Artist Category: Roots | Page 9

Andrea Asprelli

Cricket Tell the Weather is the creative project of Andrea Asprelli, award-winning songwriter and fiddler. She is backed by a collective of some of the finest players in New York’s roots music scene. Winners of the 2013 FreshGrass Award in North Adams, MA, Cricket features award-winning songs delivered with honest vocals and thoughtful arrangements with a modern edge.

Growing up a classical musician in Colorado, Asprelli began playing bluegrass after she moved to the east coast, and was shaped by New England’s small but fiery local bluegrass communities. Moving from Northampton, MA to Syracuse, NY to New Haven, CT, she met many bluegrass, folk, and old-time musicians who inspired her along the way before forming Cricket Tell the Weather and setting up shop in Brooklyn, NY. Cricket performs mostly as a quartet, whose collective cast of NYC musicians includes Doug Goldstein and Hilary Hawke on banjo, Dave Speranza and Sam Weber on bass, and Mike Robinson, Jason Borisoff, and Jeff Picker on guitar.

In 2014, Cricket released its independent eponymous debut album of original music, recorded at Signature Sounds studio in Pomfret Center, CT. Bringing with them heart, enthusiasm, humor, and an appreciation of tradition, Cricket’s voice is personal in a way that stretches against categories, and familiar in a way that honors those who have come before.

Julian Pinelli

Recently named the winner of the 2016 Fresh Grass fiddle competition, Julian Pinelli is a free-spirited violinist who spins a deep tone in his music. Rooted in the bluegrass of his home in Southern Appalachia, Julian taps into a new dimension combining diverse musical influences with the intricacies of acoustic sound.

Julian spent his childhood surrounded by many iconic acoustic musicians including fiddler Bobby Hicks – whose smooth and lush sound has had a big impact on Julian’s playing. Now residing in Boston and attending Berklee College of Music, Julian has been honored with both the 2016 Fletcher Bright Award and Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival’s 2015 Bill Vernon Memorial Scholarship.

Julian unites his passion for improvising with the earthy resonance of acoustic music. “I have always been drawn to the simple and pure tone of acoustic instruments and their inherent expressiveness.” Both adventurous and traditional, Julian creates music that respects traditions such old time and bluegrass while staying fresh at the cutting edge of musical innovation.

Jack Broadbent

Hailed as “the new master of the slide guitar” by the Montreux Jazz Festival and “the real thang” by the legendary Bootsy Collins, Jack Broadbent has spent the past few years wowing audiences across the globe with his blend of virtuosic acoustic and slide guitar and blues inspired vocals. His songs can span from a beautiful folk ballad to straight-ahead rock and roll.

Born June 15th, 1988 in rural Lincolnshire, England, Broadbent grew up listening to artists like Radiohead, Robert Johnson, Joni Mitchell, and Davey Graham. These legends influenced Jack’s distinctive songwriting, singing, and style. Jack’s performances exude a warmth, humor, and energy that has electrified audiences worldwide. Broadbent has shared the stage with legendary artists such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ronnie Wood, Peter Frampton, Tommy Emmanuel, and Tony Joe White. He has headlined a series of international tours including sold out shows across Europe, Australia, Asia, and North America.

Broadbent has four full length albums under his belt. His latest record, Moonshine Blue, was hailed by fans and critics alike for its soulful sound and depth of genre bending songs. Blues Matters said, “Moonshine Blue really shows off Jack’s true power as a singer-songwriter. Sonically, it has a rich, live sound which is a testament to the quality of the production and engineering. It truly is a superb album.” Recently, Broadbent has been working on new music, which should be coming out soon!

Ry Cavanaugh

Ry Cavanaugh was 22 when his father – a country and honky-tonk singer in the late 1970’s – died of heart failure after several years of struggle with chronic depression and prescription opiate addiction. A big-hearted and hard-dreaming man, George Cavanaugh had created a vibrant, often chaotic home life in which music and community were the twin, magical threads.

In 2019, having reached the age at which his father died, Ry carved out time in the midst of recording and touring with his band Session Americana to cut his first solo album in 20 years. The result, Time For This, is the realization of a long-ripening desire to recover and document the songs his father had written four decades prior. A singular departure for an artist who has made his career within the fabric of community, Time For This shifts the focus squarely on his own voice, offering up stark and intimate renditions of the songs that framed his childhood: resurrected, re-worked, and recorded knee-to-knee with Duke Levine, with Jennifer Kimball adding exceptionally delicate harmonies.

Meredith Axelrod

Delightfully engaging and unassumingly comic, Meredith Axelrod envisions the limitless potential of early twentieth century music, whether it be Ragtime, Music Hall, Pop Standard, Boogie Woogie, Tin Pan Alley, String band, Jazz, Country, Blues or even Jug Band music, and embodies the spirit that brought the music into existence in the first place. Her vocal style is unusual, probably because she learned to sing by listening to how folks did it a century ago – through the medium of cylinders and 78-rpm records.

