Artist Category: Fiddle | Page 7

Kevin Burke

Irish fiddle great Kevin Burke celebrates his new CD “An Evening with Kevin Burke: Tunes & Stories” with a unique solo performance at Passim. Recorded in Ireland, Philadelphia, and Kevin‘s adopted hometown of Portland, Oregon, the album’s exceptional fiddle music and engaging stories capture the charm and intimacy of this renowned fiddler’s solo appearances.

One of Irish music’s most beloved players, Burke is a master of the highly ornamented Sligo style of Irish fiddling. A native of London, England, Burkeinherited his love of Irish music from his parents who had emigrated from Sligo County, Ireland. His music career began when he moved to Ireland in 1974 and joined the seminal Irish group The Bothy Band. Since then, Burke has worked with many great artists including Arlo Guthrie, Kate Bush, Tim O’Brien, Christy Moore, Dervish, and Lunasa, and formed the bands Celtic Fiddle Festival, Patrick Street, and Open House. He is a recipient of America’s highest honor in the traditional arts, the NEA National Fellowship Award.

Brittany Haas

Brittany Haas is widely regarded as one of the most influential fiddlers of her generation.

Born in Northern California, Brittany grew up honing her craft at string camps nationwide, and developed her unique style of fiddling at the influence of her mentors, Bruce Molsky and Darol Anger. A prodigious youth, Haas began touring with Darol Anger’s Republic of Strings at the age of fourteen. At seventeen, she released her debut, self-titled solo album (produced by Anger). Haas continued to tour and record while simultaneously earning a degree in Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University (where she also minored in Music Performance). It was during her time at Princeton that Brittany was asked to join the seminal “chamber-grass” band Crooked Still, with whom she has made four recordings and toured the world.

Haas has always been a much sought-after collaborator and session musician. She has performed on Late Night With David Letterman and Saturday Night Live as part of Steve Martin’s bluegrass band, and features on Martin’s Grammy-winning album “The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo.” Over the years, she has performed with Bela Fleck, Abigail Washburn, Tony Trischka, Yonder Mountain String Band, The Waybacks, Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas (her cellist sister), and more.

Pumpkin Bread

In September of 2016, five longtime friends, drawn to one another by their musicality and distinguishable voices on their instruments, performed as “Pumpkin Bread” for the first time. Since then, the five-piece folk ensemble based in Boston, MA has been dazzling audiences with its original acoustic music that blends influences from traditional folk songs and fiddle tunes with modern sensibilities and intricate arrangements. Pumpkin Bread developed its uncommon sound in kitchen jams, traditional music sessions, and soup nights in the Boston area folk music scene. The band released its self-titled debut album in May 2017 in collaboration with Nine Athens Music.

Pumpkin Bread, known for dynamic and captivating performances that draw on the energy in the room, has performed as part of Brian O’Donovan’s Burren Backroom Series with Keith Murphy and Maeve Gilchrist, and was a headlining act at the 2018 Boston Celtic Music Festival. Sought after for their arranging expertise and chamber-like ensemble playing, the members of Pumpkin Bread teach individually and as a group at fiddle camps and workshops throughout the country, including the ensemble workshop at Hanneke Cassel’s Pure Dead Brilliant Fiddle Weekend. In the spring of 2018, the ensemble toured in Boston, New York, Baltimore, Washington D.C., Charlottesville, Middlebury, and Portland, performing at decorated folk venues like Club Passim in Cambridge, MA, The Front Porch in Charlottesville, VA, and One Longfellow Square in Portland, ME. This summer, Pumpkin Bread returns to the studio to record its second full-length album with producer Courtney Hartman.

Molsky’s Mountain Drifters

Molsky’s Mountain Drifters – Tradition steeped in possibility.

Bruce Molsky, “one of America’s premier fiddling talents” (Mother Jones) and Grammy-nominated artist on fiddle, banjo, guitar and song is delighted to present his new group already on tour in the US. Bruce’s previous collaborations, with Anonymous 4, 1865 – Songs of Hope and Home from the American Civil War, was released to rave reviews and was on the top 10 Billboard charts for weeks. He is also a special guest on legendary guitarist Mark Knopfler’s latest CD, Tracker and is working on his 3rd album with Andy Irvine & Donal Lunny’s supergroup Mozaik. You can also hear Bruce on BBC TV Transatlantic Sessions singing with Joan Osborne, Julie Fowlis and fiddling with Scottish legend Aly Bain and America’s great dobroist Jerry Douglas. Bruce is also Berklee College of Music’s Visiting Scholar in the American Roots Program.

