Feb. 12, 2015
AFTER ADVENTURES IN VAGABONDIA, TAARKA IS MAKING TRACKS HOME;
MARCH 24 INDIE-FOLK RELEASE
LINKS BLUEGRASS, GYPSY-JAZZ INFLUENCES
Classically trained Colorado couple freely breaks boundaries with latest collection
AUSTIN, Texas – The title of Taarka’s 2013 album, Adventures in Vagabondia,
wound up being a little too autobiographical when David Tiller and
Enion Pelta-Tiller, the couple forming the band’s core, lost their home
in Colorado’s devastating floods that fall. Which might be why they went
with Making Tracks Home for their March 24, 2015 release.
After an experience like that, home becomes even more special — though
they’re also making tracks to many other places on their upcoming tour.
For
a couple whose main instruments are violin and mandolin and who draw
musical influences from Romania and Appalachia, the notion of travel is
anything but foreign. And they like bringing it forth in song; weaving
their bluegrass, Celtic, classical, pop-rock and gypsy-jazz explorations
into a unique sonic quilt best characterized as indie folk.
The
Nashville Scene describes it as “a distinctive, moody sound.” The
Source Weekly of Bend, Ore., offers an even livelier assessment: “The
Colorado grass-fiends known as Taarka sound like a collective of
train-riding pranksters trained in classical music by gypsy wolves in
the foothills of the Appalachians.”
While the closest either one got
to training by wolves was studying Prokofiev, mandolinist Tiller, who
also plays tenor guitar and bouzouki and sings, was born just outside of
Washington, D.C. and raised in the National Historic Landmark district
of Waterford, Va., a region rich with bluegrass history. Pelta-Tiller, a
classically trained five-string violinist and vocalist, was born in San
Francisco and raised in Oakland, Calif., where she began studying
violin at 3½. Now making their home in Lyons, Colo., the pair met in
2001 in New York, where they busked in the subway and became members of
Brooklyn Browngrass before forming Taarka. Their touring band includes
bass master Troy Robey and guitar prodigy Mike Robinson; on Making Tracks Home, their accompanists include guitarists Ross Martin and Grant Gordy and bassist Sam Grisman.
Originally
an instrumental string band, Taarka has evolved into an act with two
lead vocalists; the pleasant contrast can be heard on “Heart and Song,”
which features Pelta-Tiller, and “Old Waterford Town,” featuring Tiller.
As befits a pair of vagabond musicians (they’re raising their
already-performing son, Aesop, on the road), the couple simply likes to
go where the music takes them.
“We
just go as deeply into the music as we can and see what happens when we
come out the other side,” Tiller tells Boulder Weekly. They don’t fear
getting lost, but if they should, they know they can follow their
well-laid tracks right back home.
Upcoming performances
Feb. 27 – Black Rose Acoustic Society, Colorado Springs, Colo.
March 13 – The Cooperage, Albuquerque, N.M.
March 14 – Taos Mesa Brewing, Taos, N.M.
March 27 – eTown Hall, Boulder, Colo.
April 2 – The State Room, Salt Lake City, Utah
April 24 – Point Richmond Jazz Concert Series, Point Richmond, Calif.
April 25 – The Sutter Creek Theater, Sutter Creek, Calif.
May 23 – Bluegrass on the Arkansas, Salida, Colo.
June 12 – Palisade Bluegrass and Roots Festival, Palisade, Colo.
June 26-28 – Wallsburg Music Festival, Wallsburg, Utah
