Blue Hat, Yeah! is a new band on the forefront of the New England bluegrass and progressive acoustic music scene. Their blend of traditional bluegrass and original instrumentals influenced by jazz, bluegrass and old time music makes them a new voice in the bluegrass world. The band's members have attended Berklee College of Music, The New School For Jazz and Contemporary Music and The New Zealand School of Music and each bring a diverse background of traditional music to the group.
"Blue Hat, Yeah! is the name of this ambitious group of fine, young musicians whom are working hard at creating their own brand of Acoustic/Bluegrass music. Hailing from the Boston area and having studied our genre, they are constantly working, honing, and raring to go; showcasing to the world what they have to offer. This is a refreshing, young band with tasteful material, smiles, and a hunger for people to hear and enjoy what they have to offer. Keep your eyes and ears on this aspiring band in the future."Jesse Brock Mandolin/vocals The Gibson Brothers
Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, Fiddle
Bronwyn Keith‐Hynes is a Boston-based musician originally from Charlottesville, Virginia. Accepted on a scholarship to Berklee College of Music at age 16, she graduated in 2013 with a diploma in Violin Performance. Bronwyn is fast gaining recognition for her fiddling in both Irish and Bluegrass circles. Her playing, improvising, and writing is informed by her past five years of intense immersion in the Boston acoustic music scene and time spent studying traditional Irish and Cape Breton music before moving to Boston. Bronwyn performed with Peter Rowan at the 2013 IBMA and has also performed at The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts; The Inter‐Celtic Festival in Lorient, France and Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival. This year she was selected to attend the 2014 Savannah Acoustic Music Seminar, held in April, where she will study with artists such as Julian Lage, Bela Fleck and Mike Marshall. As well as performing with Blue Hat, Yeah! Bronwyn also performs with the Wes Corbett Trio and The Moonlight Ramblers.
Catherine Bowness, Banjo
Since picking up the banjo at age 12, Catherine (BB) Bowness has traveled throughout New Zealand, Australia and the United States playing and teaching bluegrass music. At age 15, she received the Frank Winter memorial award at the Auckland Folk Festival allowing her to travel to the USA, where she won the Uncle Dave Macon banjo contest in Murfreesboro, TN. She was the first banjo player accepted to the New Zealand School of Music, receiving a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Performance. In 2013, BB was one of just sixteen young musicians selected to attend the Savannah Acoustic Music Seminar, studying with world-class artists such as Julian Lage, Mike Marshall and Darol Anger. Since re-locating to Boston last year she has kept busy recording, performing and teaching in and around Massachusetts.
Nathanial Sabat, Bass
A graduate of the voice program at New York City’s renowned LaGuardia High School, Nate Sabat’s musical roots are in choral singing. However, he started playing bass just before he began at LaGuardia, and, years later, was accepted to the Berklee College of Music as an upright bass principal. There, he has made it a goal to delve into the thriving Boston acoustic music scene, inside and outside of Berklee. To date, he has performed, worked and studied with artists such as Kronos Quartet, The New York Pops, Eugene Friesen and Bruce Molsky. This winter, he was chosen to be one of sixteen young acoustic musicians to attend the Savannah Acoustic Music Seminar in April, and will work with artists such as Bela Fleck, Mike Marshall, and Chris Eldridge. After graduating Berklee, he plans to stay in Boston for a few years to continue to play, record, and compose.
Mike Robinson, Guitar
From the age of six, Mike Robinson has had a guitar in his hands. He was raised in a musical family on a thirty-five foot sailboat that traveled the Caribbean. When he was twelve, Mike and his family moved to Boulder Colorado where he joined his middle school jazz band and began attending bluegrass festivals. At age sixteen he premiered a composition on the first ever CCJA record, "Fourteen Channels" on Tapestry Records. By the time Mike moved to New York City to study at The New School For Jazz and Contemporary Music, he had developed a style of playing and writing that mixed his love of both jazz and bluegrass music. This winter he was accepted to attend the Savannah Music Festival Acoustic Music Seminar, which will be held in April 2014 and where he will be studying with some of the top acoustic musicians in the world. Mike currently lives in New York and is in his third year as a student at the New School. Mike is in high demand as a guitarist and singer in both the jazz and bluegrass music worlds.
