Gabe Hirshfeld Archives - Bluegrass Today

Highly-regarded Boston banjo player Gabe Hirshfeld has launched a fundraiser on GoFundMe, asking for assistance as he navigates the costs and difficulties of an aggressive kidney disease, leading up to a transplant.

Gabe came to prominence nationally as a member of Boston’s Lonely Heartstring Band, now defunct, a very popular modern bluegrass group during the 2010s. Known for their lyrical and harmonic complexity within a bluegrass setting, the band released a pair of critically-acclaimed records but, like many groups formed during college, broke up when the members began to go their separate ways.

As the band members moved away, Gabe has stayed in the Boston area, his hometown, where he has remained active in bluegrass circles. He has also developed a following on YouTube for his video banjo lessons, and teaching at banjo camps.

During 2024 he began to experience an illness, quickly traced to kidney function. Gabe’s doctors determined that he had a misshapen “horseshoe” kidney on his right side, and no kidney on the left. With kidney function rapidly declining, Hirshfeld is fortunate in having already found a donor kidney from someone in the music community, and is preparing to undergo a transplant soon.

He says that he has had to overcome his hesitation to seek assistance, but with the associated uninsured costs of a transplant, especially the enforced three months off work in its aftermath, he finds he has no choice.

“I really hate to reach out for help financially like this, but I need to swallow my pride and remember that this illness is not my fault, and that there is no shame in needing help in times of struggle. The support of my community in lifting my spirits during this difficult time has already been overwhelming, and I hate to ask for more than just emotional support, but sadly, in today’s crazy world, one defective kidney = one GoFundMe campaign.”

Gabe Hirshfeld has long been recognized by his friends and fellow pickers as a kind and humble soul, just the sort that makes you want to reach out a hand when they are in need.

If you find yourself in a position to make a donation of any size to this appeal, you may do so online. GoFundMe accepts contributions via major credit cards, or by digital payments such as PayPal or Venmo.

Good luck, Gabe, on the transplant. Here’s to a full and rapid recovery!

Full Cord, a Michigan-based bluegrass group of some 14 years standing, has announced the addition of Gabe Hirshfeld to the band on banjo.

Hirshfeld, a Boston native, gained notoriety nationally for his time with Lonely Heartstring Band, an outfit he joined while studying at the Berklee College of Music. But even before that he was turning heads in New England, as a multiple winner of the Lowell Fiddle and Banjo Competition and the New England Banjo Championship at the Ossipee Valley Music Festival. Like most banjo pickers, it was the sound of Earl Scruggs that first grabbed his attention, catching his playing on the theme song of the Boston-based NPR show Car Talk, Dawgy Mountain Breakdown.

Full Cord consists of Eric Langejans on guitar, Todd Kirchner on bass, Brian Oberlin on mandolin, and Grant Flick on fiddle. They have been performing and recording their own brand of traditional bluegrass, touched by influences from jazz, western swing, and rock n’ roll, for more than a decade in northern Michigan.

Gabe says that joining up with the band has come at a perfect time for him.

“Full Cord is a band I’ve been aware of for many years now, and every time I’ve heard any of their music I’ve simply been blown away. It’s just the type of bluegrass music that I like to play most, so when Todd called me I was thrilled to be able to tell him that I would absolutely love to play with them. With the pandemic came many changes for me, and one of those was starting a graduate program in Mental Health Counseling and not as much performing. While I still play banjo a lot these days, it is usually on the couch alone in my underwear.

I am so looking forward to playing shows again with a band of the caliber of Full Cord, and in my underwear!”

Here’s the most recent single from Full Cord, one called Yardboss written by Luke Gitchel.

Full Chord is heading into the slow time for gigs, but it will be exciting to hear them next season with Gabe on banjo.

Tag: Gabe Hirshfeld

Fundraiser for Gabe Hirshfeld and his kidney transplant

Gabe Hirshfeld to Full Cord Bluegrass