Come join us from 1:40 to 2:15 p.m. Saturday May 24 at the Fisher Green Stage, as we participate again at Northwest Folklife, the great-grandpappy of all Northwest folk events. This year, we’ll debut a few new songs and tunes, and play some of our oldies but goodies.
Definitely check out all the other great acts over the weekend, from Friday through Monday. While our show takes place on Saturday, Sami plays some Cape Breton and old-timey tunes for dancers on Friday (4:30 p.m., International Dance Stage), Riley plays with his dad on Sunday (6 p.m., Trad Stage), and we all join Paul Anastasio & Fire of Tierra Caliente for some heated Mexican string music on Monday (12:30 p.m., Fisher Green Stage).
A new fab 5? Leslie, Clarridge, Chrisman, Kraukaer & Price.
The Onlies want the world to hear five acoustic-string geniuses, and to that end have invited them all to perform a house concert at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 8 in Madrona, at the fabulicious home of Gretl Galgon.
Tashina Clarridge and Simon Chrisman of the Bee Eaters have brought together an all-star band to play and sing two sets of high-octane bluegrass, taking a break from their regular gigs to revel in the sounds and grooves of traditional bluegrass, a music in which all players have deep roots.
The musicians are:
Dominick Leslie on mandolin (Deadly Gentlemen, Missy Raines & The New Hip)
Luke Price on vocals and guitar (Scott Law, Tony Furtado)
Ben Krakauer on banjo (Old School Freight Train, David Grisman)
Tashina Clarridge on fiddle (Bee Eaters, Tony Trischka)
Simon Chrisman on bass (Bee Eaters, Jeremy Kittel).
Though these five have shared the stage and toured together over the years in various combinations, the roots of their connection grow from late-night jams they’ve had at festivals, parties, and music gatherings… and that’s the energy they’ll be bringing to the stage on this one-off run down the West Coast: The playful exuberance and freedom of making music just because it feels good.
The Onlies will play a new tune or three to begin the evening, and then turn the stage over to Tashina, Simon, and friends. Please come, and invite your friends: It’ll be a faboo way to usher in the new year!
Entrance is $15, students $10. Come at 7 for snacks, non-alcoholic beverages, and wine in the loveliest of venues! Show starts at 7:30 p.m. promptly!
Gretl lives at 816 35th Ave. in Seattle. Map is here: bit.ly/Gretls
A huge shout out to KBCS and all the air time they’ve given us over the last year, and woohoo are we on cloud nine having “Setting Out to Sea” named as one of the year’s 10 best CDs.
That designation came from Eric Hardee, host of one of our favorite KBCS shows, “Folksounds,” which airs Tuesday nights with co-host Jeanne Geiger.
You can check out the whole list of each DJ’s top CDs on the KBCS Web site — we highly recommend it.
We are often amused and delighted when we hear DJs and MCs (and new friends!) pronounce our somewhat tricky names. It’s one of the reason why our website banner prominently displays the proper pronunciation of “The Onlies.”
We realize we need to make it easier for everybody. Feel free to print this out and stick in your shoe for the next time you need it:
Road tip: The Onlies’ 2013 West Coast Tour itinerary: Portland, Ore., Arcata, Berkely, and Palo Alto, Calif., and Cottage Grove., Ore.
Well, we’re getting close. Packing, planning, renting a van, all that stuff before a road trip. Our dads Johnny and Tom will be our chauffeurs, roadies, and merch sales staff, but they won’t be our sugar daddies: We’re actually paying for most of the trip–and the destination fiddle camp–through money we’ve made at gigs and other performances. Wahoo — does that make us professional musicians?
Anyway, our itinerary includes five West Coast stops, and if you can’t attend any of them, well, at least make sure your friends do! Portland is our first stop on Tuesday (Aug. 20), for a 7:30 p.m. house concert at our friend Etienne’s. Then on Wednesday (Aug. 21), amid the redwoods of Northern California, we’ll do a second house concert chez another friend, Jennifer MacKey, a fiddler and artist who lives in Rio Dell, Calif., just south of Arcata. That one starts at 8 p.m. On Thursday (Aug. 22), we’ll do a third house concert in as many days, this one at 7:30 p.m. in North Berkeley, with Brad and Lisa Gallien.
