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Northern
Lights, the Northeast's superlative veteran string
band, doesn't qualify as typical traditionalist. But over
a three-decade career, the band has created its own tradition
- a constant exploration of new musical territory without
ever losing its acoustic and vocal bearings. From 1990's "Take
You to the Sky," to 2005's "New Moon" (Fifty-Fifty
Music), the band has fused an eclectic mix of traditional
roots music, rock, country, soul and gospel with the high,
lonesome vocal sound and instruments of bluegrass.
The group, now a quintet, has performed at festivals and concert
halls from coast to coast and abroad, including the Newport
Folk Festival, Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, American Folklife
Center, Barns at Wolf Trap, Strawberry Music Festival, Walnut
Valley Festival, Smithsonian Institute, Festival Sur la Route
de Tullins (France), Bumbershoot Festival and the Winnipeg
Folk Festival.
They have recorded 10 albums, including “Three August
Nights”, a live CD with the late legendary Nashville
fiddler Vassar Clements, who often performed with them, and
three of their CDs reached the top ten of Bluegrass Unlimited’s
National Bluegrass Survey.
Northern Lights performs regularly at arts council events,
including series that present a wide range of musical styles,
including jazz and classical, and double bills with renowned
artists such as Jonathan Edwards.
Check out the band history.
Click here to download NL press photo (PDF).
Click here to download NL press sheet (PDF).
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Playing as I do so often with Northern Lights has enabled me to explore new and different facets of my "live" concert experience, like the added power and deeper dimension that extra instrumentation and vocal harmony of their caliber can bring to the utter enjoyment of the kind of stuff we do. I thank them for so graciously learning a bunch of my favorite songs and making it so easy for me to just jump up on stage and know that the people are in for a real collaborative treat. I always look forward so much to when our schedules coincide and we can share our collective love of playing live acoustic music together. They continue to evolve and improve with every concert I see them do over these many years and it's always a pleasant surprise to see what they've come up with since the last time our paths crossed. So, keep it up guys, and thanks again for all the music we've played for each other and for the people. See you next time!
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Jonathan Edwards
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Check out this video of Northern Lights' performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.
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Bill
Henry (guitar, lead/harmony vocals) started playing
guitar at age 14, inspired by the music of Eric Clapton, the
Allman Brothers and Bob Dylan. But it wasn't until high school,
when he was exposed to the genius of Doc Watson and Tony Rice,
that his devotion to the instrument and his musical direction
was fixed. To encourage his interest in music, his father hand-crafted
a guitar that Bill played on stage for many years and still
uses for practice. He currently plays and endorses Walker Guitars (www.walkerguitars.com).
The jazz influences that now mark his playing, composing and
arranging were nurtured by a year at Boston's Berklee College
of Music, plus stints with jazz/swing group Hot Off The Frets
and New York City's Charged Particles. A chance meeting with
Taylor Armerding in 1981 led to the re-formation of Northern
Lights. He has recorded with Marty Cutler, Orrin Star and the
South County Rounders, contributed original songs and instrumentals
to all of the band's studio albums, and recorded a solo album,
RED SKY (OMS Records, 2002). Bill lives in North Stonington,
CT, with his wife and their two boys and is a designer at Electric
Boat in Groton. |
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Ben
Demerath (guitar, mandolin, lead/harmony vocals) grew
up playing and singing classical music in Amherst, MA, but fell
in love with acoustic music in college while studying ethnomusicology.
In 1992, he co-founded Sugarbeat with banjoist Tony Furtado,
mandolinist Matt Flinner and vocalist/bassist Sally Truitt.
The band recorded for Blue Planet Music and toured extensively
throughout the U.S. and Great Britain. Ben has also released
two solo albums-- “Thirty Degrees”, and “Jack
Of Fools” on Compass Records in 2000. He has always had
a strong passion for bluegrass through Sugarbeat and his solo
career. Loose Ties and Sally Van Meter, among others, have covered
his songs, and he has recorded with Erin McKeown, Nerissa and
Katryna Nields, and Mark Erelli. Ben lives in Easthampton, MA
with his wife and three children, where he is a dorm parent,
hockey coach and the director of choral programs at The Williston
Northampton School. |
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John
Daniel (bass, lead/harmony vocals) is a New England
native with a varied musical background. He has toured with
Livingston Taylor and the Mamas and the Papas' John Phillips.
He appeared on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert and an ABC-TV Gabe
Kaplan special with Polydor recording artists Stormin' Norman
and Suzy, playing trumpet as well as bass. John has scored several
industrial films for clients such as AT&T and Cadbury-Schweppes,
and he wrote and produced all the songs for a feature film,
And You Thought Your Parents Were Weird. Most recently,
he has been performing and recording on bass and guitar with
singer-songwriter Brooks Williams. John joined Northern Lights
in June, 2002. He is a systems analyst by day and lives in Northampton,
MA, with his wife and two sons. |
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Mike
Barnett (fiddle, lead/harmony vocals) a 17-year-old
native of Nashville, Tennessee, has played with the Gordon Stone
Band and toured nationally with the legendary Jesse McReynolds
& the Virginia Boys, including appearances on the Grand
Ole Opry. Mike is a real child prodigy, following in the footsteps
of Mark O'Connor--he's even mentioned on Mark's website. He
is the youngest instructor ever to teach at the Fiddle School
at Vanderbilt University (at age 15), and he put out his own
CD, “Lost Indian”, in 2004, followed by performing
on the Gordon Stone album “Rhymes with Orange”,
in 2005. Also in 2005, Mike placed 9th in the Grand Master Fiddler
Championship in Nashville. Crystal Plohman, Mike’s mentor
and Director of Vanderbilt’s Fiddling Program at Blair
School of Music, describes Mike as “one of the hottest,
fastest rising musicians in bluegrass music.” Mike is
currently a resident of Longmeadow, MA. His website is mikebarnettfiddle.com. |
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Joe
Walsh (mandolin, harmony vocals) is the first student
ever admitted to the Berklee College of Music to study mandolin.
Since moving to Boston two years ago, Joe has shared the stage
with Bela Fleck, Earl Scruggs, Emmylou Harris, Ricky Skaggs,
David Grisman, and Gillian Welch, toured New England and the
Midwest with Joy Kills Sorrow (a band he helped found, joykillssorrow.com),
played at the Kennedy Center and the Country Music Hall of Fame,
and performed throughout New England with some of the finest
bands in the area, including the New England Bluegrass Band.
Joe lives in Cambridge, MA.
"Some of the better tone I've ever heard”--Chris
Thile.
"Fabulous mandolinist. The Sam Bush of Boylston Street"--Matt
Glaser, Chair of the String Department at the Berklee College
of Music.
"Joe is on the verge of becoming a major talent on the
mandolin scene"--Peter Ostroushko. |
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