Artist Category: Old Time

Tall Poppy String Band

Tall Poppy String Band is a new Old Time trio featuring fiddler George Jackson, guitarist Morgan Harris, and banjoist Cameron DeWhitt. Drawing from the deep well of American string band music, Tall Poppy String Band approaches tradition with playful curiosity; each performance more a discussion than a statement. Whether they’re chasing the elusive downbeat of a source recording, playing with the pronouns in a bluegrass standard, or challenging the assumed roles of their instruments, Tall Poppy String Band endeavours to prove that tradition is still being written.

Cameron DeWhitt is a clawhammer banjoist based in Portland, Oregon, named by R.D. Eno of Banjo Newsletter as being “…among the finest clawhammer banjo players alive.” They are the creator and host of Get Up in the Cool, a weekly old time music and interview podcast featuring conversations and musical collaborations with some of the most influential traditional musicians working today. Cameron also produces PitchforkBanjo.com, an online instructional video series for clawhammer banjo, and teaches private lessons.
George Jackson is a New Zealand-born fiddle player based in Nashville, Tennessee. He is known for Time and Place, his acclaimed 2019 album of original old time fiddle tunes (from which sprang the old time viral hit “Dorrigo”) and now Hair and Hide, his new collection of fiddle/banjo duets with some of the brightest stars of the banjo world. George has toured both as a band leader and with such artists as Jake Blount, Front Country, Peter Rowan, Missy Raines, and many more. He is the three-time winner of the Australian National Bluegrass Championship on fiddle, and the recipient of the 2019 Mike Auldridge composition award from the DC Bluegrass Union.
Morgan Harris is a guitarist based in Fort Collins, Colorado. Originally from Australia, they have made a name for themselves by rethinking the role of the guitar in old time music, developing a style of melodic playing that recreates the droning, driving sound characteristic of old time fiddle and banjo. In 2020 Morgan released their debut album Old Time Guitar, a collection of fifteen solo guitar instrumentals that showcase their groundbreaking approach. Their music has been featured on The Bluegrass Situation and the podcast Relax Your Grid (with Matt Brown).

Old Hat Stringband

Old Hat is a string band based out of Eliot, Maine. Fusing tight vocal harmonies with a lively rhythm and groove section, Old Hat’s sound draws from bluegrass, old time, folk, and country traditions. The band is comprised of Whitney Roy (Guitar, Vocals), Steve Roy (Mandolin, Fiddle, Vocals), Amanda Kowalski (Bass), and Carolyn Kendrick (Fiddle, Vocals).

Whitney Roy’s lilting vocals provide the backbone of Old Hat’s vocal blend, while her solid rhythm guitar anchors the bands rhythm section.

Steve Roy is one of New England’s premier multi-instrumentalists, and has performed and toured with many of the acoustic world’s top acts.

Amanda Kowalski is one of the more sought-after bass players in the worlds of bluegrass and old time music, and her rhythmic drive and energy on stage are second to none.

Carolyn Kendrick is a California-based singer-songwriter, fiddler, guitarist, and producer. After graduating from Berklee College of Music, Kendrick crisscrossed the country with her former duo project The Page Turners. She has also shared the stage with beloved artists such as Bruce Molsky, Margo Price, Aoife O’Donovan, and Darol Anger, all while playing the festival circuit and winning numerous awards.

Flynn Cohen

Acoustic Guitar and mandolin player Flynn Cohen has performed all over the world with many notable acts in traditional and contemporary acoustic music. He can be seen in concert with the American folk band LOW LILY (formerly known as Annalivia), and legendary Irish Accordion player John Whelan, as well as duo shows playing music from his four solo albums.

Flynn has also performed with Ruth Moody, Halali, The Sevens, Aoife Clancy, Cathie Ryan, Lawrence Nugent, Dylan Foley, Skip Healy, Joe Derrane and Frank Ferrel, John McGann, Matt Glaser, Brian Wicklund, Tony Watt and Southeast Expressway, Adrienne Young, Jake & Taylor Armerding, Laura Orshaw, Duncan Wickel, Gail Davies, Jilly Martin, Malibu Storm, Bruce MacGregor, Lissa Schneckenburger, Laura Cortese, Mark Simos, Matt Heaton, The Boxcar Lillies, Women of Ireland, The Vancouver Symphony, the Orchestra of Indian Hill, Revels, and Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble, among others. He has performed at the Library of Congress and the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York City.

