Sharon Gilchrist | |
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 Gilchrist in 2005 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | 6 October 1972 |
| Origin | Southlake, Texas United States |
| Genres | Americana Bluegrass Country |
| Instrument(s) | Mandolin, Octave Mandolin, Bass, Vocals |
| Labels | Rounder Records |
Sharon Gilchrist is an American musician, singer, composer, mandolin instructor and the sister of Troy Gilchrist, also a bluegrass musician. [1]
Raised in Southlake, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, Sharon Gilchrist started playing the mandolin at the age of eight. [2] Kevin Kirckpatrick was her first teacher. Her family moved to the country and Sharon and her brother Troy started taking lessons from Brad and Greg Davis in nearby Grapevine. When she was nine years old, she and her older brother played in a band called "Blue Night Express". The personnel changed and Martie Erwin joined to play the fiddle; later, Martie's sister Emily joined the band (when Todd VanTrice left). Over the next five to six years, Blue Night Express played as a full-time band while the Erwin sisters were still attending the private Greenhill School, in nearby Addison. (Sharon attended Carroll Senior High School in Southlake.) The band appeared with such bluegrass performers as Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley, Del McCoury, and New Grass Revival. [3] Sharon was playing a Kentucky F5 copy by this time; by fourteen, she was playing an R.L. Givens F5 copy. The Blue Night Express band lasted for nearly seven years and Sharon played with the band from age nine to sixteen. Eventually, the Erwin sisters teamed up with Robin Lynn Macy and Laura Lynch, two women they had met over the years, forming the first lineup of a new band playing predominantly bluegrass, named the Dixie Chicks. Sharon and Troy played as a duo for a couple of years called "Acoustic Manor".
Upon graduating from high school, Sharon moved to Nashville, Tennessee to study mandolin at Belmont University where she received a BA in Mandolin Performance.
In Nashville, Sharon played for several years with banjo player James McKinney in Danger in the Air. She also performed and arranged music for Rebecca Stout and the Circus Inebrious a nine-piece alternative-rock/funk band. She worked with many singer-songwriters including Jenny Hall, Jennifer Niceley, Mary Beth Cysewski and Audra and Alayna Maxwell. In 2000, she toured with Josh Rouse and recorded on several of his records. There she also worked as a composer and music director for the conceptual art collective "DddD" and developed an interest for composing music for dance and film. [4] The collective installed work in the Parthenon Gallery and Cheekwood Museum.
In 2001, Sharon moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. There she met guitarist Ben Wright and bassist Josh Martin and in April 2002 they formed the bluegrass project "Mary and Mars". They recorded two albums while together, and toured for two years throughout the southwestern and northwestern United States, where Sharon had the opportunity to experiment with playing with a variety of bands in related genres: bluegrass, folk and the roots music termed "Americana". The trio was signed to the booking roster of Madison House in Boulder Colorado. In 2004–2005 she played with an early inception of the Bill Hearne Trio, with Susan Holmes on bass. Gilchrist also moved on, in Colorado, meeting the women who comprise the band, Uncle Earl. When "Mary and Mars" separated in August 2004, Sharon began playing with the band. [5]
Sharon joined up with Uncle Earl, an eclectic group of female musicians incorporating dance into their act, playing bass until 2006. In 2005, she also became a full-time member of the Peter Rowan and Tony Rice Quartet joined by bassist/vocalist Bryn Davies. Gilchrist received a glowing review saying she "continued to shine" in 2007, in "Rowans Quartet", appearing at the Americana festival, Merlefest alongside stars of many genres. [6]
After touring with the Quartet, Sharon's played regularly with Joe West, Susan Holmes and Ben Wright as the "Santa Fe All-Stars". She continued to teach mandolin in the College of Santa Fe (now Santa Fe University of Art and Design) and recently in California. [7] In 2008, Sharon composed music for two film shorts produced by the New Mexico Film Intensive – "Milagros" (sound-track recorded by musician and recording engineer Jono Manson and another entitled, "La Sevillana" composed with Ben Wright and Ezra Bussman. During this time she also began teaching at music camps around the nation (see below). In 2010, Sharon began performing with Darol Anger in several configurations including a special guest performance with The Republic of Strings in 2010, the Cascadia Yulegrass project in 2009 and 2010, with a trio including guitarist, singer-songwriter Scott Law in 2010 and most recently in 2012 with Darol Anger and The Furies. She moved to Oakland, California in 2012 and plays on occasion with Bay Area-based musicians Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands as well as Kathy Kallick and Annie Staninec.
Sharon served as an adjunct professor teaching private mandolin lessons at the College of Santa Fe from 2004 to 2011. She has taught private mandolin lessons since 2001 and has also taught at national music camps and workshops including Bluegrass Week at Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, West Virginia (2008, 2009, 2010); Mandolin Camp North (2010, 2011, 2012), ZoukFest (2006) Steve Kaufman Kamp (2010), Grand Targhee Bluegrass Camp (2012) and leads mandolin workshops corresponding to her touring schedule. She taught private mandolin lessons at the 5th String music store in Berkeley, California until the store closed. She currently teaches several online mandolin courses and workshops on Peghead Nation [8] .
