Pharis and Jason Romero, the husband-and-wife duo rooted in Horsefly, British Columbia, emerged as a high lonesome folk act after each had participated in earlier ensembles. Their initial joint release, A Passing Glimpse, arrived in 2011, and steady momentum across the following decade led to the 2015 album A Wanderer I'll Stay, which earned a Juno Award.
Music had already figured in both their lives before they encountered each other at a 2007 fiddle jam, where Pharis was then performing with Outlaw Social, the group she belonged to from 2005 through 2009. Shared enthusiasm for old-timey string music prompted a swift courtship, and the pair married three months later. They settled in Pharis’s hometown of Horsefly, where Jason also relocated his J. Romero Banjo Company.
Early in their recording career the couple joined Erynn Marshall and Carl Jones of the Haints Old Time Stringband for the 2009 album Shout Monah. The following year they issued Back Up and Push under the name Jason & Pharis Romero and Friends. The billing Pharis & Jason Romero first appeared on 2011’s A Passing Glimpse, which brought them the Canadian Folk Music Awards’ New/Emerging Artist of the Year honor.
Long Gone Out West Blues followed in 2013 and drew multiple CFMA nominations, among them Pharis’s win for Traditional Singer of the Year. Their third album, A Wanderer I'll Stay, surfaced in 2015 and captured the Juno Award for Traditional Roots Album of the Year in 2016. A fourth album appeared in May 2018.