The dominant theme throughout her expansive repertoire, is that, whatever the genre, these are songs she learns from the original sources (records and / or sheet music) which were released between the 1890s and the 1930s. Part of the allure of old time music, indeed any music throughout the history of recorded music, is hearing the original recordings as played and sung by the original performers in their heyday, loving what they’re doing and doing it because it means something to them in that moment, never because of nostalgia, and Meredith brings the same unbridled passion, earnest devotion and candid vitality to all of her music; she has found possibility and joy in the treasures of cultural folklore.

Kemp Harris

Kemp Harris defies categorization. He is a singer and songwriter, a master weaver of American musical styles. He’s an actor, activist, author, and storyteller, and an award-winning educator who has taught young public school students for more than 40 years.

“It’s all about communication,” Kemp says. “Everything I do.”

Born in segregated Edenton, North Carolina, and transplanted to Massachusetts, where he bounced between relatives’ homes, Kemp learned to adapt to whatever world he found himself in – a talent that has come to define him as a person and an artist. He began writing songs at 14 and recording them in college, using a pair of old cassette players to track parts, and has been delighting music lovers ever since with his earthy, soulful creations.

Kemp honed his powerful, intimate performance style in Cambridge’s coffeehouses, developing into a magnetic frontman who has shared stages with artists such as Koko Taylor, Livingston Taylor, Gil Scott-Heron, Kandace Springs and Taj Mahal. He has composed original music for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Complexions Contemporary Ballet, established a songwriting residency at Boston’s Wang Theater, and recently delivered a series of master classes at Berklee College of Music on the subject of Artists as Activists, alongside Chad Stokes of the band Dispatch and members of the dance troupe Urban Bush Women.

Kemp’s most recent album, Edenton, featuring vocals from the legendary Holmes Brothers, is a modern blues journey that fuses the personal and the political, the sacred and the profane, to haunting effect. Edenton’s title track, a bittersweet valentine to his birthplace, explores a simpler time in a racially-divided town with the clear-eyed grace that is a hallmark of Kemp’s work. Everything he makes is built on a foundation of social awareness and the desire to reflect the world as he sees and experiences it. Whether he’s performing a rousing soul tune backed by a 14-piece orchestra in a grand concert hall or a hushed meditation alone at his piano, Kemp speaks truth the only way he knows how: by baring his soul. Considering the state of the world, it is no wonder Kemp is back on the road playing to the biggest audiences of his life – selling out rooms from Northern New England to New York City and enjoying a wave of new fans who have discovered this seasoned Renaissance man via word of mouth.

“Kemp Harris is a thief, a tease and a heartbreaker. He knows too much. And it’s all right there when he sings… beautifully there. He’ll take your breath away.” – NPR: ‘On Point’

Brooks Williams

Brooks Williams hails from Statesboro, Georgia, the town made famous by country-blues legend Blind Willie McTell. Not one easy to pigeon-hole, Williams’ music is a roots music love-child. “Soulful Americana, full-on blues and tasty rootsy grooves. He really rocks!” writes fRoots. Fellow guitar-wizard Martin Simpson calls Brooks Williams the “Real Thing!”

Williams got his start in the clubs and bars around Boston, the same music scene that years earlier sparked the careers of Bonnie Raitt and Chris Smither. There, playing 5-6 nights a week, he developed his signature sound.

He’s a mean finger-picker and a stunning slide guitarist, and is ranked in the Top 100 Acoustic Guitarists, Plus, “he has a beautiful voice,” says AmericanaUK, “that you just melt into.” In fact, in 2013 Williams was nominated “best male vocalist” by the UK’s foremost roots-music mavens, Spiral Earth.

His massive repertoire reads like a roots music Hall Of Fame. From classic Bessie Smith or Memphis Slim blues to compelling Dave Alvin and Buddy Miller Americana covers. “On top of all this,” writes American Roots UK, “is his songwriting, which stands comparison with virtually any of his peers.” Rooted in tradition, wryly observed and relevant.

He’s is one of acoustic roots music’s guiding lights. One of its most respected ambassadors. He’s always on tour ranging from Dallas to The Netherlands, Boston to Glasgow, Belfast to Memphis, Little Rock to London. Blues In Britain says Brooks Williams is, “At the top of his game, setting new standards and a fresh direction for the blues.”

The Mammals

Indie-roots trailblazers, The Mammals, are a high-octane Americana quintet from New York’s storied Hudson Valley carrying on the work of Pete Seeger & Woody Guthrie with a deep original repertoire, searing American roots sound, and a message of hope for humanity.

Known for their jubilant, high-energy shows, The Mammals deftly move from older-than-dirt banjo duets to sound-the-alarm topical fare that’s right in line with the times, bouncing from rafter raising hoe-downs to hear-a-pin-drop a cappella balladry.