Matt Witler, Mandolin
Matt Witler is a Boston based mandolin player. Starting on the fiddle at the age of nine, Matt fell in love with old time and bluegrass music. At the age of 14 he picked up the mandolin and began to study music in earnest. Matt is now in his final semester at the Berklee College of Music. While Matt is rooted in the bluegrass tradition, he has explored and been influenced by Jazz, classical, and pop music. In 2012 Matt won first place in both the mandolin, and flatpick guitar contests at Rockygrass bluegrass festival. Matt is a founding member of the Lonely Heartstring Band, a progressive acoustic band that is quickly gaining acclaim in the bluegrass community.
Tannahill Weavers w/ Fresh HaggisSaturday, October 4, 8pmhttp://www.tannahillweavers.com/https://www.facebook.com/FreshHaggis
The Tannahills have turned their acoustic excitement loose on audiences with an electrifying effect. They have that unique combination of traditional melodies, driving rhythmic accompaniment, and rich vocals that make their performances unforgettable. As the Winnipeg Free Press noted, "The Tannahill Weavers - properly harnessed - could probably power and entire city for a year on the strength of last night's concert alone. The music may be old-time Celtic, but the drive and enthusiasm are akin to straight ahead rock and roll."
Born of a session in Paisley, Scotland, and named for the town's historic weaving industry and local poet laureate Robert Tannahill, the group has made an international name for its special brand of Scottish music, blending the beauty of traditional melodies with the power of modern rhythms. Over the years the Tannies have been trailblazers for Scottish music, and their tight harmonies and powerful, inventive arrangements have won them fans from beyond the folk and Celtic music scenes. They are firmly established as one of the premier groups on the concert stage. From reflective ballads to footstomping reels and jigs, the variety and range of the material they perform is matched only by their enthusiasm and lively Celtic spirits.
"An especially eloquent mixture of the old and the new." New York Times
"Scotland's Tannahill Weavers play acoustic instruments, but the atmosphere at their shows is electric. The quintet is as tight and as versatile as any band in the Celtic music revival. They can summon rock 'n' roll intensity or haunting introspection." The Boston Globe
"...as close to perfect as it gets in an imperfect world." Sing Out!
Fresh Haggis is a dynamic new band formed of some of the finest young up-and-coming musicians on the Boston Celtic-music scene. Composed of border piper/singer Elias Alexander, guitarist/singer Eamon Sefton, and fiddler/singer Kathleen Parks, the group celebrates the continued vibrancy of the Irish and Scottish musical traditions through youthful, passionate arrangements of songs and tunes, including some original compositions within the style. Traditional music at the peak of exuberance!
Mr.Sun, A 21st Century string band.... multi-generational hot shots ! Darol Anger, Joe Walsh, Grant Gordy & Ethan Jodziewiczwebsite
This will be an intimate show with Acoustic Music’s finest stars of any generation... Four generations of the most creative minds in American String Band Music... Including an original co-founder of the DGQ. This is an opportunity to hear these instruments in the setting they were designed for, interpreting music from the entire swath of America’s Songbook at the highest level...
Legendary fiddler Darol Anger, youthful guitar whiz Grant Gordy, and the redoubtable mandolinist Joe Walsh have all spent their lives moving from place to place, adopting a town and moving on, toward an magisterial knowledge of the physical and psychic terrains that make up the Americas. Though each is of a different generation, they've walked similar musical paths, exploring the worlds of bluegrass, blues, jazz, and old-time, on their way to mastery of their chosen instruments. Day by day, they deepen their fluency in the vast swath of dialects that comprise American roots music.
