6365 - CHESTER RIVER RUNOFF - Blue Heron Farm (2010)
CHESTER RIVER RUNOFF
''BLUE HERON FARM''
2010
49:33
1 - Where The Speed Limit Changes/3:47
2 - Morning Song/1:57
3 - River Song/3:01
4 - Until Then/4:31
5 - Blind Goose/3:43
6 - Plastic Houses/3:20
7 - Breakthrough/3:29
8 - Roll On/3:03
9 - Islesboro Stomp/3:04
10 - Too Many Sunny Days/3:08
11 - Steamboat/3:20
12 - Coffee/4:19
13 - Catskill Hailstorm/5:10
14 - Old Brown/3:34
Tracks By:
1, 4, 5, 9, 10, 12, 13 Samuel M. Guthridge
2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 11, 14 Benjamin N. Armiger
Ben Armiger - guitar, singer, songwriter
A skilled songwriter known for his sincere lyrics set to catchy melodies, Ben grew up surrounded by all kinds of country music. One uncle gigged with John McEuen pre-Dirt Band, and another uncle and aunt toured the continent with the western swing group Cowboy Jazz. He took up banjo and guitar in his early youth, and started his first bluegrass band while attending Colby College in Maine. While living in Alaska in 2000, he helped to found and played banjo in the Matanuska Thunderpluckers, who for years were a fixture on the Alaska bluegrass scene. Ben co-founded Chester River Runoff with Sam in 2004, and started his songwriting career immediately because it needed to be done. He quickly developed an ability to write memorable hooks and songs that you can sing to yourself on the way home. On stage, Ben plays guitar with a driving and unique rhythm style described by one as "like blasts of air in your face", and does most of the talking on behalf of the band. While his main job and love is music, Ben is a Coast Guard licensed captain with a sail endorsement, and can be found piloting skipjacks up and down the Chesapeake bay on educational trips with kids during the summer (and is for hire...) You can occasionally catch him with Pearl Creek, a country-rock band that also features Kate Bennett of Cowboy Jazz and Runoff alums Tim Parent, Greg Parent, and Ian Trusheim.
Sam Guthridge - banjo, singer, songwriter
According to a notable DC area fiddler, band co-founder, singer, and banjo player Samuel Miles Guthridge “play[s] the banjo the way MC Escher draws pictures”. He has contributed many original songs and instrumentals to the bands repertoire, and as an instrumentalist and singer with an expressive and distinct personal style, Sam has contributed to the development of the Runoff's unique sound as well as their engaging live performances. He has performed styles of music ranging from old-time to funk, but with CRR filters these influences through his lifelong love of traditional bluegrass banjo (though it may not always come out sounding traditional). When not playing with the Runoff, Sam can be found wandering the country and the world playing music everywhere he can. In 2012 he did 2 two-week tours of Ecuador with the Quito-based country band Texas Express, and he has also performed with Caleb Stine, Jordan Tice, Tom Bailey and the Aristocrats, the Hot Seats, Abbie Gardner, Aspen Run, Avi & Celia, Cory Seznec, Belle Star, among others, does recording sessions here and there, and has composed and recorded music for television and podcasts. An old-time instrumental trio album he recorded with Aaron Jonah Lewis (fiddle - Nora Jane Struthers) and Erica Weiss will be released in 2013. Sam endorses and uses bridges from Buckeye Banjos, www.buckeyebanjos.com, and hats from Bigalli, www.bigallihats.com.
Marc Dykeman - bass, singer, songwriter
The musical bedrock, sound engineer, and behind-the-scenes voice of reason in Chester River Runoff, Marc has been playing music professionally since the early 90s, when he played with ska bands Nope and the Pietasters. Since then he has played classical and jazz trombone, has become a great bassist, and is the only band member with a degree in music. Marc played the upright bass with Ben and Sam at the party which inspired the band's formation in 2004, but didn't join up until the fall of 2006 after the departure of the group's original bass player. A man of wide ranging tastes, Marc also plays bass and composes for the Baltimore-based art rock band Pläns Pläns, who released their second studio album in the fall of 2008. When Marc isn't playing music, he is the interviewer and sound editor for an an oral history project on the Eastern Shore, and has edited radio spots for these interviews on several radio stations, including WRNR Annapolis and WKHS Worton. He has taught college seminars on oral history, renovated his own house, and is an excellent mechanic who might fix your diesel Mercedes if you ask nicely and display cash.
Nate Grower - fiddle, mandolin, vocals, composer
The youngest member of the group, fiddler Nate Grower was motivated to take up the fiddle as a teenager after hearing bluegrass music at his home in western New York . He took a few classical violin lessons and made his debut with a symphony orchestra at the age of 17 at a performance of Stravinsky’s “Firebird”. Since moving to Delaware in 2005, he has concentrated his efforts on mastering the art of bluegrass fiddle. His fiery solos transfix audiences, and he is unmatched among fiddlers in his ability to play driving rhythmic backup. He joined Chester River Runoff in the fall of 2006, replacing a departing mandolinist, after he showed up to a concert with fiddle in hand and ended up sitting in for the entire show,. When Nate isn't playing with the Runoff, he is traveling the Nation and the World as the fiddle player in the David Bromberg Quintet, has recorded with the Stonemans, has a solo album out on Patuxent records, and has subbed with high profile bluegrass acts such as Audie Blaylock & Redline and Danny Paisley & the Southern Grass. He was also the 2011 Delaware State Fiddle Champion.
OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY
Chester River Runoff are an original bluegrass band from Maryland's rural Eastern Shore. Their honest, unaffected sound features big harmonies, insightful songwriting, and tight instrumental work, and they preserve in their live shows the warm spirit and humor of friends who first started playing together just to learn their instruments. Since their debut in 2004 the Runoff have played country dives, barn dances, many well known clubs and theaters including the Avalon, Purple Fiddle, Brooklyn's Jalopy, and Ram's Head Live, and have played the main stage at festivals such as Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival, the DC Bluegrass Festival, and Falcon Ridge Folk Fest. They've shared bills with groups ranging from the Seldom Scene to the Fleshtones, Afroman to the Avett Brothers, and even backed up an internationally known opera singer. Through this variety of settings, they have forged connections with diverse audiences without losing touch with their origins in the bluegrass tradition. By looking forward with their own vision and growing with open ears from their roots in bluegrass and country, the Runoff follow in the footsteps of the music's pioneers, who experimented freely and strived to develop their own distinctive styles.