The Enchanted World, on Howlin' Dog Records is the seventh album release from the northern New Mexico based trio the Rifters. The Rifters are known across the Southwest and beyond for their “Southwestern Americana” rhythmic acoustic-based music, featuring superb musicianship and soaring harmonies, reflecting the high desert land of mountains, mesas, valleys and canyons they call home.

The album features 14 songs, 10 of which are originals or co-writes. Several of the songs in The Enchanted World are an homage to the ranching and western life, with all of its idiosyncrasies and challenges, and the glory of the landscape of the ranching west. Along the way the journey explores many issues of finding our way through our lives and our days, such as the challenges of maturity, environmental awareness and just paying the bills. Through it all runs a thread of wonder and gratitude for this amazing, enchanted world we are all so fortunate to inhabit.

The journey begins with “The Circle”, a tribute to the ranching life, sung by Rod, whose 40 years as a working cowboy give him a particularly rich place from which to deliver this message. Then we move on to “The Greatest Mystery”, written by Rifter friend and Lubbock-based writer Andy Wilkinson - an exquisite treatment of the harmony and wonder we find in the rangeland and the natural world. Next we are into “The Enchanted World”, a song that speaks of the power we have to choose the way we look at things. But life's kind of complicated, you know, and “The Perfect Dance” speaks of the challenge of balancing it all and making things work in our daily lives. And speaking of challenges, “It's Cause You Lived” is a mostly autobiographical exploration of making our way through “maturity”, and the changes that it brings.

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