DAROL ANGER
Fiddler, composer, producer and educator, Darol Anger is at home in a number of musical genres, some of which he helped to invent. Exceptional among modern fiddlers for his versatility and depth, Anger has helped drive the evolution of the contemporary string band through his involvement with numerous pathbreaking ensembles such as his Republic Of Strings, the Turtle Island String Quartet, the David Grisman Quintet, Montreux, his Duo with Mike Marshall, and others. He has performed and taught all over the world with musicians such as Dr. Billy Taylor, Bela Fleck, Bill Evans, Edgar Meyer, Bill Frisell, Tony Rice, Tim O’Brien, Anonymous 4, Marin Alsop and the Cabrillo Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, Mark O’Connor, and Stephane Grappelli. Today Darol can be heard on NPR's "Car Talk" theme every week, along with Earl Scruggs, David Grisman and Tony Rice. He was also the violinist on the phenomenally popular Sim City computer games. In addition to performing all over the world, he has recorded and produced scores of important recordings since 1977, is a MacDowell and UCross Fellow, and has received numerous composers’ residencies and grants. He has been a featured soloist on dozens of recordings and motion picture soundtracks. He is an Associate Professor at the prestigious Berklee School of music. He recently began an ambitious online Fiddle School at ArtistWorks.com. His website is www.darolanger.com
GRANT GORDY
Assuming the guitarist role in the fabled David Grisman Quintet, a spot previously held by such notables as Tony Rice, Mark O’Connor, Frank Vignola and Mike Marshall, has confirmed Grant Gordy as a pre-eminent young voice on acoustic guitar. David Grisman says Gordy “belongs to the new elite of American acoustic practitioners who are pushing the ever-expanding envelope of a musical frontier.”
His work has been widely recognized for its consistent excellence and diversity. He was featured on the covers of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine and Japan’s premier bluegrass magazine, Moonshiner. He was recently written up in Just Jazz Guitar and in 2010, Acoustic Guitar Magazine celebrated his debut CD in its Top Ten Acoustic Albums of the Year.
Gordy’s music has been heard on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered and the prestigious Tiny Desk Concerts. Gordy was selected in 2006 to be one of 15 participants in Carnegie Hall’s “Porous Borders of Music” workshop, led by acoustic music legends Edgar Meyer and Mike Marshall. He’s played at Bonnaroo Music Festival, the Montréal Jazz Festival, Carnegie Hall, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco and in the UK and Russia.
Gordy was drawn to the guitar early on as a means of expression and intellectual curiosity. Moving to Colorado from Oregon in his 20s opened his horizons as he began playing in a wide range of different styles.
Now based in New York, Gordy’s diverse musical gifts make him the ideal all-around guitarist for one of the world’s most varied musical cities. He’s currently focused on writing new original material, delving headlong into the Big Apple’s extraordinary jazz scene, continuing to tour with Grisman and other collaborators, teaching, and as always, staying open to new musical experiences.
"The young bluegrass/jazz virtuoso’s recording debut is an inspired, ambitious, coherent collection of original compositions for string jazz quartet (guitar, fiddle, mandolin, bass) that ranks with the best of his employer, David Grisman.” --Acoustic Guitar Magazine
JOE WALSH
Recognized as one of the foremost contemporary mandolinists, Joe has also won acclaim and affection for his vocals and his talents on a number of other instruments, including guitar and octave mandolin. Legendary fiddler Darol Anger called “one of my favorite musicians on earth.” With two solo albums to his credit, he toured internationally with the award-winning bluegrass supergroup The Gibson Brothers.
In the spring of 2011 Joe released his second solo record, “Sweet Loam,” which features several of his recent compositions and new arrangements of some more familiar songs. An exceptional cast of musicians joins him, including Mike Block, Scott Law, Karl Doty, Lauren Rioux, and Darol Anger, who also co-produced the record with Joe. In the Fall of 2011 Joe returned to Berklee as both a mandolin instructor and as Managing Director of the American Roots Music Program.
ETHAN JODZIEWICZ
Ethan Jodziewicz currently studies at Curtis Institute with Edgar Meyer. Making a musical home for Mr Sun in the space around and between the great American roots styles, this quartet draws from all of their varied backgrounds (Grammy-nominated fiddle music and jazz, award-winning bluegrass, indie/pop grass, new acoustic string bands, and classical music) in crafting a sound all their own, and is drawing all the right kind of attention for their new musical work.
===notloB Folk Concerts has produced not-for-profit concerts in the greater Boston area since 2007. The series is volunteer-run; 100% of the donations go to the musicians and production expenses. No still, video or sound recording is permitted without permission of the artist and the house.
"In this era of pop-driven acoustic music, notloB is keeping the folk tradition alive." ~ Jack Hardy