Then we spend a week at Alasdair Fraser’s Valley of the Moon Fiddle School, after which we play a contra dance in Palo Alto (8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 31) and, the next day, a pub gig at Cottage Grove’s Axe & Fiddle (7:00 p.m. Sept. 1).
Whew. And we hope to pack in a few college visits too.
Details on the dance locations, prices, and so forth will be found on our calendar page!
Onlies are Folk Alley’s Open Mic Artist of the Month, June 2013!
What a treat and honor — that way cool online-folk-radio site FolkAlley.com named us its Artist of the Month in its Open Mic section for up-and-coming artists. We are honored, and recommend you visit the site. A few of our tunes are available there, and tons more, including interviews and reviews of musicians we love. Check it out!
We were recently asked to pay tribute to Jimi Hendrix (a Garfield High alum!) at Seattle’s Experience Music Project, and decided to play the Star-Spangled Banner. Hendrix, as you know, took that tune and turned it on its head. (Jimi disagreed: “I didn’t think it was unorthodox. I thought it was beautiful” he told Dick Cavett. Did you know he was in the 101st Airborne?)
Well, we tried to do both Jimi and our national anthem justice. We added a little old-time tune to the end, too. Let us know what you think. And please, if you like it, please share it widely!
Well, not the cover of the Rolling Stone, but the cover of Northwest Folklife Web site. That’s us (at least as we write this). Thank you to Folklife’s rock-star photographer Dan Thornton: It’s a fabulous portrait of our affection for each other and for our wonderful audiences–thanks so much for braving the rain last weekend and attending our show. It was one of our favorites ever!!! Oh, and if the link above doesn’t include our photo, here’s the evergreen post containing it.
It’s official – “Setting Out to Sea” is now available online, which means people from beyond Seattle and Portland (well, anybody who didn’t make our CD-release gigs) can listen to and purchase it now. We are so dang proud of the CD, and we’ve every hope you’ll love it as much as we do.
Fiddle virtuoso and genius Darol Anger gave it a listen, and here’s what he said: “There is something really special going on in music on the West Coast. It’s a wonderful and highly evolved fiddle community of young people, growing up fast, playing some of the most beautiful rootsy acoustic music ever heard. The level of ensemble playing and the ‘family’ feeling of the players are unprecedented. From Northern California up through the Pacific Northwest, musical magic is in the air. You can hear it on this recording.” (Wow. Thank you Darol!!!)
For those of you who don’t know, it’s got 14 cuts, three of which are songs we wrote, plus a number of original fiddle tunes, too. True to our diverse styles, the CD crosses genres: Scottish, Irish, American old-time, French Canadian, Cape Breton, and a few that are harder to classify. A cut by Liz Carroll makes an appearance, as does “I’m Not Fed Up With The Pacific Ocean” by Ola Backstrom. Our buddy and frequent co-collaborator RuthMabel Boytz sits in on bass on several tracks, and we were lucky enough to land some beautiful cello support from Mila Phelps-Friedl.
The album is a very DIY effort. We recorded it in Riley’s living room, with the help of Riley’s dad Johnny. Also, with the help our friend Tom Collicott, we created the CD art. Here’s where to get it:
We really hope you enjoy the album. If the urge grabs you, buy copies for friends (we plow all proceeds into fiddle camps), and tell everyone you know, and write your own review on your blog or any of the sites above. And let us know what you think! Thanks for listening!
Definitely check out all the other great acts over the weekend, from Friday through Monday. While our show takes place on Saturday, Sami plays some Cape Breton and old-timey tunes for dancers on Friday (4:30 p.m., International Dance Stage), Riley plays with his dad on Sunday (6 p.m., Trad Stage), and we all join Paul Anastasio & Fire of Tierra Caliente for some heated Mexican string music on Monday (12:30 p.m., Fisher Green Stage).
