Despite residing in a predominately male genre and having a male name, all female country supergroup UNCLE EARL bring a fresh yet traditional presence to the world of bluegrass music. Frontwoman Kristin Andreassen is quick to add that the band are not out to unsettle any nerves on feminism or gender equality. “We’ve had men play with us before, but the intent was to have a collection of women who liked to play old time music,” Andreassen says. “We inspire women by example for those who’d like to play. We tend to not get political.”
Although Andreassen does go on to say that being in a male-dominated genre did take some getting used to. “Bluegrass music seems to have a competitive vibe for some reason so it does tend to be dominated by men, so at festivals we are quite outnumbered,” she says.
However if it weren’t for this trait then they wouldn’t have met the legendary Led Zeppelin bassist, John Paul Jones. “We met John at a bluegrass festival in Colorado. He was playing mandolin just for kicks with a few different bands,” Andreassen explains. “When it came time for our set we needed a mandolin player and he was in the crowd and said he’d do it.
So he played mandolin with us and we had a good old time jam and he said afterwards ‘if you ever want to do an album, let me know.’”
The group’s charm instantly rubbed off on Jones, who has said of Uncle Earl that it was “definitely one of the most enjoyable productions that I have ever been involved with.” Andreassen is quick to return the compliment and says that Jones had a leading influence on their latest album, Waterloo Tennessee. “He’s just a really diverse musician. He’ll do anything. He is a long time learning musician and just wanted to learn more about bluegrass and old time music.” JPJ’s influence on Waterloo Tennessee, as expected, won critics over as it was named Folk Alliance Album of the Year in 2007 and was described by Rolling Stone as “a rarity in the bluegrass scene.”
With a swagger of critics and fans on their side after ten long years of hard work, the only question remaining is what’s next for the g‘Earls? “We have a lot of new material that we’re playing,” says Andreassen. “We haven’t recorded it yet, but we thought we’d play and experiment with it more first and refine it really well and record it later sometime after our Oz tour. Everyone who plays with Uncle Earl has an exciting career in music outside the band as well. We come together to play because it’s fun to keep this connection with friends and with the traditional music that’s inspired us.”
Uncle Earl will be playing Tilley’s Devine Cafe on Saturday March 20. Tickets are $38 from Canberra Ticketing.
