This is a new project but it's no "baby band." These artists share more than 50 years of experience and choose their projects carefully. Their personal roots run from Scotland to the Ottawa Valley out to the Canadian West and the American midwest. When 'the best Celtic guitarist in the world' sits down with the only woman to win both the Canadian Grand Masters Fiddle and Open Fiddle Championships, the da Vinci of the Dobro pulls up a chair and one of the most versatile bassists in roots music anchors it down, "power quartet" just might fit the bill.

This is Cox's fourth CD as a leader in ten years. It's an impressive, eclectic showcase of the musician's gifts as a songwriter, arranger, bandleader, and soulfully succinct soloist on dobro and slide guitar.

The Boston Globe has called him "one of the world's most expressive dobro players," and Stay Lazy demonstrates why Cox is held in such high regard by critics and his fellow musicians.

He's toured and recorded with Amos Garrett, Long John Baldry, Ellen McIlwaine, Ken Hamm, Rick Fines and Dave Gogo, and most of them perform with Cox on Stay Lazy.

On Stay Lazy, Cox teams-up with Amos Garrett for a playfully juicy reading of Life Is So Peculiar, leads an all-star bluegrass group through a withering version of Ellington's Caravan, and belts-out his originals, Cold When I'm Dead and When The Answer Comes with an expressive Bob Dylan-like growl. He joins Clive Gregson and jazz bassist James Young on a stunningly beautiful rendition of George Harrison's While My Guitar Gently Weeps and uncorks gentle, dobro-sweetened rearrangements of Neil Young's After The Gold Rush and Stevie Ray Vaughan's Lenny. Cox, Rick Fines, and Ron Casat team-up to give the reggae classic, Johnny Too Bad a clever, countrified reshaping, and his joyous vocal inspires Ellen McIlwaine's roaring slide guitar showcase, I Like To Slide. Wake Up Lisa/Mary Greig is an amazing, original folk instrumental that sounds as old as the hills, while his arrangement of Black Eyed Susie gives that dusty traditional tune a sprightly west African rhythmic underpinning. Cox also offers a soul-revealing vocal reading of his original, My Father and a funnier, but no less honestly autobiographical gem called My First Bike. Stay Lazy also includes Cox's bluegrass-inspired arrangement of Fanfarinette that serves as a theme song for CBC Radio's Discdrive, and the musician's mesmerizing environmental plea, Listen To The Water. It's already a favorite on several radio programs.

Stay Lazy is a stunning collection of thoughtful songwriting, virtuoso playing, and brilliant arranging. Although it is essentially a compilation, the CD has an exquisitely sequenced flow that mirrors the care and craft evident in each of Cox's elegant dobro and slide guitar solos. Grammy Awards for the O' Brother Where Art Thou Soundtrack and the Foggy Bottom Boys' Man of Constant Sorrow have introduced the general public to the dobro's haunting, expressive sound.

They're going to love the magic Doug Cox conjures-up on Stay Lazy.