From Boston’s bubbling caldron of original music comes Ethan Setiawan & Fine Ground, a very talented quintet of experienced contemporary bluegrass craftsmen. With a debut album set for an October release on Adhyaropa Records, they have released a music video for the first of three singles set to hit ahead of the full project.
Anyone keeping an eye on Boston bluegrass will be familiar with Setiawan, who moved there from his native Indiana to study at Berklee, where he turned heads for his virtuosity and creativity on the mandolin. Fine Ground also includes BB Bowness on banjo, to whom we listened intently as a member of Mile Twelve and on her solo project, her husband Alex Rubin on guitar who is a winner of the FreshGrass guitar contest, Julian Pinelli on fiddle, another Berklee man and FreshGrass winner, and Brittany Karlson, who we recall from The Goodbye Girls.
Excellent credentials, but what about the music?
Ethan shared a word about this initial single, which is something of an enigma.
“Whiskey, Boys is a song written by my good friend Carolyn Kendrick, and it was such a pleasure to record one of her songs. It’s her take on the folk song sub-genre of riddle songs. Riddle songs are about a specific thing, but for the most part don’t mention the subject of the song by name ’till the end of the song – just like a riddle.”
See what you think…
Whiskey, Boys will be available on August 24 from popular download and streaming services online.
Look for their Little Storms album to release on October 2.
