Alt-Bluegrass Show Saturday, February 20, 2010 Cafe du Nord 2174 Market Street San Francisco, CA map www.cafedunord.com Show 9:00 pm
“We never wanted any of them ladies to get killed. But they kept on bleeding and Willie kept on stabbing, so, well, I reckon we HAD to write a song about it.” This is how the members of The Pine Box Boys explain their continued harassment of those lonely ladies of the American Murder Ballad. Buried in unmarked graves, their ghosts have been called out to in song for more than two centuries. No face, no form, only lonely names—Polly, Sally, Maggie, Eleanor. With no regard for decency, The Pine Box Boys have raised these poor haints again through new songs of unforgivable deeds, guilt, and loathing. She is repeatedly shot, stabbed, cut, and ground into powder by a nefarious collection of bad men. The Pine Box Boys have been hollering these unsettling and provocative songs at audiences on four European tours and repeated tours all across these here United States. The PIne Box Boys are Lester T. Raww (guitar, vocals) Alex "Possum" Carvidi (banjo, vocals), Col. Timothy Leather (bass). and S. "Your Uncle" Dodds (drums).
The Pine Hill Haints (a name derived from a cemetery on Pine Hill near Cloverdale, Alabama) perform music they consider to be “dead” in the modern world, hence their self-proclaimed “Ghost Music" — which they resurrect from the shadows and infuse with new life. Gospel, rockabilly, rock and roll, celtic, blues, and bluegrass are the genres they draw on in their extensive catalog of original material. But the Haints also serve up some fine covers of road tested gospel, cowboy, and folk tunes. The band has several former members and a cache of musical friends that often show up for performances and join the Haints on stage for some stompin' good fun. The not-so-official Pine Hill Haints lineup is Jamie Barrier on guitar, vocals & fiddle, wife Katie “Kat” Barrier on washboard, mandolin & saw, Matt Bakula on washtub bass & tenor banjo, Ben Rhyne on snare drum, Joey Barrier on banjo, and Posey on accordion.
"Not an old man at all, but rather a young, unsigned, nine-member group working in such homespun instruments as kazoo, train whistle, autoharp, and washboard — alongside more traditional pickin’ ‘n’ grinnin’ with banjos, fiddles, bass and drums. It’s a hoedown and a throwdown and it’ll keep ya from feelin’ lowdown." —TheKnitLA on LastFM.com. Old Man Markley features Ryan (washboard), Johnny (guitar, vocals), Nick (banjo, vocals), Alex (mandolin), Joey (bass, vocals), Blake (drums), Annie ( autoharp, cowbell, train whistle, kazoo, nose flute), Todd (harmonica) and Katie (fiddle).