Biography
I was exposed to a lot of great music at a very young age, probably before birth, but it’s hard to remember. My father played in a bluegrass band and there was always music in the house. When I was in high school I started learning some old-time songs and singing harmony with my dad, and I realized that I liked the same stuff he was listening to. I liked a lot of male/female duets like Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin, and Tim & Mollie O’Brien, so we started learning their songs. Dad let me take one of his guitars with me when I left the nest, and it was then that I started to learn to play the songs I’d been singing. A few years later we started playing clubs together as The Hobohemians, doing mostly covers and a few that he had written from long ago. I didn’t really belt it out back then, in fact, it was pretty hard to hear me singing at all at first. But after a few friendly pats on the back, I gained steam, and figured out pretty fast that power is just as important as tone and quality. I knew I had finally overcome my stage fright when we were doing a soundcheck and the sound guy asked me to take a step back from the mic since I was overpowering my dad. That was a good day. I didn’t start writing much until we began working on the first Hobohemians CD. We were doing a bunch of Dad’s songs and I must have gotten inspired, because I wrote a pile of them myself, and I haven’t really stopped since. My first solo CD, "Time to Travel," was released on April 22nd, 2006. These days I mix it up a bit, dividing my stage time between solo shows, duets and trios, and performances with two full bluegrass bands, The Goodtime Charlies (www.goodtimecharlies.net) and The Purdy Mouth Boys. My solo sets combine the old-time and bluegrass traditional songs with my original material, and with the more minimal instrumentation, the style leans toward Country Blues. Some of the songs I've written are Bluegrass, a few are kind of folky, and there’s some Old-time Country as well. I like to think that I’d make Jimmie Rodgers or Patsy Cline take notice if they were still around. They rank high among my influences, along with Bill Monroe, Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, Hank Williams, Alison Krauss, Willie Nelson, Edie Brickell, Michelle Shocked, to name a few.
Instrumentation
April Hobart - guitar and vocals, sometimes banjo
duos & trios:
April Hobart w/ any combination of:
Bill Jubett - banjo, fiddle, vocals
David Delrossi - guitar
Bruce Hobart - guitar, mandolin, fiddle, vocals
Rich Hamilton - fiddle, vocals
Full Bluegrass Bands:
The Goodtime Charlies (www.goodtimecharlies.net):
April Hobart - guitar and vocals, sometimes banjo
Bill Jubett - banjo, fiddle, vocals
Andy Sicard - mandolin, vocals
Bob Sevigny - guitar, vocals
Mike Kenney - bass
The Purdy Mouth Boys:
April Hobart - guitar and vocals
Bill Jubett - banjo, fiddle, vocals
John Meehan - mandolin, vocals
Chris Fox - bass, vocals
Discography
"Time To Travel" - www.aprilhobart.com/music
"The Hobohemians" www.hobohemians.com/music
Links
| http://www.aprilhobart.com |