Pharis & Jason Romero’s new album “These Are The Days That Turn Into Years
RELEASE NEW ALBUM THESE ARE THE DAYS THAT TURN INTO YEARS
Today, four-time JUNO Award-winning singers, songwriters, banjo builders, and folk icons, Pharis and Jason Romero release their new album, These Are The Days That Turn Into Years. Their seventh studio record is a songwriter’s deep exhale, replete with stories, love, and nostalgia. It’s four years after the duo’s banjo-heavy last release, and recorded in the same eclectically restored riverside barn in Horsefly, British Columbia. With Pharis’ love of storytelling as a base for the duo’s artistic connection, the songs are lush and saturated with their lives: incidental touring, raising two kids, making banjos, and playing this music because they love it.
The songs are created as much from ideas – from being on the tops of mountains and phone calls with aging loved ones to insomnia, meditation and family feuds – as they are from the joy of playing and recording with a stellar band: fiddle, bass, piano, and percussion. Two people in the thick of their lives, reveling in the music, words, and community.
Photo by Rick Magnell
In celebration, they are highlighting the song “Cannonball” which saw its birth on a family camping trip.
“Pharis took our daughter on a backcountry alpine overnight last summer,” explains Jason. “It was a sleepless night for her, with a spooked dog ending up in the tiny tent and her ending up on the bottom of a dog-kid pile. But at 1:30am, to the sounds of coyotes and owls in the distance, one of the songs on this record popped into her head. Thank goodness for voice memos. The song came right out of the gates, nearly fully formed in her head, and we watched it grow while Trent Freeman (fiddle) and Patrick Metzger (bass) and John Raham (percussion) layered on such good textures. Every time we sing that song she’s immediately back in that tent on the mountain, mumbling words on top of a guitar riff playing in her head. On a coming-of-age trip like that with our daughter the words “mama I’m a cannonball, mama I can’t go slow, when I get to where I’m going I’ll let you know” pretty much wrote themselves.”
She took an electric train
Down to west LA
Filled her pockets up
From the orange groves
Mama I’m a cannonball
Mama I’m can’t go slow
When I get to where
I’m going I’ll let you know
She was a Midwest girl
From a neverending sky
Had a heartbeat full
Of the big whys
Mama I’m a cannonball
Mama I’m can’t go slow
When I get to where
I’m going I’ll let you know
Oh dreams
Can be so good
Oh dreams
Can be so good
Mama I’m a cannonball
Mama I’m can’t go slow
When I get to where
I’m going I’ll let you know
MORE ABOUT PHARIS & JASON ROMERO
Pharis and Jason Romero have a classic story. When some scratchy old records and a custom banjo led to their meeting in 2007, they quickly knew they were in for the long haul. The depth of their musical and personal relationship has grown incrementally over the years as they’ve explored old-time stringband music, how to sing like one person, and the banjo as an artform.
On their newest record Pharis’ love for the compelling pulse of stories as songs is the base for the duo’s artistic connection. The songs are lush and saturated with their lives: phone calls with ageing loved ones, standing on top of mountains, meditation, family feuds, nostalgia for things that haven’t happened yet, sleepless nights. The lyrics capture tender, lovely and strange snapshots of life, often anchored by sing-along choruses.
These Are The Days That Turn In To Years was recorded in their eclectically restored riverside barn. John Raham (Frazey Ford, Dan Mangan, Tanya Tagaq, Ocie Elliott) engineered and mixed, marking “the fifth record that John has come to make with us in Horsefly,” says Pharis. “I can’t imagine making a record without him, Trent (Freeman) or Patrick (Metzger). The songs are created as much from ideas as they are from the joy of playing and recording with friends and stellar musicians.”
WATCH / SHARE “LAST CALL” (LIVE PERFORMANCE VIDEO) HERE
WATCH / SHARE “THESE ARE THE DAYS” HERE
The group was also joined in the studio by Clinton Davis on piano and Pharis’ sister Marin Patenaude who makes a vocal appearance on the insomnia-inspired “Last Night”. The band’s joyful, slightly on-the-edge old-time approach often playfully stretches the melody into an energetic ride through the bouncier songs, while ambient strings and ragtime piano hold some of the more introspective pieces. The duo keeps to their roots with the spare banjo blues “Left My Home”.
Pharis and Jason tour incidentally while they’re raising two kids and making banjos in their home of Horsefly, BC. They play this music because they really, truly love it, and this record is a shining development of stories, love, and nostalgia from this unique duo.
BUY / STREAM THESE ARE THE DAYS THAT TURN IN TO YEARS HERE
Photo by Rick Magnell – Download
These Are The Days That Turn In To YearsTracklist
1. Big Time World
2. Last Call
3. Hey Babe
4. Always Losing Track
5. Last Night
6. Left My Home
7. Cannonball
8. I Got Away From Myself
9. Everybody Wants
10. Georgie
11. These Are The Days
Pharis & Jason Romero on Tour
M June 22 – Port Townsend, WA – Voice Works 2026
SA July 11 – Horsefly, BC – Arts on the Fly
TH July 16 – Villiams Lake, BC – Performances in the Park
TH August 6 – Salt Spring Island, BC – Pitchfork Social
Watchhouse
Gillian Welch
Anna Tivel
Alela Diane
Publicity
“Sublime vocal harmonies that blent and intertwine effortlessly” – NPR
“sublime folk songs… whose gentle and nuanced approach to playing and singing imbues the whole project with a dimly lit feel and a tenderness that’s missing from so many recordings these days.” – Bandcamp
“It’s as if I’m sitting right next to them soaking in every swell of emotion they infuse into their music. The record eloquently demonstrates how old-time stringband music is very much a living, breathing art form.” – Folk Alley
“located in an exclusive space of my heart and soul, one where only several handfuls of other musicians live.” – The Real Easy Ed: Americana and Roots Music Daily
”masters of their arena at work and play… further reinforcing their position within the upper echelons of the global folk community.” – Folk Radio UK
“hypnotic and bewitching music… solid gold Americana with a capital A.” – Lonesome Highway
“two musicians at the very height of their expertise” – Americana UK