Artist Statement

This musical project pays tribute to longstanding Maryland traditions of improvised Appalachian folk music, interweaving other influences, such as overlapping ostinatos in the tradition of American minimalist composers Terry Riley and Steve Reich. The latter influence is most evident in the track“Noah’s Ark”, which references a long-unfinished, biblically-proportioned monument of the same name in Frostburg, MD. All three work samples represent recordings from an album to be released on Friday, December 13th, 2019. The entire project was self-engineered in a historic boarding house in Kent County, MD.

Artist Bio

The High & Wides evoke mountain musical traditions re-imagined for a new century. Formed on Maryland's Eastern Shore in 2015, they write music about arson and hourly motels, dystopian love songs, and ballads of violent history. The High & Wides draw from their members' extensive backgrounds in bluegrass and take the music to a place all their own, recalling an era when old-time, rockabilly, and proto-rock'n'roll coexisted in a murky soup of hillbilly string band music.
Following the Billboard bluegrass top-ten debut success of their 2018 recording, Lifted, The High & Wides will release their follow-up album, Seven True Stories, on December 13th, 2019.
Members include Marc Dykeman (guitar, vocals), Sam Guthridge (banjo, mandolin, vocals), Nate Grower (fiddle), and Mike Buccino (bass).