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***Roots-rockers celebrate debut album with show at World Cafe Live***
Almost one year after its current lineup played its first gig, local bluegrass-inspired folk band Delaware Rag is releasing their debut album, The Rag, with a show Friday, April 6 at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia.
The Rag reflects the bare-bones sound the band has cultivated during gigs over the past year. Though the band has had to reduce the number of live performances since they began recording in October (2006), the Rag will be touring this summer in support of the album.
"The stuff we do is original stuff," says upright bass player Pat Maholland. "It's not a particular genre, its just music we like."
Delaware Rag hesitate to be called a bluegrass band because they feel their music has too many influences for one genre. They use the term "roots rock" when asked to describe their fun, unfussy music.
"We learned bluegrass as the style, and it morphed into..." vocalist and banjo player Casey Neal begins. Maholland finishes his sentence: "...the rag sound, which inspired the title of the album. This is who we are. We all contribute." - Out & About Magazine April 2007
METROSPIRIT. Augusta, GA Archive > 2005 > August 11-17
Weekend concert guide | Andy Stokes
Legend has it that, in February 1993, guitarists Tony Rice and Jerry Garcia dropped by the Northern California studio of mandolinist David “Dawg” Grisman and formed an impromptu trio. The three were laying down some tracks for posterity, mostly traditionals and old covers mixed with some extemporaneous jams.
Soon after he’d left the sessions, Garcia had an interesting exchange with a pizza delivery boy. Forgetting that a cassette recording of the recent recording lay unguarded on the kitchen table when he phoned in a lunch order, Garcia left the outside door unlocked. The pizza delivery boy was obviously a fan; he casually pilfered the tape from the studio with little afterthought, not realizing until later that he got his hands on one of the finest and most intimate bluegrass recordings ever. On that tape was the first time Garcia and Rice ever played together, and Garcia passed away soon after. It’s unsure if the recordings were ever meant to be heard by anyone else (after Garcia’s 1995 death, Grisman made the recording commercially available under the clever title, “The Pizza Tapes”). The identity of the thief never surfaced.
It may be too late to point fingers now, 12 years later after the incident, but judging by the Delaware Rag’s faithfulness to the source material, one of the culprits may be one of the band’s five members. The Delaware-based newgrass troupe specializes in rollicking sets fueled by the steam that rises off the Smokies. Among the many newgrass divisions — Bela Fleck’s infusion of electric jazz, the pop leanings of Nickel Creek or the downright natural polarity of Seldom Scene — Delaware Rag is somewhat traditionalist, employing the standard instrumental setup (upright bass, two flatpickers, a banjo and a mandolin). It’s the choice influences the band wears on its sleeve (The Beatles are a “newer” group with an impression on Delaware Rag) that move them into progressive territory. Friday night, they’ll be taking the stage at the Stillwater Tap Room.
- Metrospirit
Described as "reminiscent of [Grateful Dead offshoot] Old and in the Way, but with the flare and energy of an early 60s British invasion band," Delaware Rag comes to town smack dab in the middle of our very own newgrass invasion.
With the recent success of both the Paul Cebar and Avett Brothers shows (not to mention the onslaught of homegrown bands such as The North River Agents, The Possum trot Orchestra, lo.automatic and, of course, The Legendary Trainhoppers) all still lingering, the time couldn't be better for another foot-stompin' band rooted in tradition to slam out some bloody-fingered acoustic beauty.
- Whatzup Magazine Aug, 2006, Forte Wayne, IN
Delaware Rag hails from Newark, Delaware, and they seem to embody the soul of the "new old timey" as evidenced by bands like Old Crow Medicine Show. Their blend of ancient tones and more modern sounds (like the Beatles) is seemless and helps draw an old sound into the modern age. - The Athens News - Aug 2006
Discography
2007 - The Rag
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Bio
While the band has been performing in their current configuration for the last year and developing a unique sound, they have come across many friends and styles of music. The influences are vast, and the band is proud to say that they have thieved all they could get their bloody picking hands on.
The result is a brand of acoustic music that has entertained rock clubs, jazz clubs, folk clubs, smoky lil' bars, parties, and amphitheaters. The mission of the band has always been simple...play music...have fun, let everyone hear.
One zealous listener described the Delaware Rag thusly:
"A well-greased skillet... nasty and wholesome. The songs performed are old and new, original and unlikely. Philandering all musical genres... pillaging at will... wailing out their own make of bluegrass.
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