By skillfully complementing their deep roots in traditional American music with new ideas, songs, and arrangements, the “all g’Earl” stringband Uncle Earl has emerged as one of the leading lights in the ongoing old-time renaissance. Now entering the band’s tenth year, longtime Uncle Earl members KC Groves and Kristin Andreassen are leading a new formation of the band that has influenced a remarkable new generation of old-time musicians. With the addition of the hard-driving 23-year-old fiddle player Stephanie Coleman and the accomplished multi-instrumentalist Paula Bradley on banjo and clogging (Paula has toured with Bruce Molsky, Tony Trischka, The Rhythm Rats and the honky-tonk band Girl Howdy), the band continues to develop its unique sound – a hybrid of contemporary and modern, with all the members committed to music steeped in tradition and yet unafraid to explore new frontiers. This fall, renowned bassist Bryn Davies (The Tony Rice Unit, Patty Griffin) will again tour with the g’Earls.

Originally founded by vocalist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist KC Groves (mandolin, guitar, bass) in 1999, Uncle Earl’s lineup evolved as the band’s musical boundaries expanded. Kristin Andreassen joined in 2003, contributing her perceptive original songs in addition to vocals, rhythm guitar, fiddle, ukulele, and clog dancing. Two self-released EPs lead to a contract with venerable folk label Rounder Records, for whom they recorded She Waits For Night with producer Dirk Powell and Waterloo, Tennessee, produced by Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones, who called the album “definitely one of the most enjoyable productions that I have ever been involved with.” Their albums, combined with the group’s infectious live shows, garnered rave reviews from such influential media outlets as the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Mojo, No Depression, The New Yorker, and Relix.

Now reconvened after a year-long hiatus, Groves and Andreassen are thrilled by the possibilities of working with Bradley, Coleman and Davies. “Paula has always been one of my favorite musicians,” Groves says, enthusiastically. “She’s talented and knowledgeable about traditional music, and funny as heck. I’ve loved Steph’s fiddling since the first time I heard it years ago, and of course Bryn is as solid a bass player as you can find.”

“The five of us met, played together, and became friends over the years at festivals like Clifftop and Rockygrass,” Andreassen explains. “I’m looking forward to jamming on the good old-time dance tunes that first inspired us to play music.”

“I’m really excited about mixing old and new traditional instruments on new original material as well as new musical perspectives on traditional material,” Bradley adds. “That’s what Uncle Earl has always been about.”

Able to draw from a vast range of experiences, talents, and perspectives, the newest edition of Uncle Earl is versatile and powerful. This fall, the band will join forces with Sierra Hull and the Dixie Bee-Liners on the “American Revival: Celebrating the New Stars of American Roots Music” tour. “This is my first time touring with a band and playing this music with these people is very much what I want to be doing,” says Coleman.

“We are a multi-generational band of women working together,” Andreassen says. “It makes for a real collaboration that reaches back and reaches forward.”

(From top left, clockwise: Stephanie Coleman, Paula Bradley, Kristin Andreassen, K.C. Groves) 

KC GROVES started Uncle Earl in 2000 with musical partner Jo Serrapere right before moving from her home state of Michigan to her current home in Colorado.  She has independently released two albums of original songs featuring Tim O'Brien, Charles Sawtelle, Peter Rowan, Laurie Lewis, Sally Van Meter and other bluegrass icons. While not touring with Uncle Earl, writing and recording her original songs, she proves to be a driving force behind the thriving music scene on the Front Range.  She has produced concerts, started a community radio station, and hosts countless music jams. This past year she's been busy performing in various musical projects including the bands The Blue Maddies, The Moody Sisters, The Dangerfields, The Hartford Review Band featuring Jayme Stone, and as an old-time duo with Riley Baugus.  She has spent the majority of the past decade fixing up her 101-year-old Victorian house on the St. Vrain River in Lyons, Colorado, is an avid hiker and camper, and is learning to fly fish this summer.

KRISTIN ANDREASSEN met and became fast friends with KC on Halliehurst Porch at the Augusta Heritage Workshops some time in the middle of an August night in 1999. She would spend four years touring and teaching traditional dance with Maryland's Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble before she got the call to join Uncle Earl in late 2003. Kristin is an award-winning songwriter with one solo album called Kiss Me Hello, and two albums with the singing/songwriting trio Sometymes Why featuring Ruth Ungar Merenda and Aoife O'Donovan. Last fall she sang her originals as a featured guest on NPR's A Prairie Home Companion. Right now Kristin is excited about a children's album she's producing for Kari Groff, a child psychiatrist who has written a collection of fun and therapeutic songs on mental health issues kids face. She is from Portland, Oregon, and has only recently admitted that she once co-hosted a public access television call-in show called Homework Hotline on which she did the math homework of the masses.

BRYN DAVIES is an accomplished bassist and cellist. She got her start playing with the Peter Rowan & Tony Rice Quartet in 1998, and from there her career blossomed. She has played in such bands as Patty Griffin, Old and in the Gray, Marty Stuart and the Fabulous Superlatives, Darrell Scott, Darol Anger's Republic of Strings, The Tony Rice Unit, Steve Earle and the Bluegrass Dukes, Jim Lauderdale, and many more. Bryn's bass stylings have appeared on records such as the Grammy nominated "Workbench Songs" - Guy Clark, and "High Lonesome Cowboy" - Don Edwards and Peter Rowan. Other album credits include "Quartet" - Peter Rowan and Tony Rice,"You Were There for Me" - Peter Rowan and Tony Rice, "Old and in the Gray" - Old and in the Gray, "Ford Turrell" - Ford Turrell, "Generation Nation" - Republic of Strings, "The Good Life" - Justin Townes Earle, "Midnight at the Movies" - Justin Townes Earle, "Jedd Hughes" - Jedd Hughes, "Megan McCormick" - Megan McCormick. Bryn currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee.

Growing up in the Chicagoland area, STEPHANIE COLEMAN developed a profound fondness for deep dish pizza, the Chicago Bears, and...old-time music. At nine years old, she attempted to scratch out a version of "Johnny Don't Get Drunk" taught to her by her father and began honing her skills at regional festivals and barn dances. In 2007 and 2008, Stephanie performed in Triad Stage's "A Beautiful Star: An Appalachian Nativity", a highly acclaimed musical with original music written by award winning singer/songwriter Laurelyn Dossett. At 23 years old, Stephanie has performed and taught at festivals, workshops, and dances throughout the United States and Ireland and remains a regular finalist in the renowned fiddle contest at The Appalachian String Band Festival in Clifftop, West Virginia. 

 PAULA BRADLEY is excited to join her g'earlfriends Stephie, Kristin, Bryn, and KC in making some great music, old and new!  She's having a busy summer performing, on piano & vocals, with her honkytonk band, Girl Howdy (www.girlhowdyband.com) as well as old time music (banjo,guitar,ukulele, vocals), Run Mountain (www.runmountain.com) and with Moonshine Holler, a duet with her husband, Bill Dillof (www.myspace.com/moonshineholler). Both Girl Howdy and Moonshine Holler have new recording projects in the works - stay tuned!  Paula was also recently a guest artist & choreographer (clogger!) in a UMASS theater presentation of "Sankofa" under the direction of the amazing choreographer Chuck Davis. Paula just returned from the Wheatland Music Festival in Michigan where she played with Big Hoedown (filling in for Beverly Smith with Bruce Molsky & Rafe Stefanini).