Stop me if you’ve heard this one: a bunch of bluegrass enthusiasts walk into a jam…

Well, it’s true, we did. Some of us met at a Thursday night ensemble class at Manning Music in Berkeley, California, and we started playing out together in 2017. We sometimes have guests along but the core of the band is:

Mary Cranley, voice, fiddle, and guitar

It’s not that young Mary C — also called Short-haired Mary — didn’t like learning classical violin, it just never grabbed ahold too tightly. Life went on, and Mary learned to play some guitar, strum a tamboura, and bellow a harmonium. One fateful night she attended a show by the Infamous Stringdusters and that bluegrass fiddle sound grabbed ahold and didn’t let go. She turned her violin into a fiddle, and now plays and sings bluegrass and old-time music to her heart’s content.

Mary Schriner, voice, banjo, and harmonica

When Mary S’s sister cleaned out their mom’s house, she sent Mary the unstrummed, resonator-back banjo their mom had given to her decades before. As banjo started infiltrating her life, the old-time mountain sound possessed her to switch to an open-back model, luring her down the path of clawhammer style ever since. While living in Chicago, long-haired Mary fell in love with blues harmonica and is now known to lean into blue notes and bend air into bluegrass and old-time songs.

Ryan Harlin, voice, guitar

Ryan’s childhood was a series of well-meaning attempts to play old-time music, from the time in the 3rd grade when he lugged his cello to a fiddler’s convention, to his brief tenure as a Philadelphia Mummer because they played banjos. Ultimately he found his way and became a multi-instrumentalist (guitar, banjo, mandolin, voice), music producer, and songwriter. Ryan brings a welcomed third voice to the harmonies along with some original songs.

Allen Samelson, mandolin

Allen started his music career on guitar at the tender age of eight by learning the Monkees’ extensive catalogue, in addition to that of the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel.  He later studied classical and jazz guitar, all in his hometown of Chicago, where he played in a number of bands and developed his love of folk and other forms of traditional American music. Over the past fifteen years, Allen has focused on the mandolin in both bluegrass and Brazilian music and more recently on old-time fiddling.

Scott Underwood, bass

At a young age, Scott took over his sister’s student acoustic guitar, then as a teen got his first cheap electric guitar and amp from her boyfriend. In his early twenties he discovered electric bass and backed a variety of rock, pop, country, and singer-songwriter artists. A few years back, he finally got an upright bass, through which he discovered a new set of great musicians playing country blues, bluegrass, old-time, and other genres.