Tickets: $14 advance, $18 at the door.

Click here to purchase advance tickets.

Radim Zenkl was born in Opava, Czech Republic. He grew up in the town of Ostrava (about 200 miles east of Prague), where his father teaches classical music at the University of Ostrava. Zenkl began his musical studies with piano and singing, then later on classical guitar. In addition to classical music, his early influences were folk music and Czech unique “tramp music”. He began playing the mandolin at thirteen. He also plays mandola, Irish bouzouki, ukulele, tin whistle, ethnic flutes, and didgeridoo.

The discovery of bluegrass music came by listening to records that were smuggled in via those that had escaped from this communist country. The sound of a bluegrass mandolin initiated the spark that launched a decision to play music as a career at the age of seventeen and subsequently led Zenkl beyond bluegrass to an eclectic array of styles. Zenkl’s choice of mandolin came as no great joy to his father, who claimed that the instrument had no “real” repertoire, fueling his desire to create one of his own. He started transcribing music from other instruments and later on began composing.

Radim’s style features progressive original and eastern European traditional music flavored with bluegrass, jazz, new age, flamenco, rock, classical and other. The US Mandolin Champion is at the cutting edge of the mandolin’s future, designing new instruments within the mandolin family and creating new playing techniques which sound like two instruments simultaneously. Besides collaborating with the top musicians of the acoustic music scene, Radim has built up an extensive repertoire for solo mandolin, mandola and Irish bouzouki. He has recorded eight solo CDs (released on Acoustic Disc, Shanachie and Ventana) and has appeared on more than sixty other recordings.

Zenkl went on to record two CDs for David Grisman‘s record label “Acoustic Disc”. Galactic Mandolin (1992) is comprised of 13 original solo works, each in a different tuning. Czech It Out (1994) features original and Czech and Slovak traditional tunes on solo mandolin, mandocello and mandolin banjo.

On several occasions in 1995 he substituted for Mike Marshall in the classical group Modern Mandolin Quartet.

In the same year, Zenkl signed a recording contract with Shanachie Records and recorded String & Wings, which was released in 1996. Included in this CD are improvised duets with 20 different artists such as Jerry Douglas, Bela Fleck, David Grisman, Tony Rice and Rob Wasserman among others, featuring 20 different acoustic string instruments. A new CD entitled Restless Joy was released in November 1999.

Today, Zenkl’s virtuosity and innovation have placed him at the forefront of the modern acoustic music scene.

“Radim has reinvented the mandolin in several different ways.”
- David Grisman

“Imaginative and great.”
- Jerry Garcia

“Excellent technique and lots of great ideas!”
- Bela Fleck

The Next Gen Folk Series is jointly presented by Hearth Music, Victory Music and Empty Sea Studios.

Sorry, this show is completely sold out!  No tickets will be released at the door.

Please join us as double mandolin meets double fiddle in this special evening of instrumental music!

Mandolin duo Michael Connolly & Miller McNay will present music from their breakthrough mandolin duo album The Mandolin Casefiles.

To kick off the evening, fiery Celtic fiddler Prairie Wolfe will be joined by Michael Connolly on fiddle, chromatic button accordion and guitar for an opening set of Irish and French Canadian tunes.

With tunes spanning the blues, old-time, bluegrass, Irish and French Canadian genres, this is a Next Gen Folk show you won’t want to miss!

Michael Connolly & Miller McNay: The Northwest’s premier mandolin duo

Playing their mandolins together for more than five years, Michael Connolly and Miller McNay have traveled along and across genre boundaries, from bluegrass to old-time to swing. In their inaugural album celebrating the unusual pairing of two mandolins, Connolly and McNay share the sound they’ve developed as a duo: transparent and open, but warm, varied, and eminently listenable.

In The Mandolin Casefiles: It Takes Two To Mando, Connolly and McNay offer up a mix of traditionaltunes, covers, and originals like McNay’s “The Grapes of Rag,” which introduces the disc, and Connolly’s “Mr. Pick’s Blues,” a chromatic, colorful adventure in 12/8. A vintage Gibson mandola makes an appearance on “Over The Waterfall” and on the duo’s cover of Lennon and McCartney’s “In My Life.” Exhibiting an unparalleled responsiveness to each others’ playing, the musicians slip effortlessly between lead, accompaniment, and even percussive roles.

