Saddle River String Band or just simply Saddle River are a Canadaian bluegrass

Bluegrass music

Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...

 quartet, with influences of blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 and folk from Summerside, Prince Edward Island

Summerside, Prince Edward Island

Summerside is a Canadian city in Prince County, Prince Edward Island. It is the second largest city in the province and the principal municipality for the western part of the island.- History :...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. Their sound derives from their guitar/banjo/mandolin/double bass set up (sometimes with kazoo, harmonica or ukelele) and from the fact that when performing live or recording, the group of four is huddled around a single old tube microphone, resulting in a classic, warm analog feel.

History

Saddle River began as a Summerside project, taking their name from the Canadian film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

, Road To Saddle River. Playing strictly for fun, the group explored the traditions of oldtime country, blues, ragtime and bluegrass. Their enthusiasm carried over to their audiences, and the group began to take on a life of its own.

The original line-up from 2003-2006 included James Phillips (mandolin, guitar), Troy McArthur (banjo), Catherine McLellan (guitar) and Mike Dixon (guitar, kazoo). When McLellan left the band, the remainder hired the Summerside bassist Tom Desroches on stand-up bass, and formed the Saddle River String Band.

Saddle River SB's distinctive sound have made them an anomaly in the Canadian East Coast folk and bluegrass scene. Where most 'bluegrass' bands show a marked influence from commercial and traditional bluegrass and country music recordings and culture from the last 80 years, Saddle River's gumbo of North Americana folk music is hinged particularly on pre-war blues and oldtime music styles. The songs of Charlie Patton

Charlie Patton

Charlie Patton , better known as Charley Patton, was an American Delta blues musician. He is considered by many to be the "Father of the Delta Blues", and is credited with creating an enduring body of American music and personally inspiring just about every Delta blues man...

, Lead Belly, Tampa Red

Tampa Red

Tampa Red , born Hudson Woodbridge but known from childhood as Hudson Whittaker, was an American Chicago blues musician....

, Son House

Son House

Eddie James "Son" House, Jr. was an American blues singer and guitarist. House pioneered an innovative style featuring strong, repetitive rhythms, often played with the aid of slide guitar, and his singing often incorporated elements of southern gospel and spiritual music...

, and Robert Johnson

Robert Johnson

Robert Leroy Johnson was an American blues singer and musician. His landmark recordings from 1936–37 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that have influenced later generations of musicians. Johnson's shadowy, poorly documented life and death at age 27 have given...

 fill out the band's repertoire beside country, oldtime and bluegrass standards and original tunes that range from contemporary to traditional takes on classic material.

Before Saddle River, among other things, James Phillips and Catherine McLellan played in The New Drifts, a folk-rock band and Mike Dixon and Troy McArthur were the acoustic blues duo, the Rattlesnakin' Daddies. Tom Desroches had a long career as a professional musician playing in country and rock bands all over PEI. Elements of these bands and a burgeoning interest in roots music, spurned on by early 1990s pre-war blues revival (release of Robert Johnson Complete Recordings box set and Columbia's 'Roots & Blues' series), and the bluegrass and oldtime renaissance, coupled with the group's love for the music of Neil Young

Neil Young

Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...

, Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

, Steve Earle

Steve Earle

Stephen Fain "Steve" Earle is an American singer-songwriter known for his rock and Texas Country as well as his political views. He is also a producer, author, a political activist, and an actor, and has written and directed a play....

, and Townes Van Zandt

Townes Van Zandt

John Townes Van Zandt , best known as Townes Van Zandt, was an American Texas Country-folk music singer-songwriter, performer, and poet...

, created the Saddle River sound.

Artists covered by the Saddle River Stringband include Jimmie Rodgers, The Carter Family, Bill Monroe

Bill Monroe

William Smith Monroe was an American musician who created the style of music known as bluegrass, which takes its name from his band, the "Blue Grass Boys," named for Monroe's home state of Kentucky. Monroe's performing career spanned 60 years as a singer, instrumentalist, composer and bandleader...

, Hank Williams, Rose Maddox

Rose Maddox

Roselea Maddox , better known as Rose Maddox, was an American country singer-songwriter and fiddle player.Born in Boaz, Alabama, Maddox was the singer in the Maddox Brothers and Rose....

, Mississippi John Hurt

Mississippi John Hurt

John Smith Hurt, better known as Mississippi John Hurt was an American country blues singer and guitarist.Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself how to play the guitar around age nine...

, Gillian Welch

Gillian Welch

Gillian Welch is an American singer-songwriter. She performs with her musical partner, guitarist David Rawlings. Their sparse and dark musical style, which combines elements of Appalachian music, Bluegrass, and Americana, is described by The New Yorker as "at once innovative and obliquely...

, Charlie Patton

Charlie Patton

Charlie Patton , better known as Charley Patton, was an American Delta blues musician. He is considered by many to be the "Father of the Delta Blues", and is credited with creating an enduring body of American music and personally inspiring just about every Delta blues man...

, Blind Lemon Jefferson

Blind Lemon Jefferson

"Blind" Lemon Jefferson was an American blues singer and guitarist from Texas. He was one of the most popular blues singers of the 1920s, and has been titled "Father of the Texas Blues"....

, and Chuck Berry

Chuck Berry

Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...

.

Awards

• 2007: PEI Music Awards Best Bluegrass Recording & Best New Artist (Saddle River String Band) (won)
• 2008: East Coast Music Awards Bluegrass Recording of the Year (Saddle River String Band) (won)