Nutshell at the Yellow Barn

Nutshell will be playing at the Yellow Barn in Ann Arbor on Saturday, February 28th, with special guest Harmony Bones.

If you follow the link, you might notice a strong resemblance between some of the members of these two bands. Indeed, there is some cross-pollination going on!

Harmony Bones is a relatively new collaboration project between Laz Slomovits (of Gemini fame), Jeanne Mackey (Drop the Knife) and Nutshell’s Linda Teaman & Tom Voiles. For this show, they (we) will be adding Eric Fithian on bass and John Lloyd on drums to round out the band.

Nutshell will be playing a lot of tunes & songs from the newly released CD Mixed, as well as a few new ones. One of our favorite new ones is a mashup of the traditional song Hard Times (via Keith Murphy) and Delta Rae’s Dance in the Graveyards.

They say comparisons are odious, but here I go anyway. One thing these two bands share in common (besides some personnel) is a sense of mutual support and respect that, for me, is critical to a good working band situation. I’ve played in bands before where there was a good musical something but not a great personal connection with the people, and it’s just not worth it.

Musically, they’re pretty different. We do plenty of exploring in Nutshell, but we’re firmly rooted in traditional music of Ireland and, to a lesser degree, Scotland. With Harmony Bones, the base is more spread out and the styles more varied, from rock & roll to jazz to four part harmony and gospel-flavored originals and covers to folk sing-alongs and beyond. I even get to play some acid-sitar on Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower. What fun!

So come on out and make some odious comparisons yourself! Hope to see you on Saturday.

- Tom