The Tumbling Bones are purveyors of traditional American music who value, above all, grit. The twenty-somethings who make up the trio – Peter Winne, Jake Hoffman, and Sam McDougle – have been callousing their hands and pushing their vocal chords for years as they’ve toured, recorded, and breathed folk music. Their raw, though lucid, take on old American music has taken them across the world. The Tumbling Bones used to play in stringband-turned-indie rock outfit The Powder Kegs, and their time with that band took them from street-performing in Copenhagen and Berlin to venues along the east coast to an acclaimed 2007 performance on NPR’s “A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor” (they played on the show’s “People in Their Twenties Talent Competition” and won first prize).
Their debut, the 2011 EP – ‘Risk Not Your Soul” – combines fiery American spirituals (“Banks of Jordan”), driving fiddle tunes (“Sally Johnson”), wistful folk ballads (“East VA Blues”), and rusty country blues (“St. Louis Blues”). Peter Winne’s deep baritone lead, Jake Hoffman’s cutting tenor, and Sam McDougle’s fiddle and percussion are faithful to old styles, but the Tumbling Bones can’t help injecting modern sensibilities into their music, however subtly. The record showcases the band’s versatility while staying true to their insistence that traditional American music be presented with a strong dose of grit and emotional intensity, even in the 21st century.
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