2012: Year of the Mule?

Building upon some great collaborations last year, I'm rolling out my new music project SUPERMULE. It's not so much a band as it is a cabal, a bunch of players rooted in varying genres who are up for experimenting with traditional (and non-trad) music and creating some new sounds. We had a great pilot show in December of last year, with players from the jazz, rock, and bluegrass scenes in San Francisco. I'll be building on the spirit of collaboration this year, and looking for opportunities to work with all kinds of artists- check out the website for upcoming gigs, player bios, and more. www.supermuleband.com


New Collaborations in 2011
The last few years have been an incredible bluegrass journey- with tons of gigs, festivals, recordings, travel, and good times. In addition to more bluegrass in 2011, I'm excited to be testing the boundaries of the banjo- as well as my own creative and technical dimensions- in some compelling and refreshing combos.

I'm playing with a talented bunch of rockers and jazzers in a new acoustic group, led by fiddler/singer/composer Mary Pitchford. We've just recorded a new demo featuring Mary's original roots-jazz-world infused tunes, and will be promoting this material for booking the Mary Pitchford Band in Summer 2011.
Here's one of the tracks, Mary Pitchford's original tune "Double Hemi"

In addition to Mary on fiddle and me on banjo, this track also features James DePrato on guitar, Mike Emmerson on keys, and Dan Feiszli on bass. Hope you enjoy!


Some instruments simply evoke a certain atmosphere and feeling. I've been brainstorming how to combine archetypal sounds to create innovative music that both channels and transcends those archetypes, and I've found a skilled and intrepid collaborator in SF jazz/funk trumpeter Rich Armstrong. We recorded a few demo tracks in March and the stuff sounds wild and great. Here's Rich's original James Brown-infused tune "Skoo' Pies", available on his new EP Bros. Malarkey.