A former guitar student of John Renbourn, Davey Graham, Scott Nygaard, and Paul Binkley, Flynn has degrees in Music from Dartington College of Arts in Devon, England and at Mills College in Oakland, California. He taught for many years in the Music Departments at Keene State College in New Hampshire and Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts and is currently an online guitar instructor with Peghead Nation.

High Horse

High Horse is a progressive-acoustic boy band featuring four friends, three bows, and one pick. A mix of celtic and classical music, it’s a band of brothers playing alternative rock on acoustic instruments, it’s a rollicking romp of great vibes, virtuosic chops, and tight vocals.

Comprised of fiddler Carson McHaney, cellist Karl Henry, guitarist G Rockwell, and bassist Noah Harrington; the band draws from their varied musical backgrounds to explore and perform original compositions and tunes from diverse folk traditions.

High Horse is based in Boston, collecting the skills and artistry learned from their education at the Berklee College of Music and New England Conservatory.

Their debut album will be released in 2024, produced by world-renowned mandolinist Jacob Jolliff and engineered by sound wizard Dave Sinko.

Saltare

Saltaré brings together musical traditions from around the world and explores the many ways that folk music intersects with dance, classical music, jazz, and improvisatory music. Saltare originally met in the New England Conservatory of Music’s Contemporary Musical Arts department, where they played in the Middle Eastern Ensemble. They have since moved into many other types of music, ranging from traditional styles from Ireland, Canada, and the Appalachians, classical Turkish music, Jewish cantorial music, and avant-garde improvisation. Each of their ventures explores the many ways music explores groove, melody, and rhythm, and brings them all together in the form of compelling, emotional, and catchy original music. This evening they will feature a guest violinist, Michelle Zimmerman.

Micah John & Lillian Chase

Micah John is an award-winning fiddler, guitarist, and singer. At only 17, she has spent the last decade immersed in the roots music community of the Northeast and has performed at legendary venues such as Club Passim and The Burren Backroom. Micah placed 1st in the Open Bluegrass Fiddle Contest at the 2019 Lowell Banjo & Fiddle Contest and 2nd in Old-time fiddle at the 2022 Lowell Banjo & Fiddle Contest.

Lillian Chase, a 19-year-old fiddler and vocalist, grew up enveloped in the old-time and bluegrass scene in and around Asheville, North Carolina. She has played at well-known Southern venues including Merlefest and Song of the Mountains, and is now studying Music Performance at Berklee College of Music. She placed 4th in the 2022 Open Old-Time Fiddle Contest at Clifftop and 1st in Old-Time Fiddle at the 2022 Lowell Banjo & Fiddle Contest.

Micah and Lillian were initially connected by their shared mentor, Bruce Molsky, and met at the 2021 Ossipee Valley Music Festival. The two started performing as a duo after competing together in the Twin Fiddle category at the 2022 Lowell Banjo & Fiddle Contest, where they placed 1st. Their duo quickly became well-established in the Boston area after playing a sold-out show at Club Passim in fall of 2022.

Micah and Lillian share a love for old-time fiddle tunes and ballads, and interlace their sets with newer songs and tunes. Their shows are full of tight harmonies, twin-fiddling, and rocking guitar & fiddle duets.

Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves

Traditional music is not static; it shifts with the times, uncovering new meanings in old words, new ways of talking about the communal pathways that led us to where we are today. For master musicians Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves, traditional banjo and fiddle music is a way to interpret our uncertain times, to draw artistic inspiration and power from the sources of meaning in their lives. History, family, literature, live performance, and environmental instability all manifest in the sounds, feelings, and sensations that permeate their music. Their 2022 sophomore album, Hurricane Clarice is a direct infusion of centuries of matrilineal folk wisdom, a fiery breath of apocalyptic energy.

