The Jon Stickely Trio, known for creating genre-defying acoustic music, continues to do so on their fifth album and Organic Records debut, Scripting The Flip, now available.
Rooted in the traditions of bluegrass but combining gypsy jazz, avant garde, rock and even EDM music into a powerfully unique sound, the Trio — which features Jon Stickley on guitar, Lyndsay Pruett on violin and Hunter Deacon on drums — has crafted songs that are intelligent, joyful and unconventional, something the Trio’s rapidly growing and increasingly devoted fan base has come to expect.
Chris Pandolfi of The Infamous Stringdusters says, “The Jon Stickley Trio
makes music of the absolute highest quality. Their new album is replete
with virtuosity, chops and innovative compositions, while demonstrating
a firm grasp on a wide spectrum of genres. But that’s not why I’m
playing Scripting the Flip on repeat. This music moves me! Jon, Lyndsay and Hunter back up their technical ability with an abundance of substance and emotion. The JS3 sound more like a synchronous unit than ever before, and their new record takes every aspect of their game up a notch.”
A series of singles preceding Scripting The Flip’s release show the band’s ability to weave a multitude of strands into one coherent, distinctive fabric.
The first, “Animate Object,” is an intelligent blend of jazz, latin, and dance music.
It’s unconventional and alluring, making it a perfect example of the
group’s twist on acoustic-based music. “The world is a swirling
collection of objects passing through space and time. As humans, we have
our own orbits that intersect with others as we live in the world. ‘Animate Object’ explores the idea of different musical orbits coming together to create something unexpected,” says Stickley.
Inspired by the late night festival sets the Trio loves to play, where it often takes on a life of its own, “Don’t Slip” is the group’s dance anthem. “Overall this song is one of the most ‘us’ tracks we’ve ever recorded,” says Stickley. “It’s about the freedom to explore and get lost in the groove, and when it takes over, make sure not to slip!”
The third is a characteristically witty yet deeply rooted take on a bluegrass classic: legendary fiddler Kenny Baker’s “Bluegrass In The Backwoods.” Stickley
adds, “The tune captures one of the coolest aspects of bluegrass: its
ability to naturally incorporate other genres and styles. It’s easy to
hear the influences of gypsy jazz, and even bebop in the phasing of the
melody.”
These,
with the album’s 8 other instrumental offerings, move through moods
that evolve over the course of the album and even within the tracks
themselves. More highlights include “Driver,” with guest banjoist Andy Thorn of Leftover Salmon, which reunites Stickley with a long-time friend and former bandmate in a slice of modern Colorado ‘grass, and the title track, “Scripting the Flip,” where intricately geometrical musical phrases act as a metaphor for this Trio’s aim, blending and extending a style rooted in one world but entering another.
In this way, the Jon Stickley Trio
transcends the standards of acoustic music with a wide range of
influences masterfully integrated into a signature approach. The
collection sums up the Jon Stickley Trio: A three way collaboration expressing music that comes from the heart and the mind and speaks to both.
Listen to Scripting The Flip HERE.
About the Jon Stickley Trio
Jon Stickley Trio is a genre-defying and cinematic instrumental trio,
whose deep grooves, innovative flatpicking, and sultry-spacy violin move
the listener’s head, heart, and feet. “It’s not your father’s
acoustic-guitar music—although Stickley’s pop showed him his first
chords when he was 12 years old. Instead, Stickley’s Martin churns out a
mixture of bluegrass, Chuck Berry, metal, prog, grunge, and assorted
other genres—all thoroughly integrated into a personal style,” writes
Guitar Player Magazine. With inspiration ranging from Green Day to Duran
Duran to Tony Rice to Nirvana, Grateful Dead, David Grisman and beyond,
the Trio, which features violinist Lyndsay Pruett and drummer Hunter
Deacon, is making waves with their unique sound. Along with releasing
two full length albums and one EP in the past few years, the Trio has
zig-zagged the nation, though they still call Asheville, NC home.
Stickley says, “The Trio feels fresher and hotter than ever, we’ve hit
our stride in terms of creating tunes that are uniquely us and that’s a
really exciting place to be musically.”