The group premieres this week during
a whirlwind of introductory concerts, starting with the Gridley Inn, 36
W. Main St., Waterloo, on Thursday, Feb. 19, 7 to 9 p.m. (admission is
free; call 539-5192). Then they stop at the Kirkland Art Center
Coffeehouse, 9 ½ E. Park Row, Clinton, on Friday, Feb. 20, 9 p.m.
(tickets are $15; call 853-8871), followed by the Oswego Music Hall,
located in the McCrobie Civic Center, 41 Lake St., Oswego, on Saturday,
Feb. 21, 8 p.m. (tickets are $12; call 342-1733).
Andrew VanNorstrand previously
clocked countless on-stage hours with John Rossbach, the folk musician
who was reported to have moved to Elkins, W. Va, in a Nov. 19 article
in the Syracuse New Times. Rossbach took Andrew and Noah
under his musical wing while both weren’t yet teenagers, a fact that
led to the two developing an intense bond with musical creation.
“We played constantly back then, you
know?” Rossbach explained in the story. “I gave {Andrew} and his
brother lessons when he was 10 and his little brother was 8.”
Brothers in farms: Noah {left} and Andrew VanNorstrand will perform three debut gigs with their new group this week. MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTO
The pair has also made a name for
themselves while appearing with their mother, Kim, in the contra dance
band known as the Great Bear Trio. As Andrew VanNorstrand, 21,
explains, that group has largely been a working musician’s band that
has kept the threesome playing, although it doesn’t allow his creative,
19-year-old brother to spread his wings.
“We kind of have become fairly
well-known in the contra dance world, which is a ridiculously teeny,
little puddle of folk music,” Andrew VanNorstrand says. “We found the
smallest pool to be a big fish in. So that’s the group we tour most
often with, but that’s pretty much strictly instrumental, and it’s not
really for concerts as much as it’s for a community band thing.”
The brothers conceived of the idea for
the new group after collaborating with local jazz bassist Kevin Dorsey
during the 2006 Winter Solstice concert event downtown. Dorsey, who was
then serving as the musical director for the frosty fest, had
contemplated getting into the world of folk and bluegrass music, and
the VanNorstrand boys helped pique his interest.
“I was knocked out by what I saw at the
solstice concert, and they being half my age was kind of depressing,”
Dorsey recalls. “I was hoping to kind of work with them on a project,
and they gave me a call back in early December {2008}. They said they
were putting together a band and needed an upright bass player.”
The brothers also brought in Rachel
Dell, an accordionist who they had met through the contra dance
circuit, as well as Kailyn Wright, the newly twitterpated fiancee of
Noah VanNorstrand, on vocals. The couple will tie the knot next January.
“She’s a fantastic harmony singer, and
she is also singing some leads, so she’s kind of on- and off-stage with
us throughout the evening,” Andrew VanNorstrand explains about his
sister-in-law-to-be.
In terms of changes from the airy, dreamy folk music the
VanNorstrands have pioneered as a duo, Andrew VanNorstrand says that he
hopes to give his brother, a talented soloist in past concerts, more of
a chance to explore the inner visions that inspire him to command the
fiddle with a gusto that clearly taunts the limits of folk’s
traditional measures. “Noah as a soloist has really exploded over the
past year-and-a-half. He’s just doing some absolutely wild stuff that’s
just crazy. I’ll be playing with him and sometimes he’ll just pull some
stuff out on stage and just ace it the first time around. That’s
something that I’m especially super-excited about in this new group.”
Andrew VanNorstrand hopes to take the
band back to the oh-so-critical Folkus Project audience in May, and to
track the band in the studio next fall. In the meantime, he’s anxious
to turn the group’s new material around to the public, and to give his
brother a chance to shine. “I think of myself as being a fairly
reliable musician: I mean I play all right,” Andrew VanNorstrand
explains. “But Noah is just bizarre sometimes. Sometimes, without any
explanation, he’ll do stuff that with just blow you away.”
—Matt Mumau
