Asking us what we call our music is a little like asking a chef “what kind of food is this?” We imagine that most chefs are highly tempted to respond with something like, “the kind that is delicious.” We understand their quandary.
Categories matter, even if they are at times stifling and fragmenting. The question for us since we began has been, “how do we best invite people into the space our music occupies while retaining some the freshness and distinctiveness of our sound?”
When you don’t have a easily identifiable genre, you might just be up a creek with paddle full of holes.
Thus far we’ve called it roots chamber music. (Though we’ll clue you into a little secret. We’re probably changing our made-up-genre designation.)
Roots Chamber Music, like any descriptor of music, hardly communicates the fullness of the experience of the music itself. But, by looking at the component parts of the term, perhaps something can be gleaned from these limited words after all.
Roots: Strictly speaking, “roots” music is music that has it’s origins in the bygone era of sounds particularity American. In other words, the sounds you hear have their “roots” here. Perhaps the phrase “going back to my roots” is a helpful calibrator. For us, Roots includes bluegrass and jazz. Two forms distinctly American.
Chamber Music: According to Chamber Music America (the national service organization for the chamber music profession), Chamber Music for two or more players performed without a conductor. So, we certainly qualify. But there’s more to be learned from the connotation of the term. Chamber Music is intimate. It is dynamic. It is flexible. It is serious. It is enjoyable.