Recorded live in the studio with no overdubs, The Mandolin Casefiles captures the palpable energy and moment-by-moment musical dialogue between two longstanding collaborators at play.

Michael Connolly’s love affair with the mandolin began at age six. During his musically charged upbringing in Memphis, Tennessee, he delved deeply into bluegrass, old-time, Irish traditional, blues, and swing music. The result is a unique “hornlike” approach to the instrument. His deft ear and sensitive accompaniment have won him appearances touring with and performing alongside Michelle Shocked, Coyote Grace, and The Indigo Girls.

An accomplished multi-instrumentalist, Connolly performs regularly on fiddle, piano, and accordion as well as maintaining a busy teaching schedule. He has recorded widely, appearing on nineteen albums. The Mandolin Casefiles is the twelfth to feature his mandolin playing.

Miller McNay’s mandolin story began in his native Charlotte, North Carolina. Winner of the Grand Targhee Bluegrass Festival’s mandolin contest, he has played with Free Roaming Buffalo Herd,and Barnyard Stompand as a founding member of Captain Gravel.

McNay’s impeccable tone and rhythmic drive have led to his sharing the stage with Joe Craven, G-Love & Special Sauce, and Ben Winship as well as opening for Tim O’ Brien, Danny Barnes, and The Wilders.

Prairie Wolfe

Seattle-based Celtic fiddler Prairie Wolfe never intended to play the fiddle at all. “I wanted to play the celtic harp as a kid,” she reports. It was French-Canadian/Metis fiddler Anne Lederman who influenced her to try her hand at the fiddle. “I’ve definitely always been attracted to the raw, unrefined sound of the fiddle.” It is this raw energy and the old-world accents that stand Prairie apart from other fiddlers and distinguishes her dynamic, rhythmic playing.

In 2005, Prairie’s talents whisked her from her westcoast home to Europe on a tour with Irish trio Damanta. The band played Ireland, Holland, Germany and Austria, bringing to audiences what Prairie describes as their unique “Christina Ricci meets Ashley MacIsaac” sound. Following the tour, she landed in Boston and decided to stay a while.  During her stay, Prairie was quickly initiated into the New England contradance scene, playing dances at the Guiding Star Grange in Greenfield, MA and getting involved with teaching, busking, and frequenting the odd session or two at the Burren.

The Burren is a long way from the church basement meetings of the Vancouver Scottish Fiddle Club, where Prairie got her start and where she met her initial mentor and teacher, Juno-Award winning fiddler Shona Le Mottee, of “Paperboys” and “Lord of the Dance” fame. Before long, she was performing in Vancouver’s CelticFest, doing demonstrations at schools, and hosting “Fiddlers For Funds: Tsunami Relief Benefit Concert.” “I have been amazingly lucky to play with all of Vancouver’s very best fiddlers and musicians, and to know them personally too. It’s been a charmed life.”

Sorry, this show is completely sold out!  No tickets will be released at the door.

Please join us for this special double bill of groundbreaking instrumental music!  Mandolin duo Michael Connolly & Miller McNay will release their brand-new studio album The Mandolin Casefiles, and upright/mandolin duo bass+mandolin will share their original works with a Seattle audience for the first time.

Michael Connolly & Miller McNay: The Northwest’s premier mandolin duo

Playing their mandolins together for more than five years, Michael Connolly and Miller McNay have traveled along and across genre boundaries, from bluegrass to old-time to swing. In their inaugural album celebrating the unusual pairing of two mandolins, Connolly and McNay share the sound they’ve developed as a duo: transparent and open, but warm, varied, and eminently listenable.

In The Mandolin Casefiles: It Takes Two To Mando, Connolly and McNay offer up a mix of traditionaltunes, covers, and originals like McNay’s “The Grapes of Rag,” which introduces the disc, and Connolly’s “Mr. Pick’s Blues,” a chromatic, colorful adventure in 12/8. A vintage Gibson mandola makes an appearance on “Over The Waterfall” and on the duo’s cover of Lennon and McCartney’s “In My Life.” Exhibiting an unparalleled responsiveness to each others’ playing, the musicians slip effortlessly between lead, accompaniment, and even percussive roles.

