Sally Ann by Maggie Shar and Brian Slattery

At least since the folk revival, the fiddle and banjo have become the core of the Appalachian stringband sound. The music the two instruments make together is complete. A big, driving band is great, but really, the banjo and fiddle are all you need.

We’ve been playing together since we met at Clifftop over five years ago. We each came with our own influences and ideas, and over time, we’ve developed our own musical dialect as well. We love to explore the tunes to see what can be done with them, and how far we can stretch the style without breaking it. We love to make the densest, deepest rhythms we can. This means that we play the same tune for a very long time, not changing everything at once, but taking small steps with each pass to give the other player a chance to respond, and to see where we can go from there.

There’s a common thread among all the versions of “Sally Ann,” a melodic structure and sense of phrasing. The different versions show how the tune got around, maybe half-remembered, maybe transformed by the person playing it. That transformation still happens today. The source recordings are easily available, but the tradition is still a living, breathing thing, growing and changing, and we are all part of that growth and change. We can never play a tune quite the same way twice, and the tune changes every time a new person learns it, puts themselves in it and finds something new. Then we pass it along. Long after we’re gone, the music goes on.

The Moon Shells—Maggie Shar, Brian Slattery, Laura Murawski, Molly Merrett, and Charlie Shaw—draw from the traditional music of Appalachia, Louisiana, West Africa and elsewhere to try to make something new. Whether performing as an acoustic stringband, a stripped-down trio, or a five-piece making modern sounds on traditional instruments at clubs and festivals, the Moon Shells move hearts and feet.

themoonshells.com
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