issue 35 working_Layout 1 9/10/2013 2:32 PM Page 9
CIDER MAGAZINE
ISSUE 35
If you weren’t playing music, what would you be doing?
PG 9
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What’s the funniest thing you’ve seen playing live?
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Right before I met the band, I graduated from Paul Smiths College with a Degree in Ecological Forest Management. I would be working in large scale, long term ecological restoration. It helped me understand the properties of starting small, investing time and energy, doing things right and focusing both on small needs day to day and big needs over the course of years. All important things to know too when developing a band.
What is your opinion on the growing fans of the modern bluegrass movement with mainstream bands like Mumford and Son using a lot of bluegrass style in their music?
I think that bands such as Leftover Salmon, The Devil Makes Three, Tramped by Turtles, Yonder Mtn. String Band, Greensky Bluegrass, Railroad Earth, The String Cheese Incident, The Hackensaw Boys and the now younger genera tion as Larry and His Flask, Spirit Family Reunion, Rumpke Mtn. Boys, Cabinet, Bawn and The Mash and other fast growing young "GRASS" bands are forging the way of building actual musical communities. It’s great that someone in POP music is playing a banjo, it’s a real upgrade to the boy band of that of the 90's. But in the North East music scene I don't see much presence of their music, I do see a lot of hard working bands making that happen and doing for more than 3 years. Bands have been doing it for 10 years, 20 years. Those are the bands that should be credited with the acoustic revolution. They are the ones that carried it during the electronic devastation in the 80's and the pop explosion in the 90's and the dance tent explosion of the 00's. Now that we got all that out of the way, the torch is being passed to bands like us to take it to the centerfold of the music community. Not just a majo r label's exploitation of the emergence of acoustic music.
If you could play one venue in the world, what would it be and why?
O man, lots of crazy stuff, we really get people amped up and when that happens late night stuff gets nuts. But maybe a favorite moment was at a ski mtn. a man who had been drinking all day was wasted by 4pm and during a song he was trying to smoke a cig in a huge puddle behind the huge windows overlooking the bottom of the mtn that we were playing in front of. He tipped over backwards crashing into the puddle to a huge cheer from the audience.
Red Rocks would have to be it. Colorado is the central of Bluegrass these days and that’s about as far as you can go.
In a Battle Royale who wins?? The Blind Owl Band, or Hot Day at the Zoo?
Tough question, neither band are bruisers. I think we would take it, we got a little less year on our knees. Joking aside though, props to HDATZ. We have come into a larger community of bluegrass listeners because of HDATZ. HDATZ was one of the first bands I saw at our local venue in Saranac Lake, NY. They made a huge impact on me in their presentation of music. If you want to make a judgment yourself check out either bands next shows..our next show in Southern, VT will be a Halloween Bash at The Stone Church in Brattleboro w/Jatoba, Oct 18th, a BYOB event, Adv. ticket are avail.