Now Hear This by Psychograss

Having devoted multiple

lifetimes to studying traditional American forms of music, they have the

taste and intellectual curiosity to accept input from modern musics, as well

as from different geographic locales. It's like hearing all the good parts

of music played at once.

On this, their most recent CD, Psychograss continues to raise its own bar.

The arrangements unfold with delight; the melodies spin in an upward

direction; the tones are rich and full, and the players are truly the best

you can find in any style of music. As composers, no punches are pulled, no

musical stone left unturned. Multilevel. Layer upon layer. Bar after bar of

original, groundbreaking, delightful music.

These cats invite us along on their most developed musical journey to date.

The listener hears familiar elements of the best acoustic music, classical,

bluegrass, jazz, world music, swing, Irish and modern music. It's a

wonderful bag and they are having a heck of a good time with this music and

we can crank it up and for just a moment pretend that we are all virtuosos,

playing joyous music with the best musicians on the planet.

-Danny Barnes, October 2004

Violinist, fiddler, composer, producer and educator, Darol Anger is at home in a number of musical genres, some of which he helped to invent. He is well-known as a founding member of five innovative groups: Newgrange, the Anger/Marshall Band, the Turtle Island String Quartet, the Montreux Band, and the David Grisman Quintet. Working with some of the world's greatest improvising string musicians: Stephane Grappelli, Mark O'Connor, Bela Fleck, Michael Manring, Mike Marshall, Michael Hedges, Jerry Douglas, et al., has given Anger a unique perspective on string music, resulting in his inventing and developing innovative string techniques. As well as actively performing all over the world, he has co-led annual seminars with the TISQ at Stanford, Oberlin and Amherst colleges, and numerous lecture-demonstrations throughout the year. He also guest instructs at Berklee College of Music and Mark O'Connor's Fiddle Camps, and is String Chair of the International Association of Jazz Educators. Anger has produced dozens of critically lauded recordings since 1977 which have featured his compositions and performances. Highlights include the Heritage Folk Music project, which brings together some of the most important voices in the traditional, contemporary folk and bluegrass music scene; the Anger/Marshall Band's JAM and Brand New Can, which set new standards for the Newgrass/jazz genre; and his latest release, Diary of a Fiddler, which sets Anger in duet with the most prominent and innovative fiddlers of our time. He has authored seven books dealing with techniques and materials on every aspect of vernacular string playing.

Mike Marshall is now one of the top 4 mandolin players in the world, and an in-demand, influential guitarist. He also collaborates regularly with Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, and Sam Bush, as well with his longtime associate Anger with whom he plays in the Anger/Marshall Duo, and the chambergrass ensemble Newgrange. He has produced successful recordings for Laurie Lewis, Alison Brown, Jennifer Berezan, Tony Furtado, and others. Mike's all-around string virtuosity showed early: at age 18 he had won the Florida state fiddle and mandolin championships and taught over 40 students a week in his own studio. Hired to join the David Grisman Quintet after a two hour jam session, Mike supplied brilliant contributions on mandolin, guitar, fiddle, and mandocello for five years and was featured on tours and recordings with Grisman, Stephane Grappelli, Mark O'Connor, Tony Rice, Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas, and Darol Anger. After leaving the DGQ, Mike developed his partnership with Darol Anger which led to several Duo and solo recordings on the Rounder, Windham-Hill and Compass Labels, highlighted by the group Montreux, which toured extensively through the U.S., Europe, and Japan and helped legitimatize the nascent New Acoustic/World Music movement. In 1986, Mike founded The Modern Mandolin Quartet and released four recordings for Windham Hill Records which redefined the mandolin in a classical music setting. Mike's most recent collaborations include a trio CD entitled Uncommon Ritual on the Sony Classical label with Edgar Meyer and Bela Fleck. In 1999, Edgar Meyer's Short Trip Home, featuring Sam Bush, Joshua Bell and Mike, was released on Sony. The group toured and appeared on the 2000 Grammy Awards. Mike continues to tour and record regularly with Meyer at venues such as Lincoln Center, Royce Hall, Herbst Theatre, and the Aspen Music Festival.

Todd Phillips is a founding member of the David Grisman Quintet, Tony Rice's The Bluegrass Album Band, the Montreux Band, and Psychograss. He has participated in many of the most crucial new acoustic music recordings as a mandolinist or bassist and also, as bassist, in many of the best bluegrass projects of the 70s, 80s, and 90s, appearing in over fifty recordings ranging from bluegrass through new acoustic music to jazz. He has made a career as a producer of his own and other albums, such as his In The Pines, the jazz-inflected Time Frame and an all-star tribute to Bill Monroe, True Life Blues, for which he won a Grammy Award. He currently is producing and playing with the Phillips/Grier/Flinner project, with 3 releases on the Compass label.

David Grier is the latest in the line of bluegrass guitar royalty emanating from Doc Watson through Clarence White and Tony Rice. Considered by most bluegrass aficionados to be the greatest flatpicker alive, he emerged into the Nashville scene at an early age, releasing his first solo album (Freewheeling) at 27, to rave reviews from the bluegrass establishment. He has subsequently appeared on scores of important bluegrass albums, worked with nearly every major living bluegrass artist, and further redefined the art of he flatpicked guitar while winning awards such as the National Flatpicking Guitar Championship at Winfield and the IBMA Guitar Player of the Year two years in a row. He has three more solo recordings on Rounder Records and four on his own label.

Tony Trischka is one of the great 5-string banjo players of all time, successfully incorporating all styles from minstrelsy and Scruggs through chromatic and melodic to the most modern styles of playing, and pioneering new acoustic music. With over twenty important recordings over a twenty-two year period, and guesting on many bluegrass and non-bluegrass recordings, broadway shows, and pop albums, Tony's fiery, questing, and reactive style has brought modern 5-string banjo to audiences all over the world. He has published many instruction books on banjo. His popular and well-received recent recording, World Turning, covers much of the history of the banjo, from Africa up to contemporary rock, with appearances by David Grisman, Alison Krauss, William Burroughs and members of REM.

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