Artist Category: Bluegrass

Mr. Sun

Acoustic Music supergroup Mr Sun, featuring renowned fiddler Darol Anger, guitarist Grant Gordy, Scottish bassist Aidan O’Donnell, and mandolinist Joe Walsh, will soon be celebrating their upcoming CD release Extrovert on Compass Records. Their appearances in the last 4 years at Wintergrass, Grey Fox and Freshgrass, and at IBMA conventions, have created a powerful presence throughout the Acoustic Americana music scene.

If you haven’t heard of the cheerfully named supergroup Mr. Sun, you’ve certainly heard its proponents, four of the finest musicians on the American roots scene: Renowned fiddler Darol Anger, Professor Emeritus at Berklee College of Music, who has released many solo albums in addition to his work with David Grisman and Mike Marshall, and founded the Turtle Island Quartet, Psychograss, and Republic of Strings; Joe K. Walsh, mandolin virtuoso and vocalist who spent four years with the award-winning bluegrass act the Gibson Brothers before becoming solo artist and songwriter and Strings Department Professor at Berklee; all-around guitar genius Grant Gordy, a former member of Dawg Music guru David Grisman’s band; and the phenomenal Scots bassist Aidan O’Donnell, who has backed harpist Maeve Gilchrist and countless modern Jazz heroes.

Zoe Levitt

Zoe Levitt is an Americana singer/songwriter and mandolinist currently splitting her time between Boston and Kathmandu. As a solo artist, she performs haunting originals, while as a mandolinist her recent collaborations include co-founding the Bluegrass & Nepali Folk fusion band Manaslu Blue and the all-female folk band Ama Yangri in Nepal. She currently performs in the US with the newly formed band Himalayan Highway, a collaboration continuing her efforts to bring together Nepali and American folk traditions. Zoe’s direct and powerful songs touch on everyday experiences and personal struggles; she uses as a platform to address social justice issues. With her haunting yet bittersweet voice, reminiscent of Natalie Merchant and Joni Mitchell, Zoe delivers lyrics of hope and resilience accompanied by gorgeous melodies.

Zoe grew up playing bluegrass with her father in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She graduated with a degree in geology from MIT and moved to Nepal to pursue music — her journey was recently profiled by MIT News. She has performed at venues across the US and Nepal including at Club Passim, Moksh, MIT, and Berklee. She has collaborated with many well-known Nepali bands including Kutumba and Kanta dAb dAb. As a social justice songwriter she has performed at Nirbhaya’s Women in Concert, the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center’s Walk for Change, and the MIT Monologues. When not performing, she can be found jamming with friends, hiking to look at rocks, or baking.

Liam Purcell & Cane Mill Road

Rapidly rising on the bluegrass scene, Billboard-charting artists Liam Purcell & Cane Mill Road perform internationally and stateside winning both industry awards and the hearts of fans who turn out to see them at some of the industry’s most iconic venues.

Named Momentum Band of the Year by IBMA in 2019, Liam Purcell & Cane Mill Road have been recognized as one of the fastest growing bands in the industry. Their latest release “Roots” debuted at #6 on the Billboard Bluegrass Album Charts, joining their three previous albums for a total of 12 weeks in the Top 10.

Growing up just down the road from Doc Watson, Liam Purcell leads Cane Mill Road as they rock the traditional bluegrass standards they were raised on, yet boldly write original music with roots in the fertile grounds of bluegrass, old-time, and Americana. Their powerful arrangements and dynamic stage presence have landed them main stage slots at legendary festivals across the country.

You’ve seen Liam Purcell & Cane Mill Road on national TV with PBS appearances on David Holt’s State of Music and Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour. Other performance highlights include Merlefest, Grey Fox, The Berklee Performance Center, and Wide Open Bluegrass.

The band is sponsored by Deering Banjos, GHS Strings, Shubb Capos, Sorensen Mandolin & Guitar Company, Kogut Violins, NS Design, and Fishman Amplification.

“The future of bluegrass…” No Depression

“Their skill is clearly unquestionable” Bluegrass Today

“Deeply rooted in traditional bluegrass, their songs boldly and progressively interpret classic songs” The Bluegrass Standard

“Making their mark on bluegrass and fueling the future” Bluegrass Unlimited

“Cane Mill Road, based less than six miles from Deep Gap, North Carolina, the home of Doc Watson, draws its inspiration from the late singer/guitarist whose musical imagination gathered inspiration from the deepest Appalachian roots while courageously finding connections to almost all elements of American music…the band has quickly ignited a spark that has led to a recording contract with Patuxent Music and early recognition from the International Bluegrass Music Association” No Depression

Beg, Steal, or Borrow

Beg, Steal, or Borrow play traditional and improvisational bluegrass and roots music and are known for their warm harmonies, virtuosic instrumentals, and tight-knit musical interplay. The band got its start recreating the iconic Old and In the Way album in 2013 at Higher Ground in Burlington, VT. Since their debut, they have developed a passionate regional following and broadened their repertoire to include a deep list of covers as well as original songs and instrumentals, many of which are featured on their 2019 full-length CD, Old Mountain Time. They’ve headlined at top venues throughout northern New England and have appeared at many of the leading east coast festivals including Greyfox, Podunk, Green Mountain Bluegrass and Roots, Thomas Point Beach, Jenny Brook, and Winter WonderGrass, winning three band competitions along the way.

Hazel Royer

Hazel Royer is a Boston musician that primarily is an upright bassist, guitarist, and singer. She plays a variety of styles including Folk, Jazz, Old-Time, Bluegrass, Rock, and Blues. Hazel is currently a member of the acclaimed bluegrass group Big Richard. She grew up playing folk and bluegrass music in the Boston music scene with her father, Eric Royer.

