By any measure, the Claire Lynch Band is high on the bluegrass world’s A-List, with musicians whose accolades include International Bluegrass Music Association, Female Vocalist of the Year and two Grammy nominations for Best Bluegrass Album. Local singer-songwriter Jenee Halstead opens the show. Her first CD, The River Grace, has received many favorable reviews and has folks predicting a great future for this Boston transplant from Eastern Washington. She has now followed up with an EP release, Hollow Bones.

Making records since she was 19, Claire Lynch has long been recognized as a creative force in bluegrass music and at the forefront of women who have expanded the genre. She has received many accolades as well as reverent standing ovations for her shows at prestigious music festivals and theaters for the past 2–3 decades. Her latest album, Whatcha Gonna Do, was released in September on Rounder Records. A new Claire Lynch album does more than herald the arrival of a new collection of stellar vocals and tight, tasteful arrangements; each album also showcases Lynch’s remarkable taste in songs.

Over the past two decades, Lynch has crafted one of the most instantly-identifiable sounds in acoustic music. Delicate and lilting, yet uplifting and rhythmically spry, Lynch’s style encompasses classic bluegrass and thoughtful infusions of contemporary folk, country, rock, and swing. As a songwriter, Lynch’s songs have been recorded by Kathy Mattea, Patty Loveless, and others, and she has performed as a backing/ harmony vocalist with Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Patty Loveless, Pam Tillis, just to name a few.

Claire’s band is top-notch. Two-time IBMA Bass Player of the Year, Mark Schatz has worked with a wide variety of artists, including Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas, Maura O’Connell, Tony Rice, John Hartford, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Tim & Mollie O’Brien and Nickel Creek. In addition to his bass playing, Mark is known for his skills on clawhammer banjo and at Southern Appalachian clog dancing. Jason Thomas was born in North Bay, Ontario, Canada, and began playing the mandolin at the age of eight. He picked up the violin at twelve, and in high school began to play guitar, banjbass and viola. Along the way to his current career as a touring musician, Jason won the Canadian Open Mandolin Championship and twice won the Florida State Championship on both fiddle and mandolin. Matt Wingate, the newest member of the band, honed his bluegrass chops performing across the U.S. and in Europe as Valerie Smith’s lead guitar player. He began performing with the Greencards in 2004, an experience that immersed Matt in a musically broader, more progressive repertoire, deepening his musical vocabulary and his facility with complex arrangements.

Photo of Claire Lynch by Senor McGuire

Jenee Halstead arrives with an alto voice that sways gently back and forth between the realms of frailty and strength — part Emmylou Harris, part June Carter, part Patty Griffin. Escaping a collapsed love affair on west coast, she left for the fertile folk environs of Cambridge, Massachusetts quickly taking root at Harvard Square’s Legendary Club Passim. Backed by her nuanced, small-bodied guitar, Halstead draws from the haunting melodies of the Depression Era, patiently distilling folk, bluegrass, and electro to create music that Matt Smith, Club Passim’s longtime manager, describes as “fresh and new, yet familiar and timeless.” With The River Grace, Jenee Halstead puts forth a collection of songs effortlessly suited to her voice, mixing dobro, mandolin, and upright bass with vintage Casio keyboards and subtle electronic beats.

a sterling, silvery vocal presence and a gift for supple, emotional ornamentation. . . . Lynch’s talent is a diamond . . . gorgeous voice and sense of purpose, supported by (a) superb ensemble. Richard Harrington, The Washington Post

winsome high range that mixes fragility and strength . . . gift for molding lyrics to melody . . . lovely, deftly austere The Boston Globe

fine songwriter, superb vocalist Billboard

She deserves all the accolades we can toss her way. Atlanta Journal Constitution

Claire Lynch is a rare talent indeed. She has a beautiful, effervescent voice which can handle both contemporary and traditional musics with complete authenticity. I love to listen to her and I love to sing with her. Linda Ronstadt

. . .

Effortlessly unifying the realms of delta blues, folk, and the popular idiosyncratic female pop genre, Jenee Halstead is as much a product of contemporary times as she is of the tumultuous ’60s when folk and pop music took on the heavy task of providing solace and escape to an entire generation. Halstead’s voice is as beautiful as her music is gracefully crafted. The River Grace may well be the first movements of a rising star. Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson, On Tap Magazine

. . . exceptional songs, great singing (angel-like and yet rootsy), exquisite instrumentation and a unique style, all Halstead’s own, somewhere between folk, pop, country and gospel. . . . Subtly instrumented, with such rootsy instruments as dobro, pedal steel and mandolin, next to acoustical instruments like guitar, piano and upright bass, The River Grace is a cd that not only will enthrall lovers of rootsy singer-songwriters, but also appeal to fans of wonderful instrumental craft. Having said that, we already can’t wait for Jenee’s next album, as this goes way beyond being promising. Pieter Wijnstekers, Heaven Magazine