Product Description Gourd Music is proud to present a box set of its three critically acclaimed recordings of the music of the Shakers. The set is composed of Simple Gifts, Tree of Life and Music On The Mountain arranged and produced by guitarist William Coulter and Cellist Barry Phillips. Exuberant dance tunes, lively marches and reverent hymns were part of the daily lives and worship of the Shakers, who flourished in mid-19th century America. Like their highly-prized crafts, the Shakers’ music was an outward expression of their faith and celebrated their ideals of simplicity and love. From the title track (made famous by Aaron Copland in Appalachian Spring) to little-known gems from the Shakers’ vast treasury of song, these are melodies born directly of the Shakers’ spiritual life, yet deeply rooted in the Anglo-American folk tradition - music to cheer the heart and lift the spirit. About the Artist Barry Pillips’ previous recordings include Gourd’s Shaker Trilogy (co-produced with William Coulter): Simple Gifts, Tree of Life, and Music on the Mountain. He also composed and produced The World Turned Upside Down in 1990, which was featured in the PBS production of Ken Burns’ Thomas Jefferson. Guitarist William Coulter has been recording and performing traditional music since 1981. He has performed with the bands Isle of Skye, Orison and, currently, with the Coulter-Phillips Ensemble. He has recorded two solo albums–Celtic Sessions and Celtic Crossing–as well as three albums of traditional Shaker melodies with cellist Barry Phillips–Simple Gifts, Tree of Life and Music on the Mountain–all on the Gourd Music label. William has appeared on compilations produced on the Narada label, Windham Hill and Hearts of Space. Four of these recordings have appeared on Billboard magazine’s “top ten” lists. In 1998 William produced Celtic Requiem for Windham Hill Records, which features vocalist Mary Mc Laughlin. He was recently featured on a sampler produced by the Columbia Record Club featuring violinist Hillary Hahn and Máire Ní Bhraonáin, the lead singer of Clannad. As well as performing and recording, William works as a producer and recording engineer, and teaches guitar at the University of California, Santa Cruz. During the summer he teaches at a number of music camps including the National Guitar Summer Workshop and Alasdair Fraser’s Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddling School.