Maxfield Anderson is an American roots multi-instrumentalist, teacher, writer and music director, currently living in Somerville, MA. As an artist, Maxfield aims to bring new light to honored traditions and to share the joy of making music with others.
Growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Maxfield’s home was filled with an array of musical styles. After years of playing violin, his attention was taken hold by bluegrass and western swing fiddle, quickly leading him to discover the mandolin. He moved to Boston to study mandolin and American roots music at Berklee College of Music. Additionally, Max is a proficient guitar player, and after a year of isolation, finally broke down and added clawhammer banjo to the repertoire.
Teaching music has always been a big part of Max’s artistry. He believes that traditional music is an excellent vessel for understanding an instrument and finding your own voice as a musician. Teaching at Club Passim since 2020, Max has taught group courses in Beginner & Intermediate Mandolin, Bluegrass Ensemble (co-taught with Trevin Nelson), and Intro to Tune Writing. He also offers private instruction on mandolin, fiddle, guitar, music theory, and tune writing out of his home studio.
In addition to performing and teaching, Maxfield recently wrote and music directed the ‘Homegrown Stringband’ roots trio at Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, OH. The trio performed authentic bluegrass, folk, and old time string band music throughout the summer season of 2022.
Maxfield graduated from Berklee College of Music with a BFA in Music Performance. He is an active gigging musician in the Boston music scene, and has toured throughout the Northeast playing listening rooms, ball rooms, bar rooms, back rooms, front porches and festival stages.
BB Bowness
Born in the small town of Marton, New Zealand, Catherine “BB” Bowness spent her early years working and living in her family’s Fish-and-Chip shop. Although an unlikely origin for a bluegrass banjo player, New Zealand would offer BB her first introduction to the instrument, sparking a lifelong love and fascination. A world away from the heart of bluegrass, BB spent much of her childhood teaching herself the instrument, and through dedication and tenacity became New Zealand School of Music’s first banjo student. Inspired by her New Zealand predecessors, The Hamilton County Bluegrass Band, BB was always drawn to the five-piece full band, and after heading to America in 2012 she co-founded her current group, Mile Twelve.
Immersing herself in the traditions of bluegrass and having studied jazz performance at university, BB’s banjo playing is an exciting synthesis of new and old ideas. “She demonstrates a command of the instrument, and plays with great rhythmic clarity both in the traditional and progressive realms. J.D. Crowe co-mingles with the future,” says Tony Trischka. Her euphoric energy and love of the genre are readily apparent in any of her live performances.
Currently, BB lives in Cambridge, MA. Mile Twelve has won numerous IBMA awards, including 2020 New Artists of the Year and 2017 Momentum Band of the Year. BB won the 2015 Freshgrass Banjo contest and was a winner of the Steve Martin Banjo Prize in 2020.
The Small Glories
Roots powerhouse duo The Small Glories are Cara Luft & JD Edwards, a musical tour-de-force partnership planted on the Canadian Prairies. Thrown together purely by accident for an anniversary show at Winnipeg’s venerable West End Cultural Centre, The Small Glories could almost make you believe in fate.
With a stage banter striking a unique balance between slapstick and sermon, these veteran singer-songwriters have a way of making time disappear, rooms shrink, and audiences feel as they are right there on the stage with the band — writing the songs, living the songs, performing the songs. It’s not uncommon for listeners to find themselves laughing, dancing, crying, or caught up in a good ol’ fashioned sing-along. “We’re folk singers, we try to write stuff that people can relate to,” says Edwards, whose looming stage presence and penetrating eyes find him the yin to Luft’s petite, snort-laughing yang. The material of a Small Glories concert is welcoming in terms of subject, folk-pop melody and instrumentation — songs of love, loss, and environment, delivered with soaring, interwoven vocals on various combinations of stomping clawhammer banjo, guitar and harmonica. However, a Small Glories performance is really about what happens in-between the songs. “The feedback we get from a lot of audiences is that it’s not just about the music for them,” Luft says. “It’s the whole package.”
EG Vines
Having burst onto Nashville’s bustling Americana scene with his debut EP in 2018, E.G. Vines is preparing for the release of his first full-length album as a solo artist. Produced by Jordan Lehning (Kacey Musgraves, Robert Ellis, Rayland Baxter), Family Business is a deep dive into Vines’ broad-ranging roots rock sound paired with lyrics that relate themselves to the human condition. As its title suggests, at its core lies a focus on what makes us, as a collective society, family. With lead single “The Salesman” already in rotation at regional taste-maker Lightning 100, Vines is poised to break out on a national scale.
Giovanina Bucci
Giovanina Bucci is a singer-songwriter based out of Burlington, VT. She is a member of the Blues/Soul/Roots Rock group, Nina’s Brew, as a vocalist and rhythm guitar player. Born and raised in Plattsburgh, NY, Giovanina has spent the latter half of her life attempting to appease a relentless appetite for travel and exploration. She has made homes for herself in Ithaca, NY, Londonderry, Ireland, St. Thomas, USVI, Flagstaff, AZ, Durango, CO, and now Burlington.
