic or alien to him. Instead, it reminded him of the mountain music, blues and swing that he’s loved since childhood. The colorful costumes, tempos and emotional fervor of the Uzbek musicians and their audience brought to his mind old episodes of "The Buck Owens Ranch," a syndicated show that was taped in Clift’s hometown of Oklahoma City. Therefore, it only seemed natural to Clift to bring these sounds together. Working with John Carter Cash, son of Johnny and June Carter Cash, Clift and his Uzbek band Jadoo recorded musical backdrops for some of the finest talents in American country music, including internationally respected mountain singer Ralph Stanley (recipient of the 2006 National Medal of Arts), country music icon Marty Stuart, The Peasall Sisters (O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Down from the Mountain), Randy Scruggs, Ronnie McCoury, John Cowan, Greg Leisz, and Ron Miles. Some new hybrid is at large that started with two people who simply recognized that these styles had much more in common than might have been assumed -and that the differences illuminated the whole combo in beautiful and unexpected ways. Marty Stuart summed it up when he told Clift "As I've listened to what you've captured in Uzbekistan and seen how it merges with our own musical traditions, it just shows me there's not a dime's worth of difference between good country folks no matter what the country." Pale Imperfect Diamond, the debut album from Cedar Hill Refugees, is scheduled for release on May 19, 2009.
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