| Location: |
Helena, MT |
| Website: |
http://www.amstringband.com |
| Email: |
amstringband@gmail.com |
| Genres: |
folk, old time, americana |
| BIOGRAPHY |
| The AM String Band is the product of a month long residency at the Montana Artist Refuge in the shabby little mining town of Basin, Montana. Violist Michael Willing and guitarist/songwriter Adam Nordell were awarded a grant from the Montana Arts Council to study American fiddling traditions, and invited far-scattered friends to join them for a month of music and revelry Basin's old abandoned Masonic hall. Fiddler/banjoist Johanna Davis was decided the residency was worth a cross-country trip in the dead of winter and left her native Maine to join the project. After a month of playing together eight hours a day and hiking western Montana's snowy ridges, she decided to stay west and help form what has become The AM String Band. Davis' clear voice and sultry fiddle playing proved a rich addition to Nordell's songwriting and guitar work and Willing's strong fiddle and viola styles.
While Davis grew up playing her fiddle in the raucous Maine contradance scene, Nordell and Willing followed circuitous paths to wind up whooping and stomping late into the night in the old Basin Masonic Hall turned artist refuge. Willing is a classically trained violist whose musical formality began to soften years ago with his first foray into folk genres by way of Tibetan folk music and high plains Native American drumming. Nordell's flighty musicality led him through years performing in orchestral, jazz, reggae and ska groups before he settled into folk music. A month's full-time focus allowed Nordell, Willing and Davis to leverage their divergent musical histories into a solid, high energy string band, drawing large crowds to concerts, contradances, and bar gigs alike. |
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AVAILABLE ALBUMS:
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Take Root
The AM String Band
2008
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