Nefesh Mountain

Last updated
Nefesh Mountain in Marin County California, 2019 Nefesh Mountain in California.jpg
Nefesh Mountain in Marin County California, 2019
Nefesh Mountain
Origin Montclair, New Jersey
Genres Bluegrass
Years active2014-present
MembersDoni Zasloff
Eric Lindberg
Alan Grubner
Erik Alvar
Website http://www.nefeshmountain.com/

Nefesh Mountain is a New York based progressive bluegrass band that bridges elements of American folk and Appalachian bluegrass with Celtic folk and Jewish melodies. The band first emerged in 2015 with their eponymous debut Nefesh Mountain, followed by their second release Beneath The Open Sky featuring bluegrass veterans Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Tony Trischka and David Grier. Their most recent album Songs For The Sparrows was recorded at Sound Emporium Studios in Nashville, TN and features Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Bryan Sutton, John Doyle, and Mike McGoldrick among others. The band has also showcased for the International Bluegrass Music Association, Americana Music Association, and Folk Alliance International.

Contents

History

Doni Zasloff grew up in Washington, DC and Philadelphia, and earned a degree in musical theater from Brandeis University. She began writing her own songs while teaching at her daughter's synagogue preschool, eventually forming the Mama Doni Band, which won the Simcha Award at the 2008 International Jewish Music Festival. [1]

Eric Lindberg grew up in Brooklyn but often visited his father's family in Georgia, where he developed an appreciation for bluegrass music. He began playing guitar at the age of 10, inspired by blues musicians like Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. He also cites Pat Metheny and Bela Fleck as influences on his work. [2] He has a degree in jazz performance from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. [3]

Nefesh Mountain performing in North Carolina, 2018 Nefesh Mountain.png
Nefesh Mountain performing in North Carolina, 2018

They recorded the album Beneath The Open Sky in Nashville, recording with veteran bluegrass musicians Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Tony Trischka, and David Grier. The song "Narrow Bridge" (based on a saying by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov) was inspired by the political climate after the 2016 presidential election. The music video was filmed in winter on a frozen lake at Woodstock in the Catskills. [2]

Nefesh Mountain performing in New Jersey, 2024 Nefesh Mountain performing in New Jersey.jpg
Nefesh Mountain performing in New Jersey, 2024

Their 2021 album Songs For The Sparrows was recorded at Sound Emporium Studios in Nashville and was inspired by a family roots to Eastern Europe trip that Lindberg and Zasloff took back in 2018. In an interview with Rolling Stone the couple detailed the trip which ignited a sense of pride in their heritage as Jewish Americans, leading to the songs on the album which they dedicate to their ancestors who passed in the Holocaust, as well as other marginalized groups who are discriminated against today. [4]

Members

Discography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Béla Fleck</span> American banjo player

Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. An acclaimed virtuoso, he is an innovative and technically proficient pioneer and ambassador of the banjo, playing music from bluegrass, jazz, classical, rock and various world music genres. He is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. Fleck has won 17 Grammy Awards and been nominated 39 times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam Bush</span> American mandolinist

Charles Samuel Bush is an American mandolinist who is considered an originator of progressive bluegrass music. In 2020, he was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame as a member of New Grass Revival. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame a second time in 2023 as a solo artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. D. Crowe</span> American musician and band leader (1937–2021)

James Dee Crowe was an American banjo player and bluegrass band leader. He first became known during his four-year stint with Jimmy Martin in the 1950s. Crowe led the bluegrass group New South from 1971 until his death in 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Del McCoury</span> American bluegrass musician

Delano Floyd McCoury is an American bluegrass musician. As leader of the Del McCoury Band, he plays guitar and sings lead vocals along with his two sons, Ronnie McCoury and Rob McCoury, who play mandolin and banjo respectively. In June 2010, he received a National Heritage Fellowship lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts and in 2011 he was elected into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ronnie McCoury</span> Musical artist

Ronald Delano McCoury, known as Ronnie McCoury, is an American mandolin player, singer, and songwriter. He is the son of bluegrass musician Del McCoury, and is best known for his work with the Del McCoury Band and the Travelin' McCourys.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sugar Hill Records (bluegrass label)</span> American record label

Sugar Hill Records is an American bluegrass and Americana record label.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerry Douglas</span> American bluegrass musician

Gerald Calvin "Jerry" Douglas is an American Dobro and lap steel guitar player and record producer. He is widely regarded as "perhaps the finest Dobro player in contemporary acoustic music, and certainly the most celebrated and prolific." A fourteen-time Grammy winner, he has been called “dobro’s matchless contemporary master,” by The New York Times, and is among the most innovative recording artists in music, both as a solo artist and member of numerous bands, such as Alison Krauss and Union Station and The Earls of Leicester. He has been a co-director of the Transatlantic Sessions since 1998.