Recorded live in the studio with no overdubs, The Mandolin Casefiles captures the palpable energy and moment-by-moment musical dialogue between two longstanding collaborators at play.

Michael Connolly’s love affair with the mandolin began at age six. During his musically charged upbringing in Memphis, Tennessee, he delved deeply into bluegrass, old-time, Irish traditional, blues, and swing music. The result is a unique “hornlike” approach to the instrument. His deft ear and sensitive accompaniment have won him appearances touring with and performing alongside Michelle Shocked, Coyote Grace, and The Indigo Girls.

An accomplished multi-instrumentalist, Connolly performs regularly on fiddle, piano, and accordion as well as maintaining a busy teaching schedule. He has recorded widely, appearing on nineteen albums. The Mandolin Casefiles is the twelfth to feature his mandolin playing.

Miller McNay’s mandolin story began in his native Charlotte, North Carolina. Winner of the Grand Targhee Bluegrass Festival’s mandolin contest, he has played with Free Roaming Buffalo Herd,and Barnyard Stompand as a founding member of Captain Gravel.

McNay’s impeccable tone and rhythmic drive have led to his sharing the stage with Joe Craven, G-Love & Special Sauce, and Ben Winship as well as opening for Tim O’ Brien, Danny Barnes, and The Wilders.

bass+mandolin: Original music for mandolin & upright bass

As acoustic musicians go these days, Brian Oberlin (mandolin) and Josh Feinberg (upright bass) have a chemistry like no other. They have only been playing together for a single year, yet each concert is full of new ideas as they spring and lope through songs, bouncing off each others nuances with a lively thrill. Their repertoire is mostly original music written particularly for mandolin and bass. The few covers they play are arranged tightly for the duo across the genres, new acoustic, swing, jazz, and classical. The sound of mandolin and bass, being at opposite ends of the musical note spectrum, balance and complement each other while Brian digs from his bluegrass and swing background and Josh feeds from his classical, jazz, and Indian music background.

Brian Oberlin, originally from Rockford, MI., spends much of his time teaching mandolin and his own mandolin camp in Portland, OR. (River of the West Mandolin Camp) He also performs as a solo act around the pacific northwest playing anything from Vivaldi’s mandolin concertos with an orchestra, to performing western swing music at festivals and concerts. He also has started the Oregon Mandolin Orchestra which has 25 members all in the mandolin family playing American and European music. His wide variety of styles on mandolin and crooning voice add a perfect fit to the sound of Bass Mandolin. Brian was a finalist at the 2003 Winfield mandolin championship and a member of the award winning band, Grasshoppah.

Josh Feinberg was introduced to music through piano at age 4. He switched to the upright and electric bass at 8. He was soon playing in state orchestras and prestigious youth symphonies across the North East performing at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, Hofstra University and Queens College’s LeFrak Hall. Many of these were as principal bass for the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra- in which capacity he also appeared on television at a live concert celebrating Martin Luther King Day in Albany. In the 2000 NYSMA competition, he scored the highest marks in the eastern United States for his jazz bass playing. In 2002, he entered the New England Conservatory of Music where he was granted two merit-based scholarships. Josh is a 2006-07 Fulbright Scholar to India where he spent 9 months studying North Indian Classical Music in Kolkata. Josh also studies sitar, and receives training from Maestro Ali Akbar Khan.

Click here to purchase advance tickets.

Please join us as we celebrate the release of Brownesville Highway’s inaugural studio album, recorded here at Empty Sea.

Georgia Browne, previously with the acclaimed a cappella trio, Bella, and Americana group Chele’s Kitchen, has played a variety of festivals and such venues as the Triple Door and the Intiman Theater. While Georgia’s songwriting comes from a deeply personal space, her lyrics are easily accessible and universally understood. With her soulful, heartfelt delivery, Georgia’s songs are evocative and unforgettable.

Rob Gilbert, a cartoonist and animator by trade, has followed a long-time interest in music that began in bars and dives in New York City playing in rock/blues/funk bands. Over a decade ago, he eschewed electric instruments and has developed a passion for acoustic music. Influenced by a variety of styles including old-time county, classical, jazz, and Appalachian mountain music, he pulls from his Southern American and Eastern European ancestral roots to write diverse songs which are at once fresh and timeless.

