Crooked Still brings strings here Monday

Crooked Still is composed of, from left, Gregory Liszt (banjo), Tristan Clarridge (cello), Aiofe O’Donovan (vocals/guitar), Brittany Haas (fiddle) and Corey DiMario (double-bass). Submitted

Monday finds it taking the stage at 7:30 p.m. in Crescent Elk Auditorium as first performance of the 2011–12 season for the Del Norte Association for Cultural Awareness.

Formed in Boston, Crooked Still’s first gig “was a one-song performance in a New England Conservatory recital back in the fall of 2001. We worked up our version of ‘Darling Corey,’ and that arrangement is still one of our favorites to play,” said guitarist/vocalist Aiofe (“Eee fah”) O’Donovan.

The band’s musical style has been variously referred to as nontraditional bluegrass, new folk, and old-time American traditional music with an unexpected approach. A reputation as a vibrantly energetic live band has earned the group invitations to large events such as the historic Newport Folk and Telluride festivals. 

“Repertoire-wise, most of the material is kind of old traditional music, old public domain songs,” said double-bass player Corey DiMario in an interview on PBS “NewsHour.” “We dig them up from old source (archival) recordings and rework them to fit the voice of the band.”

Other band members include

Gregory Liszt (banjo), Brittany Haas (fiddle) — sister of the talented cellist Natalie who appeared last year with Alasdair Fraser — and Tristan Clarridge (cello).  The unusual instrumentation and arrangements and five unique musical voices improvising concentratedly with each other creates quite an original sound. Besides styles already mentioned, their songs have elements of classical music and Celtic ballads.

“What we all have in common is a love of bluegrass and old-time American traditional music,” said Clarridge in an interview conducted in October at the Arts Northwest Booking Conference.  However, all five of them listen to and are influenced by a diverse range of musical styles. For instance, “I love baroque music,” he said, “and have Bach on my iPod.”

Born and raised in rural Humboldt and Trinity counties, Clarridge originally played the fiddle and participated in competitions and festivals all around the western United States.  He even performed in Crescent City as part of the Old Time Fiddlers Contest, sponsored for several years by Soroptimist International of Crescent City.

How he came to play cello is attributed to a “lucky accident.”

“When I was 7 I broke my left wrist,” Clarridge said. “I attended a competition in Weiser, Idaho, and couldn’t hold the fiddle in my hand, so I played it like cello and still placed in the top five of my division.”

After seeing that, a family friend offered to rent him a cello, and his current career was born. 

Clarridge has had no classical training as a cellist, but he did study with mentor Rob Diggins, a baroque and jazz musician in Humboldt County.

“Brittany and I hung out at festivals all over the country, including in Washington, Nashville, New York City, San Francisco, and the Strawberry Music Festival” near Yosemite National Park, Clarridge said. “In 2007, the other Crooked Still members called up Brittany and I and asked if we wanted to audition in Boston.”

Four years later, Clarridge has toured with the band around the United States, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, England and Germany.

Crooked Still has four full-length CDs to its credit. The most recent is “Some Strange Country” (2010, Signature Sounds), which can be previewed at www.somestrangecountry.com.  In September, the band released an EP titled “Friends of Fall,” showcasing the its approach to contemporary and original music. The seven-song collection features covers of the Beatles, Paul Simon, John Hartford and a musical adaptation of a Wendell Berry poem, as well as original pieces.

“No one captures the eerie, gorgeous menace of classic Anglo-American folk ballads like this Boston band,” commented USA Today. “Your expectations of how bluegrass and old-time classics should be performed will be turned on its ear,” wrote Vintage Guitar magazine.