The Peregrines [UK/USA]


20160505_B_ThePeregrines-757065

The Peregrines is a trio comprised of three of the the most interesting instrumentalists/singers on the contemporary folk and acoustic  music scene both here and in the U.S.

Grant Gordy – (Acoustic Guitar; credits include the David Grisman Quintet, Steve Martin, Darol Anger)
Unlike many others of his generation who were content to remain in one style, Gordy fervently pursued guitar knowledge in nearly all genres. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Grant has spent his practice and performing hours learning the language of bebop and the standards of jazz, soaking up the high lonesome sound of bluegrass music, investigating classical composers like Béla Bartók and Bach, learning the rhythms of distant Mali alongside West African musicians, doubling lines on electric with the pedal steel guitarist in honky-tonk bands. This wide range of interest contributes to Gordy’s unique renowned guitar style. Gordy spent six years in the guitar chair of the David Grisman Quintet, filling the big shoes of Tony Rice, Mark O’Connor and other legendary guitarists. Grisman says Grant “belongs to the new elite of American acoustic practitioners who are pushing the ever-expanding envelope of a musical frontier.”

Ben Somers – (Double Bass/Saxophone; credits include Dr John, Seal, Taylor Swift, Dizzee Rascal, Bruce Molsky, Dirk Powell, Mollie O’Brien, Mike Marshall, Russ Barenberg)
Ben grew up in a house where music was incredibly important. Growing up listening to everything from Vivaldi to Art Pepper to Willie Nelson, Ben grew up playing gigs with his father, Steve Somers who played professionally (and still does) doing folk, country, bluegrass and western swing gigs, working for many US and UK country stars such as Glen Campbell, Billie Jo Spears, Freddie Weller, Lonnie Donegan and more. Ben is a very busy and in-demand session musician in London and makes his living touring and recording with artists of varying genres.

Joe K. Walsh – (Mandolin; credits include the Gibson Brothers, Jonathan Edwards, Scott Nygaard and founding membership of Joy Kills Sorrow)
Hailed by Nashville’s Music Row Magazine for his “lickety-split mandolin work” and by CBC as “one of the best mandolinists of his generation”, Portland, Maine-based mandolin player Joe K. Walsh is known for his exceptional tone and taste, and his collaborations with acoustic music luminaries including legendary fiddler Darol Anger, flatpick guitar hero Scott Nygaard, folk legend Jonathan Edwards, and pop/grass darlings Joy Kills Sorrow have taken him all over the musical and figurative map. He’s played with everyone from John Scofield to Béla Fleck to Emmylou Harris, and performed everywhere from festivals to laundromats to Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. After a number of years helping bluegrass super-group the Gibson Brothers rise to the top of the bluegrass world, Joe currently splits his time between a group with Grant Gordy, Darol Anger and Ethan Jodziewicz called Mr Sun and a trio with Brittany Haas and Owen Marshall. An avid educator, Joe is a mandolin instructor at the Berklee College of Music. He teaches regularly at music camps throughout North America and beyond, and has taught hundreds of students near his home in Maine.