Jon Stickley Trio is a genre-defying, explosive instrumental trio, who’s deep grooves, innovative flatpicking, and sultry-spacy violin moves the listener’s head, heart, and feet. “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.
Premier Guitar says, “Stickley’s trio with violinist Lyndsay Pruett and drummer Patrick Armitage is not a traditional bluegrass group by any means… they are just nimble and ambitious enough to navigate EDM-style breakbeats as effortlessly as the old timey standard ‘Blackberry Blossom.’”
Dave King (of The Bad Plus) joined forces with the Trio to produce 2017’s Maybe Believe and 2015’s Lost At Last in the band’s hometown of Asheville, NC at the esteemed Echo Mountain Recording Studio. The Trio slipped a self-produced 5-track EP, Triangular, into the mix in December of 2016. Dave says, “The group retains its place as a modern-thinking acoustic ensemble with one foot in tradition and the other in a bluegrass honored future that allows for the avant garde, punk, and bebop to mix in freely and tastefully.”
With inspiration ranging from from Green Day to Duran Duran to Tony Rice to Nirvana, Grateful Dead, David Grisman and beyond, over the past few years they have zig-zagged the nation, playing over 120 dates in 2017 alone, they are road tested and band geek approved! “In a time when a lot of instrumental music feels more like math than art, Jon Stickley Trio reminds us of the pure joy that can be created and shared through music,” says Greensky Bluegrass’ Anders Beck.
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. Not to mention we are so stoked to get back to many of our favorite festivals and clubs, and even more excited to play some the ones we’ve always dreamed of. 2018 will, without a doubt, be our best year yet!”
Jon Stickley Trio celebrates a successful year having just returned from Strings and Sol in Puerto Morelos, Mexico where they performed an intensely captivating late-night set which included collaborations with Jacob Joliff (Yonder Mountain String Band) and Andy Thorn (Leftover Salmon). The result was an unstoppable wowing musical moment in time that was described as a highlight of the weekend for many festival goers. The weekend also included numerous sit-ins for Stickley including those with Railroad Earth, Yonder Mountain String Band and Leftover Salmon. Other notable shows in 2017 included The String Cheese Incident’s Suwannee Hulaween, Joshua Tree Music Festival, WinterWonderGrass, Mountain Stage, Rooster Walk, Suwannee Clusterpluck, Red Wing Roots Music Festival, and FloydFest among others.
To close out the year and ring in 2018, Jon Stickley Trio is performing a special New Year's Eve celebration in their hometown of Asheville at Isis Music Hall with The Digs & Josh Phillips. Keeping with the local community spirit, they travel with fellow Asheville band and good friends, Town Mountain, for a few shows in Virginia in mid-January. In early February they link up with Front Country to play Cumberland Caverns in Tennessee before they travel back towards DC for a show at The Mansion at Strathmore and a two-night run in Roanoke, Virginia.
Mid-February brings them back to Tennessee to perform at WDVX’s Tennessee Shines in Knoxville on Valentine's Day and the the historic Station Inn in Nashville the following day.
Upcoming festivals for the Trio in the coming year include Delfest, WinterWonderGrass (California and Colorado), Old Settler’s Music Festival, John Hartford Memorial Fest, and many more to be announced in the coming months.
Stay tuned to Jon Stickley Trio’s website and social networks for more dates to be announced and updates from the road.
Jon Stickley Trio Winter Tour 2018
12/31 Sun - NYE Celebration at Isis Music Hall - Asheville, NC *w/ The Digs & Josh Phillips
1/18 Thu - Capital Ale House - Richmond, VA *w/ Town Mountain
1/19 Fri - The Clementine Cafe - Harrisonburg, VA *w/ Town Mountain
1/21 Sun - Boathouse Live - Newport News, VA *w/ Town Mountain
2/3 Sat - Cumberland Caverns - Live at the Volcano Room - McMinnville, TN *w/ Front Country
2/8 Thu - The Mansion at Strathmore - Bethesda, MD (Near DC)
2/9-10 Fri-Sat - 5 Points Music Sanctuary - Roanoke, VA *w/ Jenni Lyn & TBA
2/14 Wed - Tennessee Shines @ Jig and Reel - Knoxville, TN
2/15 Thu - The Station Inn - Nashville, TN
2/16 Fri - Atomic Cowboy - St. Louis, MO
2/17 Sat - Mike Kelly’s Westsider - Kansas City, MO
2/20 Tue - eTown - Boulder, CO *w/ Billy Strings
2/22 Thu - Cervantes Other Side - Denver, CO *w/ Old Salt Union & The Deer
2/23-24 Fri-Sat - WinterWondergrass CO - Steamboat Springs, CO
2/25 Sun - Steve’s Guitars - Carbondale, CO
2/28 Wed - Lefty's Live Music - Des Moines, IA
3/1 Thu - The Famous Mockingbird - Marion, IA
3/2 Fri - Redstone Room at River Music Experience - Davenport, IA
3/3 Sat - Bourbon On Division - Chicago, IL
3/8-9 Thu-Fri - Savannah Stopover Festival - Savannah, GA
3/29 Thu - Zanzabar - Louisville, KY
3/31 Sat - Music at Murdock’s - Manhattan, KS
4/5-8 Thu-Sun - WinterWonderGrass - Olympic Park - North Lake Tahoe, CO
4/17 Tue - Taos Mesa Brewing - El Prado, NM
4/20 Fri - Magnolia Motor Lounge - Fort Worth, TX
4/21 Sat - Old Settler’s Music Festival - Dale, TX
5/31-6/1 Thu-Fri - John Hartford Music Festival - Bean Blossom, IN
