Ira Klein is a guitarist, banjoist and composer, currently based in Cambridge, MA. Inspired by his love of blues, old-time and gospel, Klein creates contemporary roots music.
Artist Category: Old Time
Dirk Powell
Dirk Powell is a musician with deep roots in several rural American traditions. He learned banjo and fiddle from his Kentucky grandfather, James Clarence Hay, and has been a part of the thriving Cajun/Creole music community in Louisiana since his early 20s. He has toured and recorded with musicians such as Eric Clapton, Joan Baez, Buddy Miller, Jack White, Loretta Lynn, and Levon Helm, while his contribution to film has found him collaborating with directors like Anthony Minghella (“Cold Mountain”), Ang Lee (“Ride with the Devil”), and Spike Lee (“Bamboozled”). His solo records, which often combine a traditional foundation with a wide-ranging commitment to emotion and original expression, have had impact around the globe. He is also in demand as a producer and owns his own studio on the banks of Bayou Teche near Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.
Giri & Uma Peters
Giri and Uma Peters are a brother/sister duo from Nashville, TN. These award-winning multi-instrumentalists have been electrifying audiences with their refreshing, soulful blend of old-time and roots music. Although young in age, their musicianship and vocal harmonies showcase a level of creativity and originality well beyond their years.
Nefesh Mountain
Since their arrival on the scene in 2015, Nefesh Mountain has been hailed as one of today’s formative boundary pushing Bluegrass/Americana bands. They’re among the first to truly give voice and openly represent Jewish American culture, tradition, values and spirituality in the world of American roots music.
In a testament to the unbridled imagination and extraordinary grace of their musicianship, each track on Songs for the Sparrows ineffably evokes the sensation of roaming through the unknown. True to the album’s spirit of loving inclusivity, Lindberg and Zasloff, have created an elegantly wayward sound by melding elements of everything from Americana and Appalachian bluegrass to Celtic folk and Eastern European music. Not only a reflection of their vast musical knowledge, that open-hearted embracing of so many eclectic genres also speaks to the joyful curiosity that animates every aspect of their artistry.
Writing thirteen of the fourteen tracks, the duo looked back on a life-changing trip to Eastern Europe in 2018. “We tracked down the towns where our families are from, and it was devastating to see the destruction of the Holocaust firsthand, and to know that we’re not so far removed from that time,” says Lindberg. “” ‘Songs For The Sparrows’ ultimately came from that experience, and from thinking about the many groups of people who are horribly discriminated against in the U.S.” Zasloff adds: “To us, sparrows represent a small but mighty voice. That’s why we chose to name the album for them—they’re often overlooked, but they’re beautiful and everywhere.” Lindberg and Zasloff are the heart of this eclectic band, alongside longtime bandmate and fiddle player Alan Grubner, David Goldenberg on mandolin, and Max Johnson on bass.
The CowCatchers
The CowCatchers are a string band trio featuring Jess Fox on fiddle, Tim FitzPatrick on guitar, and Tim Rowell on Banjo.
Red Tail Ring
Laurel Premo and Michael Beauchamp of Red Tail Ring create lush, intricate arrangements of original folk music and traditional ballads with banjo, fiddle, guitar, and close harmonies. “The very best of the 21st century’s minimalist and highly original folk music . . . a peerless duo.” – American Roots UK.
The Michigan-based band is fresh off their fourth full-length studio release, Fall Away Blues. Featuring new songwriting fused with old-time and country blues themes, the album tackles topical subjects such as gun violence and environmentalism as well as age-old questions of place and love. Red Tail Ring “doesn’t just pay homage to vintage folk and roots music: The Kalamazoo duo breathes new life into it, channeling the power and charm of seminal material into its own original songs.” – John Sinkevics, LocalSpins.com
Since 2009, Red Tail Ring has performed their brand of acoustic roots all over the United States, traveled over seas to play in the UK, Denmark, Germany, Finland, and Sweden, and has also appeared at some of the most notable festivals and venues that the US has to offer, such as The Ark, Club Passim, Caffe Lena, the Indiana Fiddlers Gathering, Wheatland Music Festival, and Hiawatha Traditional Music Festival.
The Vinegar Flies
Taking a modern twist on American roots music, the Vinegar Flies blend traditional blues, country, old time, originals, and bluegrass into a snafu of contemporary music.
- Jess “Cider” Fox – Fiddle
- Ben “Balsamic” Truboff – Guitar
- Dan “Malt” Africk – Bass
- Ben “French Fry” Leddy – Banjo
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.
Mark Simos
Mark Simos, associate professor in songwriting at Berklee College of Music, is a renowned songwriter, composer and tunesmith, teacher and writer. Over four-plus decades, Mark’s songs and “tunes from imaginary countries” have stretched musical boundaries with innovative melodies and harmonies and intricately crafted lyrics, bringing a contemporary sensibility to “neo-traditionalist” forms.
Over one hundred and fifty of Mark’s compositions have been recorded by artists, including Americana supergroup Alison Krauss and Union Station, Ricky Skaggs, Del McCoury, and Laurie Lewis. He’s co-written with artist/writers such as Lisa Aschmann, Australian rock icon Jimmy Barnes, Catie Curtis, and the Infamous Stringdusters’ Andy Hall. He’s featured on many recordings as a fiddler and guitar accompanist, and has recorded an acclaimed song-cycle album, Crazy Faith, and four albums of original and traditional fiddle music.
At Berklee, Mark creates innovative curriculum in 360° songwriting, collaboration and co-writing, guitar techniques for songwriters, and tunewriting, and leads Berklee’s American Old-Time Ensemble. He also continues to perform and teach at workshops, camps, festivals, and retreats worldwide.
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.