Individually they are both leaders in the young generation of roots musicians, de Groot being known for intricate clawhammer banjo work with Bruce Molsky, and Hargreaves bringing powerhouse fiddling to the stage with Laurie Lewis and David Rawlings in addition to teaching bluegrass fiddle at UNC-Chapel Hill. Their first self-titled album released in 2019 garnered attention from CBC Q, Paste Magazine and Rolling Stone Country, earning the duo the Independent Music Awards “Best Bluegrass Album” and a nomination from IBMA for “Best Liner Notes of the Year.” The duo has been booked at festivals and venues such as Newport Folk Festival, Savannah Music Festival, Winnipeg Folk Festival, the Red Hat Amphitheater in Raleigh, NC, and Red Wing Roots Music Festival. Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves create a sound that is adventurous, masterful, and original, as they expand on the eccentricities of old songs, while never losing sight of what makes them endure.

If Hurricane Clarice has the incendiary fire of a red hot live performance, that was very much the plan for de Groot, Hargreaves, and Cook. “We love performing live together so much,” says de Groot. “We were talking to Phil about that, how do you capture that energy and intimacy of a performance without being too aware that you’re recording in a studio? Phil’s idea was to just play it like it’s a show.” They worked out the innovative idea of rehearsing and recording the music as performance “sets” about one hour long. Musically, both artists are at the absolute top of their game. In addition to the recording innovations, the duo have worked tirelessly to build on their already impressive technique and to find new ways to play live together. In stringband music, nearly every song or tune necessitates a complete retuning of the fiddle and banjo, so set lists have to be carefully built and the best artists develop an intricate knowledge of alternate tunings and modalities. For de Groot & Hargreaves, they wanted their set list to build a narrative that flowed easily and that showcased their abilities as consummate artisans.

The repertoire on Hurricane Clarice comes from field recordings, old hymns, and LPs, but it also comes from modern literary sources and original compositions from the two, a delightful mix of the old and the new. Both de Groot and Hargreaves are avid readers, so the Hargreaves-penned title track delves into the surreal world of Brazilian author Clarice Lispector while the Canadian ballad “The Banks of the Miramichi” references the “before times” of a polluted river used as a case study in the environmentalist classic Silent Spring. Hargreaves in particular has worked to incorporate literary traditions and storytelling into the music. Hargreaves in particular has a great love for literary traditions and storytelling. “I feel like playing traditional music is similar to reading science fiction or magical realism.” Hargreaves explains, “We’re taking these traditional components that we’ve learned from a lineage of people passing it down orally. It always changes, someone exaggerates it in a way that fits their storytelling or playing style. It keeps getting weirder and weirder with each telling to match who’s telling it.” Other tunes come from deep dive sources, like Black fiddler Butch James Cage (“Dead and Gone”), or the tune “Nancy Blevins” from fiddler Albert Hash (on further research, the “real” Blevins may have been involved in witchcraft).

Unlike many songs from the bluegrass and old-time traditions, the songs on Hurricane Clarice are not concerned with love. They do wryly tackle topics like seasonal depression (“Each Season Changes You”) and the absurdity of touring (“The Road That’s Walked by Fools”) but if anything was on the duo’s minds while recording it was likely family, either the kind you’re born to or the kind you make yourself. So much of this music is made with intent and meaning without needing words–just swirling dance melodies designed to be played all night–that it seems likely that both Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves were both unknowingly crafting an ode to family as a source of hope in a time of dying.

The Kossoy Sisters

Audiences may recognize the voices of the Kossoy Sisters, identical twins, from their version of “I’ll Fly Away” in the Coen Brothers’ movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? They performed at the first Newport Folk Festival and sang in the original production of Woody Guthrie’s Bound for Glory. Irene and Ellen began harmonizing at the age of 8 or 9, singing mostly what they heard around the house: songs of the 20’s and music hall songs. In their early teenage years, they immersed themselves in traditional songs and became part of the music scene in Washington Square in Greenwich Village. By the age of 20 they had performed widely in New York. Although they sing mostly southern mountain songs, they have also adopted other traditional and contemporary songs (including humorous compositions by Irene), accompanying themselves on guitar and banjo.

