Follen Church

The program surveys bluegrass music from its roots in early country and fiddle/banjo music to more progressive acoustic music with the same instrumentation. The Splinters cover old time fiddle tunes and The Carter Family to Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, The Stanley Brothers, and other traditional bands, landing in more progressive groups such as David Grisman, Bela Fleck, and modern ‘old time’ like John Hartford and Andrew Marlin. Participants will learn about these different styles of music and what makes them unique, but part of the same fabric. We will also discuss the role of each instrument in the group and how that creates the whole sound you experience. There will be plenty of music involved. The Splinters, a bluegrass and old-time string band from Massachusetts, deliver a relentless groove to accompany their tight 3-part harmonies. Tom Pritchard (fiddle) brings the heat to his fiddle playing. J Johnson (mandolin) adds a jazzy flair to his breaks. Chris Reckling (guitar, banjo) picks solid rhythm and punchy leads on top of Garrett Wallace’s grooving bass fiddle. A Splinters set veers from straight ahead bluegrass to traditional fiddle tunes and back, with the occasional detour into a modern song. They released their first album as a quartet, “Grey Owl”. Their second album, “In the Pale Moonlight“, was released in August, 2023. Both are available on all major streaming platforms and on Bandcamp.