“It’s been quite a wonderful and amazing experience to see our two styles blending and creating something new, musically.” Georgia explains, “We’ve been playing together for about a year now, and the songs we write together are reflective of our individuality, but take on a crazy life of their own.” The pair switch instruments continuously, keeping things interesting using various pairings of voice, guitar, banjos, mandolin, mandola, mountain dulcimers, and upright bass. “We’re constantly learning and reinventing ourselves, and try not to take things too seriously,” says Gilbert.

]]> http://www.emptysea.com/2010/10/brownesville-highway-cd-release-party/feed/ 0 http://www.emptysea.com/2010/05/ryan-mckasson-ashley-broder-dave-bartley/ http://www.emptysea.com/2010/05/ryan-mckasson-ashley-broder-dave-bartley/#comments Sat, 22 May 2010 04:00:34 +0000 Michael http://www.emptysea.com/?p=1255 Tickets: $13 advance, $15 at the door.

Click here to purchase advance tickets.

Ryan McKasson, Ashley Broder & Dave Bartley are all quite well-known in their respective fields, but never before performed as an ensemble.  This unprecedented collaboration on the Empty Sea stage will provide a night of music-making never before heard!

Ryan McKasson started his classical violin studies at the age of four and began his viola studies when he was fourteen. At the same time, he switched from classical violin to begin his traditional fiddle journey with the renowned fiddler and teacher, Carol Ann Wheeler. Under her instruction he explored a wide range of American and Celtic styles, but found a new passion in the music of his heritage, Scotland. In 1993 Ryan attended the Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddling School for the first time. There he heard the fiddling of Alasdair Fraser and Buddy MacMaster, who have since been his greatest influences. In 1995, Ryan was winner of the National Junior Championship, and went on a year later to be the youngest winner of the National Scottish Fiddle Open Championship in Loon Mountain, New Hampshire. As a fiddler, Ryan has performed with artist Bobby McFerrin. He has also shared the stage with pop artists Elvis Costello, Beck, Bjork, Galvin Friday and composer Phillip Glass. In 2001 Ryan collaborated with fiddler Richard Greene and the Greene String Quartet in Los Angeles for the Harry Smith Project. 

An accomplished classical musician, Ryan attended the University of Southern California in Viola Performance as a student of Donald McInnes. He has been awarded fellowships to many prestigious music festivals, including the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara and the Bowdoin Music Festival in Maine.

Ashley Broder began her classical violin studies at the age of eight in Ventura County, California. Her violin teacher, Charl Ann Gastineau, also encouraged her to simultaneously learn mandolin where she became familiar with fiddle styles associated to the instrument. Ashley traveled the west coast competing in fiddle contests, winning several. In 2005, after studying classical violin and cello in college, she met fiddler Jamie Laval and the duo set off on a four year musical touring adventure that took them across the U.S. numerous times and to the U.K. Ashley has worked with renowned mandolinist Mike Marshall at the Mandolin Symposium in Santa Cruz, CA as well as helped organize his series The Mandolin Method Books. Now pursuing another passion, composition, Ashley is currently working on arranging singer-songwriter, Billy Jonas’, songs for orchestra.

Dave Bartley plays mandolin, guitar, cittern, and numerous other plucked string instruments in numerous bands. He has also written over 250 tunes, some of which are working their way into repertoires around the country. He can provide a quiet foundation, inject a fiery driving rhythm, or pull wicked licks out of thin air. His odyssey from flashy rock guitarist to classical musician to eclectic sideman to tunesmith filters through his fingers.

Dave has played mandolin onstage in the Seattle Opera in the 1999 and 2007 stagings of Don Giovanni and played steel-string acoustic guitar with the Seattle Symphony in 2004 for performances of Naive and Sentimental Music by composer John Adams, as well as mandolin for Mahler’s 7th and 8th symphonys with the same orchestra.

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John Reischman

Mandolinist John Reischman and guitarist John Miller combine in an instrumental duo that specializes in Latin Jazz, with forays into boppish original numbers and Celtic-influenced originals, all played with gorgeous tone and intense listening. The duo has performed internationally, in England, Japan, and Canada, as well as the United States. Their two CDs have received international acclaim.

