Hardly a town at all

Alaska’s Rural Delivery bluegrass band has just released its first CD, Hardly a town at all, on Tank Farm Records. It features twelve songs recorded in the studio, plus six bonus tracks recorded live on 27 February 2007 at the College Coffeehouse in Fairbanks.

Rural Delivery is Ben Bragonier (mandolin, vocals), Suzanne Graves (guitar, vocals), Tye Menser (banjo, vocals), Jeff Siniscalchi (mandolin, harmonica, vocals), and Ken Brown (bass, dobro, vocals). Brown had the opportunity of playing Seamus's dobro with Omagh's Knotty Pine String Band in both Donegal town and Omagh on a visit to Ireland in 2004, where he also attended the Athy Bluegrass Festival with his wife and their two Cup'ik Eskimo children. 'I was so inspired by the guys in the Knotty Pine String Band that I just had to start a band as soon as I got home to Alaska', states Brown.

Brown previously performed in Oregon as a member of Pumpkin Ridge (now Great Northern Planes), Nightly Bluegrass Report, Sidekicks, and Daddy's Advice. In Alaska, he has performed with Ungak and the Maklaks, the Chevak Fiddle Band, Quarter Moon, and Earl Hughes's Alaska Opry. He is the coordinator of the 2008 Fairbanks Bluegrass Festival, and was the coordinator of the Oregon Bluegrass Festival for four years in the early 1990s.

Over the last several years, Rural Delivery has performed at the Fairbanks Winter and Summer Folk Fests, the Anchorage Folk Festival, the Anderson Blugrass Festival, the Hunter Creek Bluegrass Festival, and many public and private events in Fairbanks. Rural Delivery blends traditional bluegrass, alternative country, and hillbilly jazz in a winning mixture for the band, which is not limited to a strict bluegrass repertoire. Their sound combines bluesy harmonica, Scruggs-style banjo, Grisman-esque mandolin solos, and original songs, with all five members singing both lead and harmony.

Rural Delivery hopes to do a short tour of the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia/Yukon music festivals during the summer of 2008. 'We'd love to come to Ireland at some point in the future', says Brown. Hardly a town at all can be purchased for $10.00 plus shipping from Tank Farm Records at 170 Humboldt Way, Fairbanks, AK 99709, USA.

Contact Ken Brown by e-mail.