Somewhere beyond or behind all musical borders lies a creative terrain where bluegrass, jazz, classical, pop, and various world musics mingle, played by musicians who care more for inspiration than they do for genre. If that place has a name, it's surely the Republic of Strings, for no one knows its contours better than veterans Darol Anger, Scott Nygaard, and a wave of young brilliant string players. They have created the visionary musical landscape of Generation Nation, the group's second album for Compass Records.
Drawing from an array of sources that includes Ornette Coleman, Scandinavian string bands, Aretha Franklin and the quartet's own members, the Republic of Strings documents a unique intergenerational exchange. Compelling musical textures, elegant solos and vocals all emanate from a startlingly diverse group of guests. "There's a lot of respect and love going on among the players," says Anger, "and I think it comes out in the music." One listen proves that he's exactly right.
The Republic of Strings's music emerges from the deep empathy that has developed among its members over nearly three years of concert appearances and informal exchanges. "We've got a bit of telepathy going," says cellist Rushad Eggleston, while Anger notes that "we've been out playing everywhere for years now, and like in a jazz group that's been playing together for a long time, you develop an extra-sensory perception of what the other person is going to do. And it's the deep nature of string band music to foster this."
Latest Recording: Generation Nation!
On Compass Records, Darol Anger's Republic Of Strings's 2nd recording. Entitled Generation Nation, this recording followed the first Republic Of Strings recording by one year.
The band has a new lease on life in 2009 with some terrific new and stable personnel. Scott Nygaard remains. the ROS recently did a 3 show + outreach weekend in the Atlanta, Georgia area. One of the shows was a concert for over 1000 string teachers and students at the American String Teachers's annual convention. The band was a huge hit, getting comments like, "You made us remember what it's like to have fun playing music", this is incredible modern Chamber Music,", "best thing since Turtle Island", etc. Members of the group also did clinics and led jams during the 4 days of the convention, and we sold hundreds of CDs of the group there.
This in many ways the best band yet, with really strong interaction and team playing, and Darol gets a little more solo space than before. More mature players: Mike "No Problem" Block on cello, who also plays with Mark O'Connor's chamber group and Yo Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble, a virtuoso soloist and rhythm monster on the level of Rushad...not kidding! Lauren Rioux on 5-string violin and viola, past prez of Maine ASTA, with her own teaching studio, an excellent ensemble player, soulful singer and old-time fiddle stylist, and a great classical player too.
The band was in and out of the studio throughout the first half of 2005, producing cuts which bore the mark of a seasoned band at the top of its game. Phase 2 of the recording brought in guest vocalists on 4 songs: Aoife O'Donovan, (Wayfaring Strangers, Crooked Still) Marsha Genensky (Anonymous 4) Terry Pinkham (grandaughter of Texas Fiddle Great Benny Thomasson) and Chris Webster (seriously underrepresented California singing star). Dynamite performances, big improvements in sonic quality from the first project (thanks to upgrades at Fiddlistics Studio) and incredible ensemble playing made Generation Nation an exciting followup to the first recording, Republic of Strings.
The 2009 touring group features virtuoso acoustic guitarist Scott Nygaard, contemporary cello phenomenon Mike Block, and rising 5-string viola star Lauren Rioux. In the past, the ROS has featured rotating youthful fiddlers such as 15 year-old Jazz & Celtic phenomenon Alex Hargreaves, the phenomenal Brittany Haas, Jazz & Celtic virtuoso Jeremy Kittel, rising star Gabriel Witcher, and Nickel Creek fiddle star Sara Watkins. All these youthful musicians are already veteran performers. They are some of the best of the amazing crop of young fiddle talent coming up all over the country.
See below for band member bios.
News:
Darol's Republic Of Strings appeared in 2005, 2006, and 2007 at music festivals all over the US, such as Rocky Grass, Wintergrass, River City Bluegrass Festival, Grey Fox, the Four Corners festival, Grand Targhee, Smilefest, and others. The R.O.S. played all around the U.S in fall 2004 and 2005, with all the various other musicians mentioned, and in late 2004, some special shows featuring the late great Vassar Clements and virtuoso guitarist Bryan Sutton. The band also performed live on 2 national broadcasts of E-Town and twice on the nationally syndicated radio show Mountain Stage, in 2004-2005. 2005 also saw a second CD release and more major festivals.