In addition to Newport, the Kossoy Sisters performed for several years at the Fox Hollow Folk Festival, did a concert tour with Frank Hamilton in California in 1981, and sang at the University of Chicago Folk Festival, New York Pinewoods Camp, and Focal Point in St. Louis in the 1980’s. After the 1997 reissue on CD of Bowling Green by Tradition/Rykodisc, the Kossoy Sisters resumed performing with concerts in Boston and Washington DC, among others.

The Kossoy Sisters’ album Hop On Pretty Girls includes a mix of traditional southern mountain songs and originals–including work by Irene and Ellen, Woody Guthrie and the Carter Family. Pete Sutherland, a fine instrumentalist and singer, is the artistic producer of the CD and accompanies the Kossoy Sisters on most of the songs. Two popular Boston area musicians, Lorraine and Bennett Hammond, lend their voices and instruments on two of the CD’s songs, in addition to contributions by a variety of Vermont-based instrumentalists.

Countercurrent

Countercurrent is a powerhouse acoustic folk duo based in Olympia, Washington, featuring driving guitar, lyrical fiddle, harmony vocals, and foot percussion.

Bringing the deep drive of dance music to every performance, their arrangements blend both traditional and modern influences with astounding musicianship and fluency. They have achieved nationwide acclaim for their high-energy style, which draws on deep traditional roots from Ireland and North America while incorporating new influences to create a sound that is at once unique and timeless. A repertoire of songs that includes potent contemporary anthems, trad ballads, old-time hollers, and biting political content leaves no room for boredom. Alex’s driving guitar and gifted songwriting, Brian’s lyrical fiddle and rock-solid foot percussion, and the duo’s lively interplay, tight vocal harmonies, and unstoppable groove make a Countercurrent performance an event unlike any other. Wherever they go, the question remains the same: “How does that much sound come from just two people?”

Performing together since 2009, they have played at such venues as Club Passim (Cambridge,MA) The Freight and Salvage (Berkeley,CA), The Flurry Festival (Saratoga Springs, NY), and have frequently been the closing band for The Northwest Folklife Festival (Seattle, WA). Countercurrent is one of the most in-demand bands for contra dance weekends and camps across the country. Being highly collaborative musicians, Alex and Brian are part of several other bands (together or separately) including One Dollar Whiskey, Gallimaufry, The Iona Fyfe Trio, The Engine Room, Dear Crow, and others. Alex Sturbaum is a songwriting sensation, gaining notoriety across the continent for their work bringing visibility and queer representation in newly composed trad folk songs. Brian Lindsay is also one of the region’s top sound engineers for acoustic performances and recordings, and uses his expertise to ensure that every Countercurrent performance is a stellar auditory experience.

Ken Perlman

Ken Perlman is a pioneer of the 5-string banjo style known as melodic clawhammer; he is considered one today’s top clawhammer players, known in particular for his skillful adaptations of Celtic, Appalachian, & Canadian fiddle tunes to the style. He has toured throughout most of the English-speaking world and in Western-Europe, both as a soloist and – for over fifteen years – in a duo with renowned Appalachian-style fiddler Alan Jabbour. An acclaimed teacher of folk-music instrumental skills, Ken has written such widely used banjo instruction books as Clawhammer Style Banjo. Melodic Clawhammer Banjo and Everything You Wanted to Know About Clawhammer Banjo; he has been on staff at prestigious festivals around the world, and he is currently director of three music-instructional camps: American Banjo Camp, Midwest Banjo Camp, and Suwannee Banjo Camp. Also an independent folklorist, Ken spent close to two decades collecting tunes and oral histories from traditional fiddle players on Prince Edward Island in Eastern Canada. His most recent solo recordings are Frails & Frolics and Northern Banjo; his recordings with Alan Jabbour are Southern Summits & You Can’t Beat the Classics; his latest book is Appalachian Fiddle Tunes for Clawhammer Banjo.

For more: www.kenperlman.com

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