Betsy Grovenburg
Since its inception in 2002, the Matt Flinner Trio has been performing its own brand of acoustic music around the country to appreciative audiences. Mandolinist Matt Flinner, guitarist Ross Martin and bassist Eric Thorin cover a wide variety of musical styles - Bluegrass, jazz and Celtic music are all present here, but subtly and with originality. Whatever label you give it, it is guaranteed to be fresh and definitely something you've never quite heard before. On select tours, the Trio performs music that is as New as it gets - music written the day of the show. In these "Music du Jour" Tours, each member of the Trio writes music each day of the tour, and each dayʼs music is debuted on that eveningʼs show. The results are stylistically varied, unpredictable and always exciting. The Matt Flinner Trio released their first CD, "Music du Jour," on Compass Records, featuring select compositions from various "Music du Jour" tours from 2006-08. Their new CD, "Winter Harvest," is due out in February 2012, also on Compass.
Matt Flinner has made a career out of playing acoustic music in new ways. Whether it's with his own Matt Flinner Trio or with Phillips, Grier and Flinner, the Frank Vignola Quartet, Tim O'Brien, Leftover Salmon or the Modern Mandolin Quartet, Flinner's style and compositional ability have established him as one of the most accomplished and musically diverse mandolinists in the world.
Starting out as a banjo prodigy who was playing bluegrass festivals before he entered his teens, Flinner later won the National Banjo Competition in Winfield, KS in 1990, and won the mandolin award there the following year. He moved to Nashville in 1999 where his musical horizons quickly broadened. His two solo albums for Compass Records, The View from Here and Latitude, both featured Bluegrass stalwarts Todd Phillips, David Grier, Stuart Duncan, Jerry Douglas and Darol Anger. He was also featured on Steve Martin's CD "The Crow," which won the 2009 Grammy Winner for Best Bluegrass Album.
Ross Martin, guitar, has established a reputation as one of the most exciting jazz and bluegrass musicians in Colorado, and his reputation is rapidly expanding nationally. After graduating form the jazz program at the University of North Texas, Ross joined the Tony Furtado Band, with whom he toured for four years. More recently, Ross wowed bluegrass audiences with the Drew Emmitt Band and also continues to tour the country actively with Mollie OʼBrien, The Theory of Everything (with Michael Kang and Kyle Hollingsworth of the String Cheese Incident) and jazz trumpeter Ron Miles.
A native Coloradan, Eric Thorin studied bass at UNC (Colorado). He played in salsa bands such as Kizumba and Conjunto Colores, made up a third of the Flamenco/Indian ensemble Curandero, and toured with the Tony Furtado Band for four years. Eric also teaches bass at the Yellowstone Jazz Festival. Eric was a member of one of the most widely acclaimed young bluegrass bands in the country, Open Road.
Clearly this will be a performance not to be missed. Enjoy them at our regular Open Stage Event in the Black Forest on Feb 24th!
Show Details
Showtime is Friday, February 24th at 7:00p.m. Doors open at 5:30. Cost: general public $7.00, Students $5.00, BRAS Members $4.00, Children 12 - under are Free.
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