Dear MariBella & the Pigkickers with Sam Bush at Brooklyn Arts Center in Wilmington, NC (2/26/25)
Regular readers may recall a story from November about a very talented young family band from Wilmington, NC called Dear MariBella & the Pigkickers. It includes two sisters in their late teens and their two younger brothers who are already writing their own material, and have released an EP titled Magnolia.
Those same readers may likewise remember an article a few weeks ago about a venue there in Wilmington that was running a band contest to choose an opening act for their Sam Bush concert on February 16. That venue was the Brooklyn Arts Center, and before Dear MariBella, et al, had a chance to enter, the venue contacted them about submitting an entry.
And you can probably guess where this goes next. The Trakimowicz siblings who make up Dear MariBella & the Pigkickers (Isabella on fiddle, AnnMari on guitar, Pete on banjo, and Chris on mandolin), were chosen to open the show, and got to meet Sam, and everything.
They have shared a few photos from their big night, with their dad, Joel, on bass.
We understand that the question they always get has to do with the unusual band name, which started out as Dear MariBella when it was just the two older girls, by combining the second parts of their first names. When the boys joined in, they came up with the rest of the appellation.
We didn’t get any video from the show, but here is a sample of their sound, one they wrote called Carolina Sunshower.
Well done all!