The new album, Sunshiner, bottles The Mammals’ on-stage effervescence and lyrical intellect along with some very beautiful studio magic. Sunshiner bursts open with the soaring, up-tempo idealism of Merenda’s “Make It True,” with echoes of The Byrds, and then takes a more modern, Feist-inspired, turn with Ungar’s soulful plea,“Open The Door.”

The Mammals treasure the timeless traditions of song, story-telling and dance. Their work is to continue a musical odyssey so that the same handmade music passed down to them makes it thru to future generations one song, one concert at a time.

Kim Richey

In January 2024, Kim Richey found herself in Mexico, gazing out at a sea of people singing along to “I’m Alright,” one of her classic tracks. The three folks on stage with the veteran, Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter were also raising their voices in harmony. To her right sat Brandi Carlile, to her left, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Brandy Clark. The formidable foursome was participating in a songwriter’s round only half-jokingly dubbed “Titans of Americana” at Carlile’s female-forward Girls Just Wanna Weekend festival on the Riviera Maya in Mexico.

“That was nuts looking out and seeing everybody arm-waving and singing along,” says Richey, still both incredulous and cheered by the memory of performing with that supergroup and later appearing alongside other Girls Just Wanna Weekend-ers Annie Lennox, Lucius, Allison Russell, and Sarah McLachlan among others. “It was just like, ‘wow’!”

The good news for fans of this particular Titan is there will soon be a whole new batch of songs to sing along with and arm wave to with the release of her 10th studio album Every New Beginning.

The album features 10 tracks, written, or co-written by Richey with a coterie of characters, over the course of several years, and produced by critically lauded multi-instrumentalist and producer Doug Lancio (Patty Griffin, John Hiatt). It was recorded at Skinny Elephant studio in Nashville with engineer Dylan Alldredge in August 2023 with musical assistance from longtime collaborators like Dan Mitchell and Neilson Hubbard — who produced Richey’s 2013 album Thorn in My Heart — and newer friends like Nashville neighbor Aaron Lee Tasjan, who lends his irrepressibly sparkly musicality to the proceedings. Every New Beginning manages to continue the throughline of Richey’s nearly 30-year career while simultaneously adding a new chapter.

The songs represent the full spectrum of the Ohio native’s gifts as both a revered songwriter who can leap from melancholy to mirthful in a single couplet — whose songs have been recorded by the likes of Brooks and Dunn, Patty Loveless, and Mary Chapin Carpenter — and owner of one of music’s truly celestial voices.

That voice, which Brandi Carlile has cited as formative in crafting her own style, is a widely sought after harmony instrument and has been featured on scores of albums including Jason Isbell’s acclaimed Southeastern, Trisha Yearwood’s Everybody Knows, Heartbreaker by Ryan Adams, Reba McEntire’s Starting Over, and Has Been by Capt. Kirk himself William Shatner, among many others. Richey’s music continues to loiter at the Americana intersection of country, folk, pop, and rock conjuring everything from Lucinda’s humanity, the Beatles shimmer, Tom Petty’s effervescent stomp and Joni Mitchell’s laser-sharp lyrical craft.

Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem

Harmony, rhythm, indelible songs – these are the hallmarks of Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem, the New England based folk quartet now in its 20th year. From the Newport Folk Festival to the California World Music Festival and beyond, this band’s steadfast brew of wit, camaraderie, and musicality leaves audiences everywhere humming and hopeful, spirits renewed.

Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem are Rani Arbo (fiddle, guitar), Andrew Kinsey (bass, banjo, ukulele), Anand Nayak (electric and acoustic guitars) and Scott Kessel (percussion). At the helm, Arbo is “blessed with an unmistakable voice, both light and sultry, with a hint of tremolo and smoke” (Acoustic Guitar). With Kinsey and Nayak’s vibrant baritones and Kessel’s resonant bass, the band’s signature lockstep harmonies can shake the rafters or hush the room. Arbo’s fiddle is sweet and sinewy, while Nayak’s guitar stretches across genre lines. Kinsey’s old- time bass anchors the deep groove of Kessel’s homemade percussion kit — a truly funky collection of cardboard boxes, tin cans, caulk tubes, packing-tape tambourines, bottle-cap rattles, Mongolian jaw harps, and a vinyl suitcase.

In the lineage of string bands who blur the boundaries of American roots music, Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem have always been standard-bearers, with a particular knack for pairing words and music. From bluegrass barnstormers to sultry swing, old-time gospel to bluesy folk-rock, they consistently turn in lush arrangements with “stylish, unexpected choices” (Acoustic Guitar). Original songs fit seamlessly aside artful re-workings of Georgia Sea Islands music, Hank Williams, Leonard Cohen, Bruce Springsteen — just a few of the many places this band is willing to go.