I’m happy to share a bill with Matt Bryant for a First Friday Tuscaloosa event at Marcus & Beatty. Matt and I will alternate solo sets during the night–Matt on ukulele and me on fretless banjo. We’ll both bring the electronics.
Friday, March 6, 2026 Matt Bryant / Holland Hopson Marcus & Beatty 2124 9th St. Tuscaloosa AL 35401
I’m a regular at Marcus & Beatty for haircuts, gifts and clothing. It’s so good to have them supporting music in the neighborhood! You’ll know you’re in the right place when you see the mural on the east side of their building.
Onoma River cover art, exceprt from John Klosterman’s print
Fiddler Esther Morgan-Ellis and I are celebrating the release of our new recording, Onoma River, with an online listening party on Thursday. Onoma River is a collection of new old-time tunes for fiddle and banjo that brings new blood to old-time music. Esther and I embrace the spirit of ‘crooked’ tunes with a set of newly composed music that builds on southern Appalachian traditions.
I’ve been writing a banjo tune every week since 2011. A few of these tunes have wound up in other projects, but most have never been released. Working with Esther was a great opportunity to get more of this music out into the world.
To accompany the album we commissioned John Klosterman to create a beautiful, limited-edition, 12.5” x 18.5” art print. The hand-printed piece incorporates gold ink on Arnhem cotton rag paper and chine collé woodblock images on Japanese rice paper. We chose a section of the print to serve as the album artwork. More information about John’s work can be found at www.johnklosterman.com
The Birmingham Art Music Alliance (BAMA) is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. One part of the celebration is a series of virtual concerts. The first one dropped on Friday, October 10 and features music by Cynthia Miller, Shane Lamb and me.
Future virtual concerts will premiere every Friday afternoon. Over 100 composers have been active in BAMA during its 30 years of supporting new music in Alabama. So there’s a wide range of interesting pieces to come: chamber music, solo piano, improvisations, electronics, and more. Follow B’ham Art Music Alliance on YouTube to see them all.
I’m premiering a new piece for banjo, voice and electronics tomorrow at the Pensacola ComposerFest XX. The piece is based on the traditional tune “Handsome Molly.” Other composers on the program include Michael Coleman,, Kadisha Onalbayeva, William Price and Robert Voisey.
Sunday, September 28, 2025 2:30pm Pensacola ComposerFest XX Pensacola State College Ashmore Auditorium Pensacola FL
Iron Giant Free Association is celebrating the release of their first record, Terry Riley’s In C with a free, in-store performance at Seasick Records on Thursday. I’m one of the special guests invited to join the group for the performance. Other guests include John Albea, Mika Carpenter, Jim Fahy, Justin Greene, Davis Little, Melissa Noble and more.
Thursday, September 4, 2025 6pm Iron Giant Free Association plus special guests Seasick Records 3131 5th Ave South Birmingham AL Record release party for Terry Riley’s In C
Seasick will host an album listening party for David Byrne’s Who Is The Sky? at 5pm on the same day. Byrne’s tune “The Avant Garde” makes a great intro to the event:
“There’s only one place, that’s the avant garde I wanna go there I wanna go there I’ll take you with me The things that we’ll see Just look around and you will observe It’s a passionate life, it’s ahead of the curve”
