CROOKED STILL play music inspired by American folk’n’trad, with traditional instruments such as banjo, fiddle, and double bass, but with the unusual addition of a cello.
It’s something that makes the band - Aoife O’Donovan (vocals ), Brittany Haas (fiddle ), Tristan Clarridge (cello ), Corey DiMario (bass ), and Greg Liszt (banjo ) - hard to pigeon hole too much as they also put Irish, Klezmer and jazz styles into their musical mix.
“It’s hard to pin down our music,” says DiMario. “We play improvised old time music, bluegrass, folk, and our own songs within the broad context of a string band. Like a lot of today’s bands, we have modern and traditional influences that confuse the boundaries. We want to keep blurring those lines to make something all our own.”
The group not only has a musical affinity with Ireland, but also a genealogical one too in the form of singer Aoife O’Donovan.
Aoife has been dubbed the “voice of the new tradition” by Performer magazine and in addition to Crooked Still, she is a member of the super-group The Wayfaring Strangers. She has also performed with The Boys of the Lough, Darol Anger, and with Seamus Egan and Winifred Horan of Irish/American supergroup Solas.
Aoife’s long association with Ireland and its music come from both of her parents, Lindsay and Brian O’Donovan, from Cork. Aoife and her family have spent most summers in Ireland splitting time between her cousins in Kilmailey, Co Clare and Clonakilty, Co Cork, where the family also owns a home.
Crooked Still play the Róisín Dubh on Monday March 15 at 9pm. Tickets are available from the Róisín Dubh and Zhivago.