Martha Elenor Maguire is an American musician who is a founding member of the country band the Chicks and the country bluegrass duo Court Yard Hounds. She won awards in national fiddle championships while still a teenager. Maguire is accomplished on several other instruments, including the mandolin, viola, double bass and guitar. She has written and co-written a number of the band's songs, some of which have become chart-topping hits. She also contributes her skills in vocal harmony and backing vocals, as well as orchestrating string arrangements for the band.
Emily Burns Strayer is an American songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist, and a founding member of the country band the Chicks, formerly known as the Dixie Chicks. Strayer plays banjo, dobro, guitar, lap steel, bass, mandolin, accordion, fiddle, piano, and sitar. Initially in her career with the Chicks, she limited her singing to harmony with backing vocals, but within her role in the Court Yard Hounds, she took on the role of lead vocalist.
David Jay Grisman is an American mandolinist. His music combines bluegrass, folk, and jazz in a genre he calls "Dawg music". He founded the record label Acoustic Disc, which issues his recordings and those of other acoustic musicians. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2023.
David Anthony Rice was an American bluegrass guitarist. He was an influential acoustic guitar player in bluegrass, progressive bluegrass, newgrass and acoustic jazz. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2013.
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.
The mandocello is a plucked string instrument of the mandolin family. It is larger than the mandolin, and is the baritone instrument of the mandolin family. Its eight strings are in four paired courses, with the strings in each course tuned in unison. Overall tuning of the courses is in fifths like a mandolin, but beginning on bass C (C2). It can be described as being to the mandolin what the cello is to the violin.
Peter Hamilton Rowan is an American bluegrass musician and composer. He plays guitar and mandolin, yodels and sings. He is a seven-time Grammy Award nominee.
Alison Brown is an American banjo player, guitarist, composer, and producer. She has won and has been nominated for several Grammy awards and is often compared to another banjo prodigy, Béla Fleck, for her unique style of playing. In her music, she blends bluegrass, jazz, Latin and Celtic influences.
Mike Marshall is a mandolinist who has collaborated with David Grisman and Darol Anger.
Darol Robert Anger is an American violinist and founding member of The David Grisman Quintet.
Tim Ware is an American composer and musician, born in Sacramento, California. He is also the owner of HyperArts, a Web design and development company located in the San Francisco Bay Area, in Oakland, California.
Telluride Bluegrass Festival is an annual music festival in Telluride, Colorado hosted by Planet Bluegrass. Although traditionally the festival focuses on bluegrass music, it often features music from a variety of related genres.
Uncle Earl is an American old-time music group, formed in 2000 by KC Groves and Jo Serrapere. Currently the lineup consists of four women, all of whom share vocal duties: KC Groves, Kristin Andreassen, Abigail Washburn, and Rayna Gellert. They have released three albums and two EPs, and their fifth album Waterloo, Tennessee was produced by John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin.
Montreux was an American fusion band, specializing in the blend of jazz and bluegrass, with jam elements. The band was active from approximately 1982 until 1990, and recorded on Windham Hill Records. The name of the band came from the jazz festival in Switzerland of the same name, at which an early version of the band was formed under a different name.
Bryn Davies is an American bassist, cellist, and occasional pianist. She grew up in Livermore, California. In 1997 she majored in Jazz Performance at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. There she met mandolin player Billy Bright and guitarist Brian Smith, with whom she formed the Two High String Band. In 1997, Bryn began working with Peter Rowan as the Texas Trio, which toured the US and eventually would become the Peter Rowan & Tony Rice Quartet.
Brittany Caroline Haas is an American fiddle player, who also sings and plays the banjo. She is a member of the Boston-based alternative bluegrass band Crooked Still, which is currently on hiatus. She was a regular performer on Live From Here. She tours with the Haas Marshall Walsh trio, and participates in many international fiddlecamps, including the Ossipee Valley Music Festival. As of 2018, she is a member of Hawktail, which includes Paul Kowert and Jordan Tice. The group was formerly known as Haas Kowert Tice. In June 2023 she was announced as the new fiddle player for Americana band Punch Brothers, replacing founding member Gabe Witcher. Her sister Natalie Haas plays cello with a similarly diverse group of musicians.
Quartet is a second collaboration album of guitarists Peter Rowan and Tony Rice. On this record, the duo becomes a quartet with the addition of mandolinist Sharon Gilchrist and bassist Bryn Davies, both of whom sing as well. The band continues to deliver intimate, bluegrass-folk style music on a very high level.
Scott Law is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist known for his work with guitar and mandolin. Based in Portland, Oregon, he has been a professional musician since 1992, performing within genres such as rock, blues, bluegrass, and Americana with groups such as The String Cheese Incident. In 1999 Law founded Scott Law Music. After performing with numerous bands, Law released his first solo album as a singer-songwriter, Deliver with the Scott Law Band, in 2005. This was followed by several other albums, including the acoustic album Black Mountain in 2013.
Kathy Kallick is an American bluegrass musician, bandleader, vocalist, guitar player, songwriter, and recording artist.
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."
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