Allison de Groot combines wide ranging virtuosity and passion for old-time music. With her own bands The Goodbye Girls and Oh My Darling, she has played Trafalgar Square in London, Newport Folk Festival, Stockholm Folk Festival, the Winnipeg Folk Festival, and Tønder Festival in Denmark. Like Bruce, Allison loves collaborating and bringing new ideas to old music, and brings a fresh approach to the trio.

Boston-based Stash Wyslouch is one of bluegrass’s great young genre-bending pioneers. He got his start as a guitarist in metal bands before immersing himself in roots music as a member of The Deadly Gentlemen. Stash is a veteran festival performer, having played at Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, Rockygrass, Merlefest, Savannah Music Festival and others. Coming over from the punk-metal world, Stash brings great sensitivity and real emotion to the trio, plus some superb guitar and vocal chops.

Fiddlin’ Quinn

Fiddlin’ Quinn and His Big Folks Band are:
Quinn Eastburn- Fiddle
Chris Eastburn- Guitar
Ricky Mier- Banjo
Wylie Robbins- Mandolin
Jed Rosen- Bass

Quinn Eastburn, born in 2005, has been knocking audiences’ socks off for over half his young life with prodigy fiddle chops and driving harmony singing. He has performed from farmers markets and the streets of Harvard Square to soloing with orchestras at Jordan Hall, the Berklee Performance Center, and the Stadium Theatre. With “Fiddlin’ Quinn and His Big Folks Band” he has been featured at festivals in the U.S. and Canada including the New England Americana Festival, Kids Really Rock, Joe Val Bluegrass Festival Showcase, New Years Needham, GreenFest on Boston’s City Hall Plaza and others. Quinn has opened for Pete and Maura Kennedy, Darol Anger and is a frequent guest of Grammy Nominee Alastair Moock. Quinn has been heard on WMBR, WCRI and performed at the 92.9 Earth Fest on the Boston Esplanade. Along with his father Chris, Quinn co-wrote the Bluegrass Concerto for Little Fiddle and orchestrated Devil Goes Down to Georgia both of which he has performed multiple times as a soloist with orchestra.

“Quinn Eastburn plays a mean fiddle, and if you don’t believe us check him out at his next show!”
–Boston Globe

“Quinn is a great natural musician, and has a startling ability to tear it up on the fiddle.”
–Darol Anger

Rob Flax

Rob Flax possesses a rare combination of skills: he is an award-winning virtuoso violinist, classically trained but known for his jazz and improvisational pyrotechnics and irresistible grooves; he is also a powerhouse vocalist, capable of silky crooning a la Nat King Cole or visceral Chicago blues shouts.

Rob has performed nationally and internationally with groups of many different styles, sharing the stage with artists such as B.B. King, Tower of Power, Trans Siberian Orchestra, Jacob Collier, and many others. He has played upright bass in an Argentine tango ensemble, mandolin and fiddle in various bluegrass bands, electric violin in several rock bands, done collaborations with modern dancers, and more. As a composer Rob has written music for choreographers, film (including work on projects for James Franco and Anthony Bourdain), and several original projects. Rob is a graduate of the New England Conservatory, and he currently lives in Boston, MA.

For many years Rob performed mostly solo—it takes a special kind of musician to keep pace with Rob’s stylistic breadth and depth!—but after much searching he’s finally found a band that can keep up: Rob Flax’s Boom Chick Trio is a new “supergroup” that features Slava Tolstoy on guitar and Max Ridley on bass. Max and Slava both are incredible instrumentalists who have chops for days, but know how to balance their prowess in service of the song.

Slava Tolstoy is a Boston based guitarist, singer and producer, originally from St. Petersburg Russia. Slava’s original songs are best described as energetic pop-rock with tight arrangements, virtuoso soloing and deep and meaningful lyrics in the best traditions of Russian rock. World class musicians, including Grammy winners and nominees were carefully selected to play in Slava’s band and on his latest studio album – “Songs About the Sea” (Песни Про Море). Between 2018-2020 Slava has recorded and performed in a duo with Fedor Chistyakov – the leader of a legendary rock band “Nol”. One of Slava’s most known projects is International String Trio that fuses Gypsy Jazz with World Music, this group has toured across USA many times and gained significant national recognition.

Noah Harrington is an award-winning bassist, composer, bandleader, and educator from Lexington, Massachusetts. He is a 2019 graduate of the Berklee College of Music, with a degree in Bass Performance (Cum Laude). Harrington’s musical journey has taken him across the country and as far afield as Peru. Since 2019 Harrington has led the band “Acoustic Nomads,” blending music from North and South America to create soaring original melodies, playful improvisations, and driving grooves. Harrington also performs regularly with singer-songwriter Lindsay Foote, fiddler Mari Black, and with his bands High Horse, The Ruta Beggars, and many more.

