Baby States is a trio I share with my very good friends Jeremy Gustin and Benjamin Lazar Davis. These guys are among the finest musicians I know.
It’s been a while now, since we commenced a collective obsession with old Appalachian fiddle tunes and murder ballads. It was more than a couple years ago that we began the process of re-imagining that material for our very non-traditional ensemble (at its core: drums/electric guitar/baritone saxophone). We recorded an album’s worth of that music maybe two or three years back, with Cedar Apffel.
Sideman obligations (all of us have been so busy, for which we are thankful!) kept delaying the release of that album. But, now, we’re finally letting it go into the world.
The Bluegrass Situation is posting a stream of the album right now!
We celebrate this release with a couple of shows: beginning at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, MA tomorrow night. Then we head to The Hoot, at Ashokan Reservoir in Olivebridge, NY for the weekend. And then we play a hometown show at the Manhattan Inn this Monday night, in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood.
In other, equally exciting news, I will be working with Pokey Lafarge & associates this October to record a new album. The songs, even in nascent (baby?) form, are good!
And, finally, I just spent a wonderful weekend with Mr. Andrew Dimola, of Montague, MA. In between hikes and creek swims, we began the process of editing and mixing and overdubbing-upon an collaborative album-in-the-works that features Trevor Dunn on bass and Jason Nazary on the drum set. It’s some tweaked-out music! Don’t know the music of Andrew Dimola? You should.