The first Republic Of Strings CD caused a real stir.
Darol was interviewed on NPR's Weekend Edition for March 14TH...and Amazon sales of Republic went up to #7 !!! (for a few hours, anyway.) That interview was the most downloaded interview on NPR for over a week.
NPR's The World interview also aired April 20th, and can be heard on their site. You can listen to Darol's Weekend Edition interview, with musical excerpts from the recording, or download an mp3 of the interview here.
Republic Of Strings, the eponymous first recording, features the amazing cellist Rushad Eggleston, guitar legend Scott Nygaard, and fiddle prodigy Brittany Haas with guest vocalists Laurie Lewis and Sara Watkins, with a repertoire drawn from Anger's award-winning original compositions and Nygaard's own intriguing tunes, along with a selection of traditional music from Appalachia, Sweden, Brazil, Africa, Detroit and Los Angeles. The recording showcases the Republic's virtuosity, open-heartedness and irresistible sense of fun.
The recording prompted national AP reviewer Eric Fidler to write:
Afro-Brazilian-Scandinavian bluegrass might be one way to explain the sound of "Republic of Strings." Another would be to just say it's sublime, and makes categories irrelevant.
Darol Anger has been obliterating musical borders for years, but never to better effect than on his latest release. Whether the starting point is Bill Monroe or Stevie Wonder, the Republic Of Strings creates rich, lusciously textured, complex and quite beautiful music.
"Republic of Strings" is one of the most exciting albums in a long time.
About the Republic: Biographies
Download Republic Of Strings promo (490k pdf)
Darol Anger
For twenty-five years, Darol Anger has been reinventing the American string ensemble to incorporate his explorations into American traditional, bluegrass, jazz and world musics. With the Republic Of Strings, his collaboration of acknowledged masters and young prodigies, the limits of the string quartet are once again exploded. As with the seminal Turtle Island String Quartet, where Anger's inventiveness helped to radically alter string quartet repertoire and technique, Darol Anger's Republic Of Strings combines the future of the string quartet and the traditional string band, bringing the two forms together to invent something entirely new.
Darol Anger's musical collaborations have included the Turtle Island String Quartet, the David Grisman Quintet, Psychograss and Newgrange, the Anger-Marshall Duo, The Fiddlers Four and Montreux. His discography features dozens of recordings with these and many other groups. He has performed all over the world for the last 30 years, helping redefine string music. He is an award-winning composer, with composer fellowships from the California Council for the Arts and the MacDowell Colony. He serves as string chair for the American Jazz Educators Association, and is a contributing editor with Strings Magazine.
Scott Nygaard
Scott Nygaard is one of the most inventive and original guitarists in the international acoustic music world. He currently appears all over the country as a featured soloist and co-founder of Darol AngerŐs Republic of Strings, and with the phenomenally successful classical and early music vocal group Anonymous 4. Scott was the guitarist with Tim O'Brien's band, the O'Boys, from 1992 to 1997, a position that followed three years with singer- songwriter Laurie Lewis's band. He has performed and recorded with such acoustic music luminaries Chris Thile, Jerry Douglas, Tony Furtado, Darol Anger, and David Grisman, receiving numerous Grammy nominations for his stellar playing. Nygaard incorporates bluegrass, jazz, cajun, western swing and rock & roll into an original and powerful guitar style. Nygaard has released two solo albums on Rounder Records, the second of which, Dreamer's Waltz, was nominated for an Indie award by the Association for Independent Music. Scott was an editor at Acoustic Guitar magazine for more than eight years. He left the magazine in January of 2006 to write free-lance and play music full-time (and manage his son's nascent bike-racing career). He lives in San Francisco with his wife, photographer Anne Hamersky, and their son Josef.
