You'd think after all their success The Rankin Family would be slowing down a bit.

Not a chance.

Today the band is set to release a new CD titled Uprooted and they'll soon be off on yet another huge tour.

That might sound like just another day at the musical office but this time The Rankins have fine tuned their sound and have a few new surprises.

"I think that the biggest difference is the fact that we worked with producer and two-time Grammy winner George Massenburg (Lyle Lovett and Aaron Neville). He was very intent on making the vocals a lot warmer and sound more comfortable," says John Morris Rankin during a pre-tour rehearsal break.

"We really wanted to work with George because when the girls did their Christmas album he wasn't available, but he'd listened to all the material and had expressed an interest.

"So this time around he flew up to see one of our shows in Toronto last summer and the minute he heard us live he wanted to do the project."

If anything, listeners are going to feel themselves pulled closer to the voices on this studio album.

"There's certainly a lot less reliance on a lot of guitar work. You'll notice especially on the ballads that the sound is a lot less electric heavy and the overall approach is a lot more acoustic," Rankin says.

"Another thing is that we've brought in string sounds and that certainly makes a difference in the sound."

Rankin believes that despite a few shifts in approach, the closeness of Uprooted has much more to do with the studio work than any perceptable change in direction.

"The way an album is recorded and mixed has a lot to do with how the finished product comes through. But I think more than anything with this recording we saw the vocalists pull off some exceptional performances"

Before longtime fans start worrying about a huge change in direction, Rankin says the nuances aren't that drastic.

"We put together a collection of songs that pretty much go right down the line between the more contemporary feel and the straight traditional.

"The back half of the album is certainly weighted heavily on the traditional style."

As always, the group's travel schedule will be heavy, but Rankin says there's no fear of it disrupting the band's chemistry.

"Everybody just gets along real well. Besides the family, we've got four other musicians out with us and usually we just have a lot of laughs.

"It always seems to work out with these guys and with that going for us the tours just never seem as long as they actually are."