John Reischman and John Miller’s debut CD, The Singing Moon (Corvus Records CR004) offers a beautiful musical journey, from Reischman’s Choro For Shadow, through Jacob do Bandolim’s Noites Carioca, and Miller’s haunting title cut to it’s soulful conclusion, Damien Miley.

John Miller

The Singing Moon is an increasingly rare instance of melody holding its own with harmony and rhythm. -Scott Nygaard

John Reischman and John Miller’s The Bumpy Road (Corvus Records CR009) continues in the vein established by The Singing Moon, with hits like Kenny’s Gone, Danza, The Three Lions and Snake Eyes, but with some notable differences. John Miller steps forward more often into a soloing role, and singer Koralee Tonack joins the duo for the eerie The Path Downhill. John Reischman expresses himself with the sumptuous tone and grace we’ve come to expect from his playing.

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Emerging from a long tradition of gypsy circus troubadours come the solar- powered travelers: carriers of a new musical light; Taarka. This merry band is the culmination of the new millennial, sonic adventures of David Tiller (mandolin, tenor guitar, vocals), Enion Pelta-Tiller (five string violin, vocals), Daniel Plane (cello, vocals), and Troy Robey (bass, vocals) – a virtuosic cadre of performers who have roamed the freeways and backroads of the new and old acoustic caravan trail in search of a revolutionary ancient sound for modern times. While the four musicians have individually been spreading song and tune over the aural superhighway since the last century, their collaborative intersection marks a new era of Taarkan tunesmithing. Taarka has realesed their 4th CD, Seed Gathering for a Winter Garden, in March 2009; a collection of beautifully written and arranged songs and original instrumentals swimming the gamut of indie-gypsy chamber folk.

What is Taarka? While meaning many things in many tongues to many peoples, the musical Taarka of your concern hails from Lyons, CO and performs a patented and irreplaceable blended evolution of Western and Eastern folk traditions of jazz, rock, bluegrass, old-time, gypsy, Indian, and Celtic music interpreted through the highly capable ears and hands of four of today’s top classically trained, eclectic-acoustic music pioneers.

Collectively and individually, members of Taarka have shared stages with members of the Grateful Dead, Phish, and String Cheese Incident, Yonder Mountain String Band, Darol Anger, Joe Craven, ALO, Keller Williams, Mike Marshall, Danny Barnes, Leftover Salmon, Steve Kimock, Garaj Mahal, Widespread Panic, The Samples, Colonel Bruce Hampton and Aquarium Rescue Unit, Kevin Mohagoney, Kaki King, Drew Emmit Band, Rob Wasserman, Tony Furtado, The Slip, The Motet, Dan Bern, The Everyone Orchestra, and have been Mark O’Connor fiddle camp performers and instructors.

Taarka has performed at such music festivals as High Sierra, Joshua Tree, Northwest String Summit, Oregon Country Fair, Whole Earth, Telluride Bluegrass, Bumbershoot, Seattle Folklife, Earthdance, Full Moon Dream Dance (String Cheese Incident), Horning’s Hideout with Leftover Salmon, Faeirieworlds, Willamette Valley Folk, Seattle Hemp Fest, Seattle Rhythm Fest, Bite of Portland, Nedfest, Lightening in a Bottle, Berkeley World Music, Stone Soup World Music, Bend Summer Music, Boise Alive After 5, Frogville Records Frogfest, Yellowstone Music Festival, Garden Valley Bluegrass, Remembering Jerry, Eagle Island Experience, Solano County Fair, Dancin’ in the Dunes, Groovefest, Crested Butte Festival for the Arts, Aspen Bluegrass Sundays, Rogue Valley Earthday Celebration, San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, and The Millpond Folk Festival.

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Based out of Vancouver, BC, Viper Central is a six-piece acoustic string-band that takes that “high lonesome sound” to new places. All six band members contribute original songs, but won’t hesitate to deliver up their take on an ages-old mournful waltz or bring the house down with a barn-burning bluegrass standard. The band first came together through a love for the old timey sounds of such artists as Ralph Stanley, Bill Monroe, Hazel Dickens, and the New Lost City Ramblers along with the more contemporary styles of acoustic innovators David Grisman, Béla Fleck, and David Lindley. Everyone brings a colourful resume and a unique sense of creativity to this collaboration. While the members of the band play significant roles in many other roots music projects (The Mountain Bluebirds, The Fugitives, The Blue Island Trio, Whiskey Jar, Headwater, Redgrass, Badgentina), the chemistry of the six members gives Viper Central a one-of-a-kind sound that will stick with you long after the show is over.