Todd Phillips is an American double bassist. He has appeared on a number of acoustic instrumental and bluegrass recordings made since the mid-1970s. A two-time Grammy Award winner and founding member of the original David Grisman Quintet, Phillips has made a career of performing and recording with acoustic music artists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Grier</span> Musical artist

David Grier is an American acoustic guitarist. A three-time IBMA guitarist of the year, Grier has been lauded as highly influential and a master flatpicker by music publications and several of his colleagues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Hanway</span> American musician

Tom Hanway was born on August 20, 1961, in Cleveland, Ohio, grew up in Larchmont, Westchester County, New York, and attended Hampshire College. He is an American 5-string banjoist, composer, author, and an originator of "Celtic fingerstyle" banjo. In 1998, he and luthier Geoff Stelling co-designed the Stelling Tom Hanway SwallowTail banjo, available in both standard and deluxe models, used in bluegrass, folk, and Celtic music around the world.

<i>The Great Dobro Sessions</i> 1994 studio album by various artists

The Great Dobro Sessions is a 1994 country music and bluegrass album featuring an all-star line-up of 10 American resonator guitar players, produced by dobro players Jerry Douglas and Tut Taylor.

<i>The Walls of Time</i> 1982 studio album by Peter Rowan

The Walls of Time is the fourth solo album by country rock / bluegrass musician Peter Rowan. The album contains a solid set of mostly bluegrass compositions. Guest musicians include Jerry Douglas, Ricky Skaggs, Sam Bush, Tony Trischka, and Peter's brother Lorin Rowan.

Brad Davis is an American country/bluegrass/rock guitar virtuoso and singer-songwriter. Guitar World Magazine named Brad as one of the greatest Texas guitarist of all time in 2022. Initially, a member of country singer Marty Stuart's road band, Davis has also performed with David Lee Roth, Bela Fleck, Roger Miller, David Lee Roth, Earl Scruggs, Sam Bush, Billy Bob Thornton, ZZ TOP and many others, in addition to writing songs for artists like Tim McGraw, Jo-El Sonnier, Tony Trischka, Tommy Shaw, and Thornton.

Richard Greene is an American violinist who has been described as "one of the most innovative and influential fiddle players of all time". Greene is credited with introducing the chop to fiddle playing while working with Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, the invention of which he attributes to pain in his wrist and arm and "laziness". He featured the technique in his performances with Seatrain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russ Barenberg</span> American bluegrass musician

Russ Barenberg is an American bluegrass musician.

The International Bluegrass Music Awards is an award show for bluegrass music presented by the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA). Awards are voted based on professional membership in the IBMA.

David Grier is an American guitarist. In addition to his solo albums and recordings with Psychograss, Richard Greene and The Grass Is Greener, and with Todd Phillips and Matt Flinner, he has been featured as a performer on many albums by other artists.

Matthew Warren Flinner is an American mandolinist, music transcriber, and ensemble leader. Mike Marshall has called him "one of the truly great young mandolinists of our generation."

<i>My Bluegrass Heart</i> 2021 studio album by Béla Fleck

My Bluegrass Heart is a studio album by American banjo player Béla Fleck, the third of a trilogy that includes the 1988 album Drive and the 1999 album The Bluegrass Sessions: Tales from the Acoustic Planet, Vol. 2. My Bluegrass Heart features guest appearances from Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, Bryan Sutton, Billy Strings, Chris Thile, Noam Pikelny, Sierra Hull, Molly Tuttle, Tony Trischka, Michael Cleveland and David Grisman.

References

  1. Klug, Lisa. "The hills are alive with the sound of Jewgrass". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 2019-02-25.
  2. 1 2 "Nefesh Mountain on Combining Bluegrass With Jewish Identity: 'Our Truth Was This'". Billboard. Retrieved 2019-02-25.
  3. "Nefesh Mountain-About". Nefesh Mountain. Retrieved 2019-02-25.
  4. Hudak, Joseph (2021-06-11). "How Nefesh Mountain Are Fighting Anti-Semitism With Traditional Bluegrass". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2022-04-25.