Mike Gangloff + Liam Grant

Mike Gangloff is a founder of long-running improv drone unit Pelt and of quarter-century-and-counting old-time stringband Black Twig Pickers. His fiddling in those bands and others, and in recent years' solo recordings and tours in the USA and overseas, blends improvisation, original melodic composition, and a deep grounding in traditional Appalachian fiddle music. His most recently released recordings are the solo "Evening Measures" album and the collaboration with Philadelphia-NYC guitar duo Elkhorn, "Shackamaxon Concert." A collaboration with UK guitarist C Joynes is to be released later this year, as is a new solo album, "April is Passing."

Liam Grant is a New England guitarist with a punk ethos, cut from the American Primitive cloth. The restless guitar explorations, modal epics, and driving uptempo rags recall the likes of Grant's pedagogue, Takoma Records, and the path that was paved by his forebears John Fahey, Robbie Basho, Peter Walker, Max Ochs and later Glenn Jones, Steffen Basho-Junghans, Jack Rose, and others. Bridging that past Grant evokes the pith of the landscape in which he was raised. Personal instrumental memoirs and ruminations on the banks of the Merrimack River. Amoskeag. And the place where the waters flow around it. Salmon tails up the falls and black pearls from the river. The exodus to Stratton-Eustis and the last night on Dead River before the great flood.

"Although only 24 years old, Liam’s become a leading force in a much needed third wave revival of American Primitive music. Despite his age, Liam’s the very definition of 'an old soul' and while he draws on a wide variety of contemporary influences, he also channels a comprehensive history of the blues as well as a deeper energy that informs both his playing and songwriting." -- -Rob Vaughn