Twisted Pine – Love Your Mind Tour

Witty & engaging, Damn Tall Buildingsʼ energizing music finds beauty and glory in the mundane workaday struggle of everyday life: time keeps passing and the seasons come and go, you scroll too much, you smoke too much, you lose yourself, only to sit with yourself & find yourself again, you laugh with your friends, and you look out the window & dream about what else might be out there. It all keeps coming around. You carry on, intent on flourishing and thriving. This is what Damn Tall Buildings sings about, what they seek to share with their audience. In their early days, Damn Tall Buildings didnʼt rehearse – they busked. Now, whether live or on record, the trio still radiates the energy of a crew of best friends playing bluegrass on the street. Anchoring that energy is their instrumental chops, their strong songwriting, and their varied influences that stretch beyond bluegrass, even beyond American roots music altogether. Whether sharing lead vocals and instrumental solos or blending their voices into high-spirited harmony, Damn Tall Buildings is a tight unit that contains more than the sum of its parts. Primary vocalist and lyricist Max Capistranʼs singing recalls old blues and The Band-style roots-rock, whereas Sasha Dubykʼs time studying musical theater is evident in her rich vocal tone and soulful flair. Avery Ballottaʼs fiddle brings stratospheric dimension to the churning rhythm section of Capistranʼs guitar and Dubykʼs bass. The bandʼs harmony singing is tight without being too slick – they sound like three individual voices joined together in celebration, not a perfectly polished machine. Their choruses are the kind you sing along to with a glass raised into the air. In 2013, then students at Bostonʼs Berklee College of Music, the band took their instruments to nearby street corners and jammed for hours on old bluegrass and blues songs, traditional fiddle tunes, and eventually their own original music. Busking, a continuous test of oneʼs ability to command an audienceʼs attention, cemented their closeness and fostered their infectious, captivating performance style. Itʼs how they learned half of their repertoire, and itʼs where Dubyk first picked up the bass. Since their busking days, Damn Tall Buildings have grown to new heights over the course of their decade of creating together. Theyʼve made four albums: 2014ʼs Cure-All, 2015ʼs self-titled, 2019ʼs Donʼt Look Down and 2022ʼs Sleeping Dogs. The band has also relocated to Brooklyn, NY and toured widely, appearing at festivals like Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, Philadelphia Folk Festival, Freshgrass Festival, Ossipee Valley Festival, Walnut Valley Festival, Blissfest and Merlefest. Now based in Brooklyn, NY, they have begun to travel the globe playing bigger and bigger stages, making lots of friends wherever they go. They carry with them a connective spirit, welcoming audiences to join in the moment with the band as they take us on a journey through a well-crafted show. The trio has a knack for making any room feel a little more like home.

On October 18th, Twisted Pine releases its joyous third LP,Love Your Mind, on Signature Sounds Recordings. The title represents the quartet landing on a more expansive sound than ever, after years of touring, serious introspection, bouts of self-doubt, glorious bursts of creativity, and many afterhour festival jam sessions and pickinʼ till dawn. Co-produced by the band and longtime-collaborator Dan Cardinal at his studio Dimension Sound in Boston, the record is loaded with experimental production, fearless songwriting featuring input from each member, finely-crafted collaborative arrangements, playing thatʼs virtuosic and visceral. It's a reflection of what the band listens to. Itʼs buoyant pop and delicate folk, raging old-time energy, and old-school r&b grooves. On vinyl and on stage, the sound of Twisted Pine is unmistakable, exuberant, daring. What started as a (semi-)traditional bluegrass band in the trenches of the storied folk, bluegrass, and Americana scene in Boston a decade ago has bloomed into an ensemble of players who shapeshift across genres. Even the expansive “progressive bluegrass” label doesnʼt come close to capturing their musical scope. Chris Sartori's upright bass anchors everything with an undeniable, articulate groove. Dan Bui's mandolin is thick, crisp, and propulsive. Kathleen Parks' fiddle and Anh Phung's flute are at constant play, often augmented with effects pedals for layered musical textures, psychedelic sounds, and wild solo trading, somewhere in the territory between bluegrass and jazz. Out in front of the ensemble, Parksʼ lead vocals are an instrument unto herself: equal parts mystery, power, haunt, and a search for the edges. And she's surrounded on all sides by the voices of her bandmates, who bring on whatever harmonies, unities, whistles, and howls the night requires. In a world that needs TLC more than ever, Twisted Pine offers a night of exultant travels across genres, across time, to mountains, cities, roadhouses, and back porches where songs bring tenderness, love and relief. All in all, this album and this tour bring the sound of a band that invites you to Love Your Mind.