In the summer of 2008, Viper Central released their debut album, The Devil Sure is Hard to Please.  Blending instrumental prowess with innovative arrangements and creative vocal harmonies, the album showcases the diverse songwriting talents of every member in the band and is quickly earning them a place among the bands to watch for in Canada’s thriving roots music scene.  The band was also featured on the Whiskey Hollow Bound compilation album, which showcases six Vancouver bluegrass and old time bands and has been receiving rave reviews across the country since its release in 2007.

Charlie Beck, hailing from Indianapolis, Indiana, is a highly accomplished musician. His mastery of guitar and banjo come from years of consistent study. He is well versed in jazz and swing, is an avid enthusiast of old American blues and string band music. His repertoire includes a bushel of traditional folk tunes along with many jazz numbers. A talented songwriter, Charlie’s original compositions combine modern approaches with traditional styles, giving his songs a unique sound. Charlie is an outstanding vocalist, and also plays brilliantly on fiddle.

Charmaine “Lady Li-Lei” Slaven, from Stevensville, Montana, is a gifted dancer, and her skill at traditional percussive buckdancing is phenomenal. She is also an adept rhythm guitarist, ukulele player, and vocalist. Her clear, strong singing style is reminiscent of the Carter family. She brings a fine repertoire of traditional ballads to the duet, along with several of her original works.

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Amongst red rocks, dry soil, and clear sky, Cahalen Morrison was reared on Hot Rize, Doc Watson, Norman Blake and Rory Block while running around in a diaper, trying (at times unsuccessfully) not to fall into patches of prickly pear.  Now, he’s got the ears for roots music. Hopping effortlessly from fingerpicking to mandolin, clawhammer banjo to lap slide guitar, Cahalen’s writing encompasses everything from punchy political commentaries, to soul warming serenades, branching out into instrumental rags and fiddle tunes, yet still retaining his subtle musical signature.

Though only 24, he is quite well traveled, having toured nonstop for 2 years.  In June of 2008, Cahalen debuted his first full length record.  Subcontinent has been applauded by his peers, and by spun regularly by DJs and fans across the country. After its release, Cahalen hit the road hard, not spending more than two weeks anywhere for a solid 13 months before taking a break. From Santa Fe to Seattle, New Orleans to Minneapolis, Nashville to Boston, he has played most every nook and cranny of this fine country.

In November of 2009, Cahalen released his second record, a live album entitled Old-Timey & New-Fangled featuring his father Dave Morrison on guitar and fiddle, Santa Fe fiddler Andy Cameron, and Jenny Fisher on harmony vocals. OT&NF was recorded live on August 14th, at the historic Western Jubilee Warehouse Theater in downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado by Butch Hause (engineer for Norman Blake, Don Edwards, and Waddie Mitchell.)

Joining Cahalen will be Eli West, former singer and guitarist of the bluegrass band Loose Digits, playing musical chairs on clawhammer banjo, flatpicking guitar, and octave mandolin.

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In 2009, producer and musician Scott Schaffer brought together seven mandolin players from across the United States to create a record of creative mandolin music.  The resulting project, called Mandomorphosis, is a genre-spanning tour through jazz, bluegrass, folk, and free-spirited improvisation.  Please join us for the project’s West Coast CD release of its debut album, 2010.

In attendance will be the Western component of the Mandomorphosis project: Orville Johnson, Matt Sircely, Michael Connolly and Scott Schaffer.  Expect a high-energy evening of improvised instrumental music focused on mandolin, but also featuring dobro, fiddle, tenor guitar, and more!

“Intricate… energetic… intriguing… brilliant… I highly recommend 2010 for its varied musical styles and approaches, creativity and overall sound.  4 Stars (out of 5)”

-Wildy Haskell, Wildy’s World (Nov 16, 2009)

“These cats rock right in the pocket. Progressive bluegrass ala the Bela Fleck ilk with energy and good vibes for all that just keep coming… This is certainly a winner for adult ears on the prowl for something new and different… Hot stuff that just doesn’t wear out its welcome.”