Mike Block:
Mike Block, cello, plays in many genres and groups, including his own band for which he sings and writes. Mike is the cellist in Mark O'Connor's Appalachia Waltz Trio, and frequently performs with Yo-Yo Ma in The Silk Road Ensemble.
Mike is a member of the Absolute Ensemble, the Sirius String Quartet, the Hanneke Cassel Band, The Knights, and Bassam Saba's New York Arabic Orchestra. He has performed with Edgar Meyer, Mike Marshall, Christian Howes, Marcel Khaliffe, Goran Bregovic, and Kayhan Kalhor.
Mike performs frequently in Germany, where he recorded the World Premiere of Gregor Hubner's Cello Concerto No. 1, showcasing Mike's non-traditional pizzicato and improvisation skill. As a composer, Mike has had his works performed by the Silk Road Ensemble, Sirius String Quartet, the Absolute Ensemble, and many others. A graduate of the Juilliard School and the Cleveland Institute of Music, Mike's former cello teachers include Richard Aaron, Joel Krosnick, Darrett Adkins, and Carter Enyeart. Mike also trained two years with Pamela Devenport to become a Suzuki teacher. In the summers, Mike teaches improvisation and non-classical styles at Mark O'Connor's string camps, the Kansas City Cello Clinic, and the Swannanoa Gathering in North Carolina. www.BlockBlockBlockBlock.com
Lauren Rioux
A rising star in the national fiddle scene, Lauren Rioux performs with Darol AngerŐs Republic of Strings, Scott Nygaard and Crow Molly, and the StringNation Orkestra. A classically trained violinist and violist, Lauren discovered traditional fiddle music in 2001 at the first National American String Teachers' Association Convention. She is an excellent role model and source of useful information for classical players wishing to "cross over' into vernacular styles. Her sweet sensuous sound, vibrant rhythmic sense, and fluency in old-time, Celtic and Scandinavian fiddle styles add depth and emotion to any ensemble. Lauren plays an active role in her native state of MaineŐs music education network and served two terms as the state president for Maine ASTA. She is a highly sought teacher and workshop clinician, leading classes at Mark O'Connor's Fiddle Camps as well as National and State Conferences held by the American String Teacher's Association. Lauren lives in Maine and maintains a very active private studio of rowdy violinists, violists, and fiddlers ranging in ages from five to sixty-five years old.
R.O.S. bassist Bryn Davies has played music all her life. Born in Livermore, California, she started on piano at the age of three, eventually settling on the cello and upright bass. She attended Berklee College of Music on a scholarship majoring in Jazz Performance. She left after three years to tour. While living in Austin, she met Peter Rowan & started playing with Peter in 1998. Tony Rice joined Rowan in '99 to form the Peter Rowan & Tony Rice Quartet, which she played with through 2006, also appearing with the Tony Rice Unit. Old & In The Gray with David Grisman & Vassar Clements, and the Republic Of Strings during that time. Bryn played bass, cello and piano with Patty Griffin on her "Children Running Through" tour. She has played with the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble, Uncle Earl, Yonder Mountain, Guy Clark, Shawn Camp and Jim Lauderdale.
Brittany Haas
Brittany Haas and her equally talented sister Natalie Haas have been making waves all over the string world since 2002. A student of the great Appalachian fiddler Bruce Molsky, Brittany came to study with Darol and soon was a charter member of the nascent Republic Of Strings. She has played all over the world with many musical organizations including Alasdair's Scottish Fiddle Project, Tony Trischka, her sister Natalie, and the Republic. She is an instructor at Mark O'Connor's Fiddle Conferences and is currently studying Music and Biological Sciences at Princeton University.
Tune samples
Media
- Republic Of Strings promo and info (490k pdf)
- Interview with Darol on Triad Arts Up Close, WFDD, June 9, 2005
- Bluegrass Fiddling on Republic of Strings: Review of Republic, NPR Weekend Edition (3/14/2004)
Albums
Booking
- Kathleen Hosfeld.Hosfeld & Associates hosfeld@hosfeldconsulting.com 800-277-8389
