Old Sap owns a “cowboy-sweet timber that rambles through his songs [and a] physical charisma that make his performances so engaging.”
“a range of musical expression that wanders between musings about nature’s cyclic harmony and the love and anguish inherent to the human condition.”
—Flathead Beacon
Poet from Chicago, rambled out to Montana, cut a banjo from a tamarack, strings across the country, foot like a freight train, voice rushing down over lush Appalachia, sings a thrush tune through the rush hour and into your long-forgotten prairie dreams.
Folk. Folk Rock. Americana.
Having landing in Asheville in 2017, Old Sap released their second album at the end of 2019.
In a live setting, Old Sap often performs as a stripped-down folk trio. The banjo sets the groove while the electric guitar and fiddle swarm and swoon around it. Next comes the stomp of the foot, like a freight train crossing an old steel bridge. Harmonies streak across the sky, prayers sent up millennia ago now swooping into the modern day. In a direct and energetic style, Old Sap stretches out a blanket and beckons listeners to lay down their troubles, lose their shoes, and dance around in the grass. It’s more sound than people expect from a few simple elements—a sound that’s surprising, familiar, modern and timeless all at once.
A Yard with Lilacs is an Eclectic Americana album. The full band features honky tonk guitars, a New Orleans-style horn section, thrashing drums, infectious melodies, soul-warming harmonies, and sparkling flourishes from fiddle and piano. Guided by lyrics that are imagistic, funny, and heart-wrenching, listeners are teased back to a less-anxious time and place.
After its release, A Yard with Lilacs has been enjoying regional radio play from WNCW and 98.1 The River.