Having soaked up a diverse catalog of influences, culture, and conversations along the way–her style is nothing short of eclectic. Rooted in blues, soul, folk and reggae, she writes about the intimate experiences that have shaped her as a human and as a songstress. A live performance quickly indicates how deeply Giovanina feels the songs, where and whom they were inspired by, and the stories behind them. She has released two solo albums, The Road Home in 2013 and A Bit of Alright in 2015. Nina’s Brew released their first EP, Don’t Tell Mama, in 2018 and are touring heavily throughout the northeast. Giovanina continues to balance her music career as a soloist, band member, and alongside the many talented friends with whom she collaborates.
Bobby Britt
Grammy nominated artist Bobby Britt was born and raised in Chapel Hill NC, and started playing fiddle at age five. In high school, Bobby became fascinated with all styles of music, from Miles Davis, to Wu-Tang to the Grateful Dead. At 18, he moved to Colorado to join Rounder Recording Artists and internationally acclaimed bluegrass band Open Road. Later, he joined Asheville based Town Mountain, and has been touring with them ever since.
He also tours with members of Della Mae, Joe K. Walsh, and David Grisman Quintet veteran Grant Gordy. He was also winner of the IBMA Momentum Performer of the Year. While Bobby’s role for most of his musical life has been about supporting the musical vision of artists that he loves, he recently completed his first solo album with Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz of Mandolin Orange, as well as Josh Oliver and Allison de Groot. This marks an exciting new era of composing, performing and recording exclusively as Bobby Britt.
Mammifères
New York City-based mammifères recomposes ancient music from across the world into postmodern folk by disarranging structure and finding inspiration in ethnic chaos. At times both irreverent and deeply respectful of tradition, this band tangles roots music with contemporary musical languages.
Bella White
While traditional bluegrass is usually associated with the American South, the genre has surely found a safe and loving Canadian home in the form of Calgary-born singer/songwriter Bella White. Armed with a piercing voice, edged with teardrops, White’s debut album Just Like Leaving, rings out as a coming of age anthem. The twenty year-old singer/songwriter and instrumentalist shys away from modern and fussy arrangements, and instead brings a traditional style of music into the contemporary moment by personalizing it to her own experiences. “I want people my age to hear my music, and think, actually Bluegrass is kind of cool”, she says. Throughout Just Like Leaving, White finds her strength in leaving home for the first time, with songs of heartbreak and loneliness that demonstrate both an old soul and a young heart.
Produced by fiddle player Patrick M’Gonigle (The Lonely Heartstring Band), Just Like Leaving, was recorded and mixed by Grammy-winning engineer Dave Sinko at Gilford Sound Studios in Vermont. White’s frequent collaborators Reed Stutz (Mandolin, harmony vocals), Julian Pinnelli (Fiddle, harmony vocals), and Alan Mackie (Bass) create a weaving, textured landscape from which White’s no-nonsense voice takes off. White sights The Stanley Brother’s as one of her biggest vocal influences, and her love of harmony singing is on full display throughout the album. On Just Like Leaving, White has shown herself to be a star student of the bluegrass genre, with something new to bring to the table. Her ability to translate modern experience to an old sound is seamless and compelling, and permeates the boundaries of a regional genre with authentic singing and songwriting.
Paul Nelson
Song crafter, blues explorer, mystery muser Paul Nelson brings the music home with his new album, Over Under Through due in January 2019 via CDBaby. Traveling through a landscape of blues, roots, and folk, Paul delivers a musical experience that captures and inspires with songs like “Ghost in the Basement”, “Color It Blue”, “Go Down Ezekiel” and the title song.
With the release of his album Over Under Through, listeners will discover that Paul’s music does not easily settle into any one musical format, but is a masterful blend of American roots and blues, gospel, folk, rock and jazz.
Recorded outside Boston in Newburyport MA and produced by Tom Eaton, the new album is a showcase for the writing and playing that comes after many years of pursuits outside of music. Nelson has assembled a stellar band of New England folk and blues icons to bring these songs to life, including guitarist Kevin Barry, drummer John Sands, bassists Richard Gates and Paul Kochansky, and vocalist Kristin Cifelli. The recordings were made at Universal Noise Storage and completed in October of 2018 with guest contributions from Nelson’s mentor Ellis Paul and Bay area horn player Jeff Oster.
Drawing inspiration and direction from genre-bending artists like Amos Lee, Ray Lamontagne, and Lyle Lovett, Paul’s heartfelt, rootsy songwriting and passionate live performances are sure to delight and charm fans across a wide range of musical tastes and backgrounds, and with the release of Over Under Through should resonate in listening rooms, house concerts, open mics, and churches throughout New England and beyond.
Noah Derksen
An American-citizen born and raised in the heart of the Canadian prairies while maturing on the west coast of British Columbia, Noah Derksen writes with the groundedness of harsh Manitoba winters mixed with the optimism of British Columbia’s coastline. He has toured the width of Canada and the United States, performing at renowned festivals and venues such as the National Arts Centre (Ottawa, ON), Northwest Folklife Festival (Seattle, WA), and the Winnipeg Folk Festival (Winnipeg, MB).
In fall 2019 Noah will be releasing his third full-length album entitled America, Dreaming produced by Winnipeg’s Juno-award winning producer Murray Pulver (The Bros. Landreth, Doc Walker).
