My guest this week is Darol Anger, one of the leading lights of progressive string band music over the last 50 years.

Through his work with the David Grisman Quintet, the Turtle Island String Quartet, bands like Psychograss and New Grange and his long standing collaboration with Mike Marshall (not to mention his own wonderful solo records), Darol has been at the forefront of pushing perceptions of what string bands can do for decades.

Today we're chatting about Darol's current band, Mr Sun, and their wonderful record Mr Sun Plays Duke Ellington's Nutcracker, which feels very appropriate as we enter holiday season!

We talk about adapting Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's big band arrangements for string band and some of the challenges that involved, as well as why the humour in this music (and all music) is so important. We also talk about why Darol keeps coming back to the string band as a format, why he loves playing with Mr Sun and much more.

This one was a real treat.

You'll find more info on Mr Sun, including current tour dates for the Nutcracker record, at mrsunband.com

For info and updates on Darol and his music visit darolanger.com

Darol also has a great fiddle course on ArtistWorks

Hope you enjoy this one!
Matt

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Thanks to Bryan Sutton for his wonderful theme tune to Bluegrass Jam Along (and to Justin Moses for playing the fiddle!)

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