Event

Tim Eriksen & The Trio de Pumpkintown

Tim Eriksen & The Trio de Pumpkintown
songs from an imaginary New England village
Love songs of the sea, fiddle tunes, ballads, shape-note and afro/celtic gospel: much of the Trio's music comes from Pumpkintown's diverse early inhabitants; Yankees, Africans, Native Americans, Irish, Scottish and Germans. Also influential are the sounds of the cotton trade, which brought many of the town's youth to Southern India via Zanzibar and back. They write their own music too, and you can hear it all on the new album Josh Billings Voyage.

Tim Eriksen is acclaimed for transforming American tradition with his startling interpretations of old songs from New England and Southern Appalachia. He combines hair-raising vocals with inventive accompaniment on banjo, fiddle, guitar and bajo sexto - a twelve string Mexican acoustic bass - creating a distinctive hardcore Americana sound that ranges from the bare bones of solo unaccompanied singing to the lush, multi-layered arrangements on Josh Billings Voyage. Widely recognized as one of the best ballad singers in the world, Eriksen has performed and recorded with Jack White, Ralph Stanley, Elvis Costello, Omar Sosa, and Kathy Mattea, and his film credits include the Cold Mountain soundtrack. He has appeared at the Academy Awards and Carnegie Hall. The New York Times praised his "stark songs and breakneck picking," and Toronto Star called him "one of the world's finest folk practitioners."

Tim Eriksen is joined by Zoe Darrow on fiddle and Peter Irvine on hand percussion.