Decades in the making, the VT Bluegrass Pioneers is an idea whose time has come.
It was bound to happen sometime. Banjo Dan Lindner and his mandolin-playing brother, Willy Lindner, had met versatile musician Danny Coane at a music festival in Milton, Vermont, in 1971, and realized they shared a passion for bluegrass music, a high-powered version of mountain string-band music pioneered by Bill Monroe in 1945.
Time passed. Dan and Willy formed Banjo Dan & the Midnite Plowboys, a band that recorded prolifically and toured throughout the Northeast and abroad. The Plowboys ended a 40-year career in 2012, but the brothers continued together as the Sky Blue Boys. Danny, meanwhile, became one of Vermont’s best-known musicians, playing with the Throbulators and the Radio Rangers, among others. In 1998 he founded Vermont’s nationally award-winning honky tonk heroes, the Starline Rhythm Boys.
Then, in 2016, the inevitable happened. These three bluegrass stalwarts, who were among the first to play this music in Vermont, teamed up as the aptly named VT Bluegrass Pioneers. Soon they recruited former Plowboy Sam Blagden – an early Vermont banjo player, himself – to join them on bass and tenor harmonies.
Audiences learned quickly that their ardor had never cooled. Still rooted in the hard-driving tradition of first-generation bluegrass, the Pioneers share lead and harmony vocals, and in a unique twist Dan and Danny alternate on banjo and rhythm guitar. Their goal is to find the heart and soul of every song they perform and deliver it with passion to their listeners.
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For bookings and additional information contact Dan Lindner at 802-223-6965 or banjodan@pshift.com
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Just released: Sky’s The Limit!
with The VT Bluegrass Pioneers, The Sky Blue Boys
and The Sky Blue Boys & Cookie
Samples