""I'm really, really excited about it because it's a new realm for me. What we did with this stuff is it's more about my playing and it's more sparsely produced. It draws on a lot of different things that I love. It draws on the bluegrass idiom, close lyric harmony ... it goes from Ralph Stanley to the Beach Boys, it's really exciting.

""I think it's really going to surprise people, in a good way. I've played it for people who do know my stuff and people who don't, and the reaction is generally the same. They usually go, "Wow, what were you thinking?' Those who do know my stuff are surprised at how different it is from what I've done before, but still sounds like myself.""

Cormier also has a banjo record planned for the end of the year, a companion to his mandolin album X8, with a mix of bluegrass, folk and Irish tenor banjo tunes all displaying his lightning fast fingers and impeccable ear for melody.

But it's the Looking Back discs he's most excited to hear a reaction to, especially since they are his first recordings produced by manager Andre Bourgeois, whose input to the creative side of his clients is generally not as acknowledged as his business acumen.

""Andre would literally get out in the middle of the floor and start acting out the lyrics,"" explains Cormier. ""This is the verse where he falls in the water and the fisherman's daughter swims out to save him .. . and he's pretending to jump in the water, and dancing around and coaching me.

""But as a result, I don't think my delivery of my own lyrics could be any better."" >> more