Together, the three string-wielding maestros have forged a powerful group dynamic, developed over years of gigging and concerts, and the result is an interplay that will bring a smile to your face!

Cara Frankowicz

Cara Frankowicz is known best as a player and teacher of Irish traditional music. However, her reputation as a versatile, innately musical fiddle player surpasses the limits of just one genre. She is equally at home leading a weekly Irish traditional music pub session as she is improvising bluegrass licks, performing with a string section in an amphitheater, writing and recording string arrangements, or coaching young chamber music groups.

Cara has appeared across the globe, both as a soloist and with international acts such as The Three Irish Tenors, Cherish the Ladies, and The Chieftains. In 2013, she completed a cross-country tour with her all-female quartet The Forge, which culminated in a featured performance at the Folk Alliance International Conference in Memphis, Tennessee. As an instructor, Cara is lauded for her innovative teaching methods and supportive, collaborative spirit.

Cara currently leads a weekly session in Boston and teaches group fiddle classes with the Hanafin-Cooley Branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (Dublin-based international organization for the preservation and promotion of Irish traditional music). In 2015, Cara began full time graduate studies at Northeastern University, where she is a candidate for a Master of Fine Arts in Information Design + Visualization.

Ken Waldman & The Secret Visitors

Ken Waldman primarily plays old-time music, which predates bluegrass. Historically, this is a string-band music linked to Appalachia, though, really, there are variants most everywhere in North America. Some of the tunes he plays are more than two centuries old, though he also has recorded over a hundred he’s composed in the style.

Though solo fiddling has its own long-standing tradition—and Ken will still occasionally play solo, especially in conjunction with literary or storytelling events—there’s also a long tradition of fiddle and banjo, and of four-piece string-bands with fiddle, banjo, guitar, bass. The permutations are endless: some groups will add a second fiddle, or a mandolin, or will specialize in singing. Some will feature a percussive dancer.

While the music is more widely recognized as square dance music, it’s also music of a community, and made among friends. Where bluegrass invariably features hot virtuosic solos, old-time music is an ensemble affair, which relies on a shared background of listening to the music, and playing it.

Louise Bichan

Louise Bichan is a USA-based Scottish musician and photographer who uses both mediums to tell stories old and new.

Growing up in the remote but culturally rich Orkney islands, a place where creativity abounds and playing music has been a part of the social fabric for centuries, gave Louise a solid grounding in music. She started playing fiddle at the age of 7 after witnessing the magic of live music: “I remember the butterflies in the tummy feeling when watching concerts at the Orkney Folk Fest as a kid, wanting to be a part of it all.” The sense of community and belonging it gave her was infectious; she pestered her parents to let her learn.

In the years since, she has honed her craft, first amongst the cream of Scottish folk at Glasgow’s renowned session scene and performances with talent like Orkney group Fara and award-winning singer-songwriter Rachel Sermanni, before a scholarship to Berklee College of Music, Boston, where she developed her style further.

Masterfully blending traditional and classical arrangements, her music is thoughtful, and complex, curious and playful. She composes in response to her roots and the world around her; weaving through stories of connection, to people, nature, the past and the possibility of the future.

Scottish Fish

Scottish Fish present a fresh take on traditional and contemporary Scottish and Cape Breton music. Their lively and unique arrangements are woven together from session music handed down from generations of the tradition’s finest players. They have performed at public and private venues and festivals across the United States and Europe including Boston Celtic Music Festival, Bellingham Celtic Festival, and Festival de Ortigueira. Their music and performances have earned them features on WGBH, KALW, and in American Girl and Folkworld Magazines; attracted the attention of programs such as America’s Got Talent; and secured an international audience of over three hundred thousand followers. In 2017, the group released their debut album, “Splash,” and followed it with “Tidings,” a 5-track holiday EP, in 2019. Their newest record, “Upscale,” produced by pianist and composer Neil Pearlman, was released in October, 2022, marking the band’s ten year anniversary.

Scottish Fish have been named as “one of the most energetic and creative acts to take root in the local Celtic music scene this century” by Boston Irish reporter Sean Smith, and Scottish Fiddler Hanneke Cassel has described their sound as “both incredibly musical, and just a little unusual.”

“Individually they are all creative and talented,” writes Cassel, “and together they spark each other, pushing each other even further to make amazing music.”