-Chris Spector, Midwest Record (Nov 13, 2009)

The Players

Orville Johnson was born in 1953 in Edwardsville, Illinois and came up on the St. Louis, Missouri music scene, where he was exposed to and participated in a variety of blues, bluegrass and American roots music. He began singing in his Pentecostal church as a young boy, in rock bands in middle school, then took up the guitar at 17,with early influences from Doc Watson, Rev. Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt, and Chuck Berry. In the early 1970′s, Orville spent several seasons playing bluegrass on the SS Julia Belle Swain, a period-piece Mississippi river steamboat plying the inland waterways, with his group the Steamboat Ramblers.

Johnson, known for his dobro and slide guitar stylings and vocal acrobatics, has played on over 100 albums. He has appeared on Garrison Keilor’s Prairie Home Companion, Jay Leno’s Tonight Show and was featured in the 1997 film Georgia with Mare Winningham. His musical expertise can also be heard on the Microsoft CD-ROMs Musical Instruments of the World and the Complete Encyclopedia of Baseball. He teaches as well at the International Guitar Seminar, Pt. Townsend Country Blues Week and Puget Sound Guitar Workshop.

Johnson released 4 recordings in the 1990′s: The World According to Orville (1990) Blueprint for the Blues (1998) Slide & Joy (1999) an all-instrumental dobro tour de force and Kings of Mongrel Folk (1997) with Mark Graham. He also appeared on 4 discs with the File’ Gumbo Zydeco Band and produced Whose World Is This (1997) for Jim Page and Inner Life (1999) for Mark Graham. In the 21st century, he has released Freehand, a new Kings of Mongrel Folk disc, Still Goin’ Strong, and been featured in the soundtracks of PBS’ Frontier House and the Peter Fonda flick The Wooly Boys as well as the compilation CD Legends of the Incredible Lap Steel Guitar.

Matt Sircely is a creative mandolinist, songwriter and independent journalist living in Port Townsend, Washington. Sircely improvises fluently, composes prolifically and is familiar with a diversity of musical traditions.

At the age of 32, versatility with the mandolin has earned Matt Sircely gigs and guest appearances with some of the finest acoustic musicians on the continent. In late 2008, Sircely performed in the debut of bass legend Buell Neidlinger’s Prairie Ramblers in Washington State, and recorded electric mandolin with Kelley Breidling’s classic country group Kelley and the Cowboys in a session produced by Joel Savoy in Louisiana, featuring an all-star lineup from around the country.

In 2000, he joined Hot Club Sandwich, a young band of creative individuals who shared a love of Django Reinhardt’s music and the Gypsy jazz it spawned. Operating as a collective, Hot Club Sandwich also incorporates other influences that members bring into the mix, including Latin American folkloric traditions. Within two years, the group was performing at some of the early Gypsy jazz festivals to appear on the West Coast.

In 2005, David Grisman asked him to compile the liner notes for his Tone Poets project, a historic assembly of 42 musicians, each playing Grisman’s mandolin or guitar. In the same year, Sircely began contributing to the Fretboard Journal and Strings, finding deep inspiration in researching the lives and work of some his musical heroes like Wade Mainer, Andy Statman and Juan Reynoso.

In 2008, Sircely contributed an original composition to Galen Garwood’s short film Ed & Ed, which first appeared at the Port Townsend Film Festival. Two of his compositions, written to accompany the poetry of the beloved James Broughton, were included in ‘Letters from James,’ a film by Garwood and Rowan James which was the first film to appear at the first PTFF. Entering into 2009, Sircely is continuing to hone his solo material in anticipation of his first solo release.

Scott Schaffer’s 30-year career in music defines eclecticism.  He has played bass, guitar, mandolin and a variety of other instruments in bands and genres ranging from jazz, to punk rock, to traditional folk, to experimental music.  He has produced a dozen CDs and two movie soundtracks, and specializes in bringing together musicians of different backgrounds to a common purpose.  In this vein, his most recent project is MandoMorphosis, a creative collaboration of seven mandolinists.

Through the 1990s, Scott co-led quirky and undefinable Pennsylvania-based string band Bala Hounds.  He later produced three critically acclaimed records as a member of improvisational group Edge City Collective.  More recently, he recorded a soundtrack of original music for the feature film Port of Angels, which premiered at the 2009 Idaho Film Festival.