Released in Oct 2011. A tour-de-force of Joyce's new solo fiddle sound on 57 minutes of songs recorded live, with just live performances of her vocals, violin, viola, Hardanger fiddle and foot percussion. She has taken her ability to play complex lines on the violin and sing at the same time to new heights, and pushed her arranging and composing skills in exciting new directions.

After nearly 20 years as a fiddle sideman and a singer-songwriter, playing in bluegrass, country, rock, celtic, jazz and folk ensembles, Joyce Andersen has gone into the woodshed for 2 years to create a new body of music and a new musical standard of what an unaccompanied fiddle troubadour can do. Her 5th solo CD and her first in 6 years, Swerve features her new sound in 8 extended improvisational songs that embrace a dizzying range of musical styles, from jazz standards to fiddle tunes, gospel, ballads and blistering rock & roll.

Over her career Andersen has developed an uncanny ability to play violin and sing at the same time, often with the instrument and vocal in counter-rhythms, as well as complex harmony and diverging lines. Add to this an array of hi-tech gear that would make a rock star drool, and Andersen now commands a startling wall of sound that allows her to create and improvise. Without using any computerized or pre-recorded sounds, she literally dances with all four limbs as she weaves intricate rhythms, melodies, and harmonies into extraordinarliy musical sonic collages. Her new sound is built from a large palette of strummed, plucked and bowed violin and viola sounds, combining and juxtaposing beautiful acoustic tones with swirling electro-acoustic explorations, some live loops and crunching rock distortion. (Track 7 is an amazing unedited 9-minute live concert cut that you can watch on YouTube.)

(NOTE: There is no partial capo on this CD-- but Joyce is Harvey Reid's wife and she is incredible, so it's for sale here. www.joyscream.com )

SONGS: Yearning (Andersen), Little Birdie (Trad.), Heartbreak (Andersen), Higher Love (Winwood), Get Your Swerve On (Andersen), Dream A Little Dream (Andre/Kahn) Hey Joe (Roberts) , I Will Shine (Andersen)