The Dirty Grass Players

Hailing from Baltimore, Md The Dirty Grass Players have established themselves with one toe-tappin’ foot in traditional bluegrass and blazing musicianship that pushes boundaries. Comprised of Connor Murray on Bass, Alex Berman on Banjo, Ben Kolakowski with the guitar, and Ryan Rogers on mandolin, this four piece is successfully bringing their growing fan base a down, dirty and heated performance. Their ability to seamlessly transition from down home bluegrass to spirited improvisation makes each performance unique. Throw in some Allman Brothers, Pink Floyd or a dash of southern rock and you’ll quickly understand what they mean by Dirty Grass. Their self-titled debut CD The Dirty Grass Players captures this energy and as 2017 winner of Charm City Bluegrass & Folk Festival Band Competition clearly indicates, this is just the beginning. Successfully touring the Mid-Atlantic and festival appearances, this year finds the group expanding along the East Coast and building on this momentum. For anyone that enjoys a musical throw down by skilled musicians its time to get your grass dirty.

The last 2 years have consisted of a busy touring schedule that has kept The Dirty Grass Players from releasing new music, but in 2019 they are excited to get new tunes out into the world. Their first single “Grand Voyager” – released in April of 2019 – is a fast-pickin’ tune that pays homage to their humble beginnings. Reminding their fan base why they love them, this tune will also help any non-bluegrass-lover transition into becoming an appreciative consumer of bluegrass music, or should we say “Dirty Grass”.

Entering into their sixth year together, The Dirty Grass Players are ready to release their 2nd studio album, “Beneath the Woodpile”. Put together with alluring harmonies, lyrics, and melodies, the band presents a sound precisely at the crossroads of traditional and progressive bluegrass. This isn’t just another run-of-the-mill bluegrass album or band; it’s cathartic and dirty grass.

Henhouse Prowlers

The Henhouse Prowlers are Bluegrass Ambassadors.
Founded nearly two decades ago with the simple desire to play original and powerful bluegrass, this quartet now finds themselves at the intersection of performance, diplomacy and education.

Onstage, the group’s enthralling performances give audiences a sense of how much they love what they do. On record – including their latest offering, 2023’s Lead and Iron, released via Dark Shadow Recording – the band explores their collective life experiences through songwriting and intricate instrumentation. While bluegrass is the undeniable foundation of the Prowlers’ music, the band bends and squeezes the traditional form into a keenly developed sound all their own.

The Prowlers have now been to more than 25 countries across the globe, working with the U.S. State Department and under their own nonprofit, Bluegrass Ambassadors, and incorporating music from Africa, Asia, the Middle East & more into their already robust repertoire of unique traditional American music.

On stage, in workshops and wherever they are, the Henhouse Prowlers find and spread the commonality we share as human beings through the universal language of music.

You can feel it at every show.

The Arcadian Wild

Led by songwriters Isaac Horn (guitar) and Lincoln Mick (mandolin), and with the support of Erik Coveney on bass and Bailey Warren on fiddle, The Arcadian Wild confidently inhabits and explores an intersection of genre, blending the traditional with the contemporary in order to create a unique acoustic sound that is simultaneously unified and diverse. With one foot planted firmly in choral and formal vocal music, and the other in progressive folk and bluegrass, the band offers up songs of invitation: calls to come and see, to find refuge and rest, or to journey and wonder.

Over the course of 2020, The Arcadian Wild released Principium, a four-movement song-cycle that explores human relationship, flourishing, degradation, and redemption. To help tell this story, the band has collaborated with filmmaker Greyson Welch to create a series of short films to accompany this unique project. The project culminated in the release of the Principium EP in February 2021, which debuted at #3 on the Billboard Bluegrass Chart.

The Wooks

Capturing a moment, and a place — its past, people, and terrain within a song, The Wooks harness the rich musical and storytelling traditions of Kentucky into a new, old sound that embraces both string-music heritage and rock ‘n roll, jam, and singer-songwriter influences. Since 2014, the band, CJ Cain (lead guitar, vocals), Harry Clark (mandolin, vocals), Roddy Puckett (bass, vocals), George Guthrie (Banjo), have delivered a raw, boot stomping, sing-along to every song, good-time bluegrass show, “…with improv-savvy interplay that endears the band to jam music fans and bluegrass traditionalists alike,” according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Sticking close to home, and their bluegrass roots, the band’s sophomore effort, Glory Bound, was recorded at Rickey Wasson’s Main Street Studio in Clay City, KY. Elkhorn City, KY native J.T. Cure, longtime bass player with former bluegrasser Chris Stapleton took on the producer role and got the record into the hands of Grammy Award Winning mix engineer Vance Powell. Of the experience Cure says, “It was important to me to record the band live, because the following they built up, it’s their energy, and I wanted to try to capture that on record. It was basically stay out of the way.”

Since their inception in late 2014 The Wooks have won the 2016 RockyGrass Band Competition, placed in the finals for the 2017 Telluride Bluegrass Festival Band Competition, were a 2017 IBMA Momentum Award Nominee, and were selected a 2018 IBMA official showcase artist. Their first record, Little Circles, recorded at Compass Studios and produced by Alison Brown, debuted at #6 on the Billboard Bluegrass Chart. They have performed at RockyGrass, Bonnaroo, Blue Ox, ARISE, Bristol Rhythm & Roots, Mountain Stage, John Hartford Memorial Festival, Festival of the Bluegrass, ROMP Festival, Master Musicians Festival, SamJam, Music City Roots, Rudy Fest and more. Sharing the stage with The Infamous Stringdusters, Peter Rowan, Tyler Childers, Billy Strings, The Travelin’ McCourys, Town Mountain, The Lil Smokies, The Grass is Dead, and more, their, “boundless bluegrass parties have entertained audiences across the country.”